Account Health

Account Health is the Seller Central dashboard — and the underlying Account Health Rating (AHR) score — that summarises how well a seller is meeting Amazon's performance, customer-service and policy standards. A green score is licence to operate; a yellow score triggers warnings; a red score brings listing suppression or account suspension.

Account Health is the most under-monitored area in most sellers' Amazon ops. Sellers obsess over ACOS and forget that a single uncovered policy violation can suspend the whole account — at which point ACOS becomes irrelevant.

The Account Health Rating (AHR) score

Amazon rolls performance into a 0–1,000 numeric AHR:

The score moves on three families of input:

1. Customer service performance
2. Product policy compliance
3. Shipping performance (FBM only)

Customer service performance metrics

• Order Defect Rate (ODR) — defective orders / total orders. Target <1%. A "defect" = negative feedback, A-to-z claim, or chargeback.
• Cancellation Rate (FBM) — pre-fulfilment cancellations / orders. Target <2.5%.
• Late Shipment Rate (FBM) — late ships / orders. Target <4%.
• Valid Tracking Rate (FBM) — orders with valid tracking. Target >95%.

ODR is the most weight-bearing metric — a single A-to-z claim on a low-volume seller can spike ODR past 1% for a 60-day window.

Product policy compliance

The fastest path to a red AHR. Categories of violation Amazon tracks:

• Intellectual property complaints — counterfeit, trademark, copyright, patent.
• Product authenticity — buyer claims item not as described / not genuine.
• Product condition — used sold as new, damaged, missing parts.
• Product safety — recalled product, banned item, restricted product.
• Listing policy — prohibited claims, restricted keywords, off-Amazon URLs.
• Customer product reviews policy — review manipulation, incentivised reviews.

Each violation deducts AHR points by severity (minor: -2, moderate: -8, severe: -16, critical: -32). Critical violations can suspend the account on a single hit.

What to do when AHR drops

1. Open the Account Health dashboard daily during any yellow period.
2. Acknowledge every notification — Amazon expects a response acknowledging the complaint.
3. Submit a Plan of Action (POA) for any violation:
   • Root cause analysis (what failed and why).
   • Immediate corrective actions (what you've already done).
   • Preventive actions (what stops recurrence).
4. Appeal IP complaints via Brand Registry's "Report a Violation" channel for resolution.
5. Use Account Health Assurance if you qualify — Amazon's programme that warns before action.

The relationship to other metrics

Account health interacts with the rest of the account:

• Buy Box eligibility requires healthy account performance.
• Frequently Returned Badge triggers when return rate on a SKU breaches category thresholds — listing-level, not account-level, but reads from the same data.
• Star rating and seller feedback both feed into perceived account quality even when not direct AHR inputs.

Common mistakes

• Checking Account Health weekly instead of daily. AHR can drop overnight; 48 hours of unanswered violation can trigger suspension.
• Disputing without a real Plan of Action. Amazon's response team rejects boilerplate appeals; POAs must show genuine root-cause analysis.
• Treating IP complaints as a brand fight. They are an Amazon-policy fight; resolve via Brand Registry tooling, not lawyer letters first.
• Not enrolling eligible accounts in Account Health Assurance. It is a free safety net most qualifying sellers ignore.