The common pitfalls that ecommerce brands face when selling on Amazon

Amazon is the world’s biggest online marketplace, with over 300 million active customer accounts. It racks up billions of monthly views across its global websites, making it a logical and powerful growth opportunity for ecommerce brands.

While the upside is enormous, so are the risks. Too often, brands dive in without understanding how Amazon really works. They assume it’s just another sales channel, when in reality, it’s a highly complex ecosystem with its own rules, systems and quirks. 

We’ve seen brands of every size trip over avoidable mistakes in their Amazon journey. Some of these errors can be fixed with time, effort and expertise. Others are baked into your setup from day one, and once you get them wrong, the damage is nearly impossible to be undone.  

That’s why getting the setup right from day one is essential. That’s also why having a partner like  Amplifi – our in-house Amazon growth agency – can make all the difference. 

Let’s break down the most common pitfalls ecommerce brands face when they start selling on Amazon, why they matter, and how you can avoid them. 

In this article

• Why barcodes matter more than you think 

• The importance of Trademark and Brand Registry  

• Operational assumptions that backfire 

• Listing setup: Where many brands undervalue the details 

• Advertising misfires 

• Post set-up mistakes you can fix  

• Why expertise matters 

Why barcodes matter more than you think 

It sounds boring and technical, but barcodes are the foundation of how Amazon catalogues products. Amazon uses barcodes (GTINs, UPCs, or EANs) as the unique identifier for every product. If you don’t get them right, your Amazon journey is off to a rocky start. 

Always buy from GS1 

GS1 is the global, official provider of barcodes, yet many sellers who are new to Amazon buy barcodes from cheap resellers, thinking they’re saving money. 

The problem with this is that reseller barcodes may already be tied to other products in Amazon’s system. If that’s the case, you’ll never truly own your listing, and Amazon may even merge your product with someone else’s, which would be a logistical (and reputational) nightmare.  

One barcode = One product page 

Amazon operates on a strict one-to-one barcode system: one barcode equals one product listing. If your barcode isn’t legitimate, Amazon sees your product as an imposter. That leads to messy catalogue issues, delisting and wasted time (and money). 

Changing products = Wiping history 

Another hidden landmine is what happens when you change a product and assign it a new barcode. To Amazon, that’s a brand-new listing. That means sales history, rankings, visibility, reviews, and ratings all disappear. Years of effort can vanish overnight because of a poorly timed product update. 

Yes, there are workarounds. FBM (Fulfilled by Merchant) and SFP (Seller Fulfilled Prime) sellers can sometimes tweak listings without losing everything. But if you’re FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon), you’re locked into a stricter system; your physical product barcode must match the listing barcode exactly. If it doesn’t, Amazon will force you to relabel or rework stock before accepting it. 

What to do 

• Before you launch, register with GS1; get your GTIN/UPC/EAN clearly assigned and match your product exactly. 

• Maintain consistency of packaging variants. If you plan a new version (such as a new formula or new size), treat it like a new SKU from the start so you can preserve old listings. If you change a product’s design, try to retain the original barcode for the new version, even if this is only for your Amazon stock. 

• Use Amplifi’s audit process early on. We check over catalogue set-ups, catch barcode mismatches, map variations vs SKUs, and establish clear rules for changing products to avoid wiping history. 

Amplifi spends a lot of time helping brands fix barcode messes, but this is one area where prevention is far better than cure. 

The importance of Trademark and Brand Registry    

Too many brands underestimate how powerful, and essential, Amazon Brand Registry is. To access it, you need a registered trademark for your brand name. Without it, you’re missing out on key tools that can protect your business and supercharge your growth. 

Why Brand Registry matters 

Brand Registry unlocks features like: 

• A+ Content - enhanced product descriptions with images, graphics, and comparison tables 

• Sponsored brand ads - banner-style ads that dominate search results 

• Brand stores - a custom storefront inside Amazon 

• Brand protection - Amazon’s anti-counterfeit systems working in your favour 

Without Brand Registry, you’re locked out of these tools and forced to compete on price alone. 

