Amazon buyer-seller messaging rules

Most sellers treat Buyer-Seller Messaging as a channel they own. Amazon treats it as an accessory to order fulfilment: there is a fixed list of reasons you may write, a clock on how long you may write for, and a list of things a message may never contain. Almost nothing here is about tone — a friendly, well-meant message can be a violation because of why it was sent.

Two kinds of message, and only one of them is optional

The Communication Guidelines — a three-page PDF Amazon publishes openly, no sign-in needed — split everything you send into Permitted Messages, and everything else. Within permitted messages, the distinction that matters to you is:

• The ones the order forces. A buyer asks a question, a custom order needs a spelling confirmed, a delivery needs scheduling. These are driven by the transaction.
• The ones you initiate. Amazon calls these proactive Permitted Messages, and every rule in this guide is aimed at them. This is where sellers get into trouble, because this is the category a review request lives in.

The reasons you're allowed to write

This list is the part most coverage of this topic skips, and it's the one that decides whether a message is a violation before you've written a word of it. Amazon names the reasons for a proactive message:

Read the list for what's missing rather than what's on it. There is no entry for thanking a customer, for announcing a new product, for offering a discount to a past buyer, for asking how they liked something, or for following up on a review they already left. The last item is a catch-all, but note how narrow it is: required for the buyer to receive their purchase. It widens the list toward logistics, not toward relationship-building.

Four constraints on every proactive message

• A 30-day clock. "Proactive Permitted Messages must be sent within 30 days of order completion." A message about an order from two months ago has no compliant form, however reasonable its content.
• The order ID. The message must "include the 17-digit order ID". This is also the quiet reason bulk-sending tools get sellers in trouble: a template that loses the ID on one batch is non-compliant on every message in it.
• The buyer's language. Messages must use the buyer's "language of preference" — not yours, and not the marketplace's default.
• One review request per order. "A repeat request (per order) for a product review or seller feedback" sits on the prohibited list. There is no polite second nudge. If you use the Request a Review button and then send your own follow-up, you have sent two.

What a message may never contain

Amazon lists message types that are not permitted at all, and then a second list of things a permitted message still may not include. The first list is the surprising one:

The second item is worth stopping on, because it is the single most common message sellers send. A note whose entire content is thanks and an offer of help is not a cautious, minimal message that avoids all the risky ground. Amazon names it as a message type that is not permitted, on the reasoning that it gives the buyer nothing they needed. The safe move is not a shorter message. It is a message with a reason from the list above.

Then the contents rules, which apply even when your reason is legitimate:

The email-address rule is the one that catches careful sellers. Putting your support address in a message feels like better service than making a buyer navigate Amazon's interface — and it is exactly what the Seller Code of Conduct §1.2.6 gives as a violation example, describing a seller who "leaves their email or social media account to let the customer know that after-sales service can be provided through off-site contact".

What changed: [Important] no longer means important

For years, sellers who needed a message to land regardless of a buyer's email preferences put [Important] in the subject line. That mechanism is gone, and a lot of published advice hasn't caught up.

The practical consequence is worth spelling out: a buyer who opted out of non-essential seller email may now never see your message, and you will not be told. If something genuinely has to reach them — an address that failed verification, a recall, a part you must not ship without confirming — Amazon's own templates are the route that still carries the critical flag, and they arrive pre-translated with the order ID already in them.

The Request a Review button, and what it costs you

Seller Central's Request a Review button sends an Amazon-authored message asking for a product review and seller feedback. Amazon fills in your seller name and the item, and translates it into the buyer's language. Reported behaviour is that it can be used between 5 and 30 days after delivery, once per order, with no way to edit the wording.

Those operational details come from third-party sources that agree with each other rather than from a policy document we could quote — Amazon documents the button inside Seller Central, behind sign-in. The 30-day outer limit is consistent with the Communication Guidelines; treat the rest as reliable but unofficial.

A reasonable division: use the button when a review request is all you want to send, and write your own message when the reason is something else on the permitted list — then don't also ask for a review in it.

Four messages you can copy

Each pair below is the same situation written twice. The second version is not a caricature: every one of these is a line sellers send routinely, and each breaks a specific rule quoted above. Swap the bracketed parts.

1. A neutral review request

The first breaks four rules in three sentences: an emoji, a request for a positive review, an email address, and routing unhappy buyers to private contact while happy ones are pointed at the review page — the gating pattern Amazon names directly. The second asks everyone in the same words and carries the order ID. If a review request is all you're sending, the button above does this job with less exposure; write it by hand when the message also has to acknowledge something specific about the order — and remember it still spends your one request.

2. A shipment that went wrong

Resolving an issue with order fulfilment is a permitted reason, and the second message stays inside it. The first adds a coupon (marketing), an emoji, a request for a positive review, and compensation adjacent to that request — the pattern the incentivized-review rule exists for.

3. A return you want to learn from

Asking a return-related question is explicitly permitted. What isn't permitted is the email address, and a phone number used for off-Amazon support rather than a warranty, a shipping provider or a manufacturer — the narrow exception the guidelines actually grant.

4. A custom order that needs confirming

Verifying a custom design is on the permitted list, which makes this one of the few messages you can send with complete confidence — right up until the second sentence, which adds promotional messaging and a link off Amazon.

Frequently asked questions

Can I message an Amazon buyer to ask for a review?

Yes. "Requesting product review and/or seller feedback" is one of the reasons Amazon lists for a proactive message. Three limits apply: send it within 30 days of order completion, send it once — a repeat request per order is on the prohibited list — and ask everyone in the same neutral words. Asking only buyers who had a good experience, or asking for a positive review, is a violation.

Can I put my email address or a link in a buyer-seller message?

No email addresses — they're listed among the things a Permitted Message may not include. External links are allowed only when they're secure working links necessary for order completion, or links to Amazon. Phone numbers are narrower than people assume rather than banned outright: the exception covers numbers "related to warranties, shipping providers, or manufacturers".

Can I ask a buyer to remove or change a negative review?

No. "Language that requests removal or an update of an existing product review" is on the prohibited list, and it stays prohibited after you've genuinely fixed the problem. Solve the issue and say nothing about the review; whether they update it is theirs to decide on their own.

Does the [Important] tag still get my message delivered?

No. A deprecation notice circulated on the Seller Central forums states that from 25 April 2025, Critical Messages are subject to the buyer's opt-out preferences and may not be delivered; the tag used to bypass those preferences. The replacement Amazon points to is the templates on the Contact Buyer page in Seller Central, or the equivalent API. Amazon hasn't published this on an open policy page, so verify it in Seller Central before relying on it.

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