What Is Amazon Account Health? How to Monitor It

Many suspensions do not happen overnight; beforehand, account health metrics slowly deteriorate. A seller who monitors these metrics regularly can notice a problem before it grows. In this article we explain what the Amazon Account Health section is, which measures it looks at, and how to keep your account healthy.

What is Account Health?

The Account Health page, found under the Performance menu in Seller Central, shows in one place how Amazon evaluates your seller account. The page is organized under three main headings:

• Customer service performance: order defect rate and customer satisfaction metrics
• Policy compliance: intellectual property complaints, product authenticity, product condition, restricted products and other policy violations
• Shipping performance: late shipment, pre-fulfillment cancellation and valid tracking rates

Account Health Rating (AHR)

Amazon gives your account a rating based on these metrics. In general, 200 and above is considered "Healthy", 100-199 is "At Risk", and below 100 is "Unhealthy", where the risk of account closure rises sharply. New accounts start in the healthy zone; violations lower the rating, and resolved issues can raise it again. Because Amazon can change the thresholds and the calculation method over time, verify the current values on the Account Health page in Seller Central.

Metrics you need to monitor

• Order defect rate (ODR): Amazon's target is for you to stay below 1%. Negative feedback, A-to-z Guarantee claims and credit card chargeback claims are included in this rate.
• Late shipment rate: The target is below 4%.
• Pre-fulfillment cancellation rate: The target is below 2.5%. Inventory mismatches are one of the common causes of cancellations.
• Valid tracking rate: The tracking numbers of your shipments are expected to be valid and visible in the carrier's system.
• Policy compliance: Intellectual property complaints, product authenticity complaints and listing policy violations lead directly to account risks.

The late shipment and cancellation thresholds mainly concern sellers who ship products themselves (FBM); if you use Amazon's warehouses (FBA), the shipping metrics work differently. Again, check Seller Central for the current thresholds.

Habits for keeping your account healthy

1. Weekly check: Review the Account Health page at least once a week and note changes.
2. Respond to notifications quickly: Do not leave policy and performance notifications from Amazon open.
3. Buyer messages: Reply to customer messages within 24 hours.
4. On-time shipping and tracking: Keep your handling times realistic and enter tracking numbers on time.
5. Accurate inventory: Keep your stock quantities up to date to reduce pre-fulfillment cancellations.
6. Document archive: Store supplier invoices and brand authorization documents in an orderly way; these are the first things you will need for product authenticity complaints.
7. Take complaints seriously: Do not ignore intellectual property or product condition complaints; find the root cause and fix or remove the product.
8. Analyze return reasons: Recurring return and negative review reasons point to a problem with the listing or product quality.

What to do when a metric gets worse

When you notice a metric getting worse, first find the cause: which orders, which products, on what date? Then fix it and add a safeguard to your process. When Amazon asks you for an explanation, you will have a ready root cause analysis. We explain how to prepare a Plan of Action in a separate article. If your account has already been suspended, see our first steps article.