Disappearing CDs, even new recent releases - anyone else's listings becoming invisible?
I sell mostly classical cds. I realise that Amazon has been on a serious mission to push the compact disc out and get everybody onto “streaming” / mp3 format for quite a while now. In spite of this, with a number of returning customers and buyers who, like me, aren’t interested in digital format, my Amazon sales have held pretty steady over the last three years. The start to the year has been very poor, however, and I am selling fewer units. Has anyone else noticed or been affected by even more extreme catalogue manipulation on Amazon’s part? I am noticing that more and more of my cds are almost impossible to find. The obvious keywords simply don’t return the products, even with filters. For example, B0000012Y2. This is a collectable first issue of Deutsche Grammophon’s “Complete Brahms Edition”. Put those terms (or combination of) in either under “classical music” or “Cds and vinyl” and I just can’t get it.
That is an older release, but the same is true even of relatively recent releases, e.g. B07MDVC5XC (from 2017). Enter “Badura-Skoda Edition” and all you get is streaming options. The cd catalogue entry is almost impossible to find (I had to use the barcode from my own set). Ironically, I bought it from Amazon.de only a month ago, where it was quite easy to find!
Are other sellers having this issue? As my inventory is 80% cds, I really can’t justify paying £30 a month to Amazon for listings that are virtually invisible. I know there is still a demand for them, but this seems like a definite, recent tactic from Amazon to bury hard media completely, and even my regular customers will dry up if they can’t find my products.
79 replies
Seller_A2Ell2R6C7mVB
i put the CD Brahms: Lieder (Complete Edition, Vol. 5) into search and your listing came up. i’m using firefox browser. I did notice that there is a duplicate listing which is unavailable and both have no selling rating.
Like you, i have got listed many shall we say esoteric CD’s, waiting for that one buyer.
As for Amazon’s self serving tactics better not say what i think!
Seller_wRGBSSwJnzaDE
I’m getting nothing at all for the ASIN, (Your search “B0000012Y2” did not match any products.) and I’m not seeing your CD for a search using Deutsche Grammophon’s “Complete Brahms Edition”. either, assuming your posting name is the same as your seller name. I’m searching under CDs and Vinyl and using Chrome.
For B07MDVC5XC I’m seeing one entry offered by a Portuguese seller.
Seller_qgh5secPkqzv5
I have had issues as a buyer finding specific editions for books as well. When searching for the Deutsche Gramophone (Brahms Lieder complete 5) it comes up but as unavailable. If you click on it, again it says unavailable but in small letters it gives you prices underneath, click on that and sellers (and you) turn up. I am using safari. This is a common issue I find when trying to locate items. Hopefully for you I am not the only one who dismisses unavailibility when searching.
Seller_1vyLJePYDN9hf
Here is the reply after three days from Seller “Support”:
Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in the resolution.
Upon hearing from the concerned team they mnetioned that some of your ASINs donot have the valid browse node attached to them.
Hence they are not visible on the Amazon webiste.
Once you assign the ASINs to a valid category browse node. Please allow up to 72 hours for updates to be reflected in search results (and for the AISN to become searchable).
You can find the correcrt browse node by clicking on the link below.
If still the issue persists please write back to us with the list of affected ASINs.
Looking forward to your response.
Kind Regards.
Thank you for selling with Amazon.
Nandini G.
Does that mean anything to anyone? “Browse nodes”? Does she mean templates? I imagine this is just a way of trying to say it is my fault.
Seller_0pkMTMROIPEmY
Browse nodes are in Edit Inventory / More Details scroll down - Browse Node
Also if you click listing enhancements this will show which items are missing browse nodes and is an easier way to find any other missing elements affecting your items from displaying active.
https://sellercentral.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/help.html?itemID=G1661&language=en_GB
Here’s how it shows when you click Listing enhancements , you can then simply select the correct browse node, the ASIN will be surpressed without an active browse node;
Seller_ca4x7NeUTM8MJ
yes. For some time now, I have been going through my listings, which are all second hand books, searching for them as I would search as a buyer. A high proportion of them become invisible from one week to the next. So on a regular basis I spend an hour identifying the ‘lost’ ones, deleting the existing listing, and re-entering them on a more visible one. Very time consuming but what else can one do ? You’d think there was some kind of breach of contract going on, but I expect Amazon’s lawyers have it all covered.
Seller_pzladmUJzMHio
Few months back, I messaged tweeted amazon, that there are some issues with search bar. I was searching for antiperspirant with full product name. I was searching for “FA” product, but the search changed “FA” to “FAT”.
They replied that they have forwarded my tweet to tech support team.
Later I got a message telling that further there will be limited total search length. Try to use less keywords for searching your product.
Seller_tj5bg90i9gyCk
Yes, I’m experiencing exactly the same problems and have had fruitless Chat sessions and phone calls with Seller Support in the last 48 hours. They all claim they are not aware of any issues with the catalogue or the search engine, and say they haven’t had any other similar complaints from sellers or other customers. I have raised a couple of cases and don’t expect any kind of resolution.
Most of the CD products in my inventory seem to have become invisible to customers in the last few days (not just my offerings, but the actual products themselves). The product details pages can be accessed via my inventory, so they still exist somewhere in some kind of database, but they are no longer capable of being accessed by customers on the live Amazon site searching for CDs. Searches by ‘All Departments’ or ‘CDs & Vinyl’ using the composer name, or part of the title, the EAN barcode, even the ASIN itself, yield zero results.
Has their system been sabotaged, or is this a deliberate decision to suppress CDs in favour of MP3 downloads and digital content? The latter makes no business sense, given the millions of people who still want to buy CDs! Why turn away millions of customers?
Seller_A2Ell2R6C7mVB
How about this, one of the CD’s of yours i checked out one was PAUL BADURA-SKODA-PAUL BADURA-SKODA:90TH ANNIVERSARY EDITI
Well i opened my Firefox browser to be greeted with a full page advert from Amazon for …PAUL BADURA-SKODA-PAUL BADURA-SKODA:90TH ANNIVERSARY EDITI
Seems the rest of the world can see the CD except you!