The name game 

Another pitfall is setting up your product brand name incorrectly. If you use something other than your trademarked name, you’ll run into headaches later when you try to enrol in Brand Registry. That can mean time-consuming appeals, duplicate catalogues, or even being locked out of your own brand on Amazon. 

What to do 

• Secure a trademark in your primary markets before launch. Even if it feels premature, it unlocks everything else. Amplifi always advises clients to tackle this step before listings go live to avoid roadblocks further down the line. 

• Ensure listing metadata uses exactly the trademarked name in 'brand' fields. 

• Use Amplifi’s trademark and registry checklist. We help clients align product names, brand names, metadata, and register trademarks in relevant jurisdictions early. 

Operational assumptions that backfire 

Amazon isn’t just another sales channel. It’s a highly specific ecosystem with its own operational quirks. Many brands walk in assuming that what worked on Shopify or their DTC store will translate neatly, but that’s rarely the case. 

Inventory missteps 

Inventory planning is harder than it looks. Send too much stock into FBA without demand forecasting, and you rack up storage fees (and it’s costly to get stock returned to you). Send too little, and you stock out, which tanks your organic rankings. Unlike your own warehouse, Amazon penalises poor inventory management with lost visibility. 

Packaging compliance 

Amazon has strict prep and packaging rules. Products that don’t meet requirements get rejected, reworked, or delayed. Even worse, bad packaging can lead to negative reviews from customers which directly hurt your sales performance. We’ve seen brands underestimate packaging requirements, only to have thousands of units rejected at the warehouse. 

Pricing pitfalls 

Amazon is hyper-sensitive to pricing discrepancies. If your product is cheaper on your own website or another retailer, Amazon may suppress the Buy Box or bury your listing. Many brands don’t realise that consistency across channels is critical to keeping Amazon happy. 

What to do 

• Use demand forecasting tools, look at seasonality, lead-times, and buffer stock, especially when relying on FBA. 

• Build in packaging reviews/compliance early. Hire a third-party packaging engineer if needed; test for rejection risks. 

• Monitor pricing across channels. If you offer lower prices off-Amazon, understand the risk to your Amazon metrics; decide whether to enforce MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) or control distribution carefully.  

• Find out how Amplifi can help you with demand forecasting, compliance management, and balancing pricing strategies across channels. 

Listing setup: Where many brands undervalue the details 

Think of your Amazon listing as your salesperson. If you don’t set it up properly, you’re sabotaging yourself before you even start. 

Keyword research isn’t optional 

Amazon search isn’t Google search. The way customers type queries, the ranking factors, and the competition are all unique. 70% of Amazon customers never click past page one of search results. If your listing isn’t optimised for how customers search, you’re invisible. Too many brands just copy and paste website copy into Amazon listings, which doesn’t reflect Amazon’s search behaviour.  

Titles, bullets, and images 

There’s an art and science to Amazon listing content. Titles need to balance clarity and keyword density. Bullets should be benefits-led, not just feature dumps. Images should be optimised for mobile shopping and meet Amazon’s strict guidelines (57% of Amazon traffic comes from mobile devices). Skipping these fundamentals leaves your product struggling to convert. 

Reviews and social proof 

Amazon buyers live and die by reviews, with over 90% of customers reading reviews before buying. Review velocity (how quickly you gather reviews) impacts organic ranking, but you must grow reviews compliantly – Amazon is ruthless about fake or incentivised reviews. It’s not just about getting stars; it’s about building trust that accelerates organic ranking. 

Amplifi has helped countless brands take listings that were basically invisible and transform them into high-performing, ranking machines — but it always starts with strong fundamentals. 

What to do  

• Before launch, map out keyword lists via tools and competitor research. Test titles and descriptions if possible. 

• Build an imagery plan: main image, lifestyle, infographics, feature close-ups. Make sure to include mobile preview checks. 

• Plan a reviews strategy from day one. Reach out to buckets of initial customers; write packaging inserts; use Amazon’s allowed tools. 

Advertising misfires 

Amazon Ads are powerful, but a money pit if you don’t know what you’re doing. Many brands burn through ad budgets because they treat Amazon PPC like Google Ads or Meta Ads. It’s not the same. Our clients came to us with common issues:  

Keyword targeting mistakes - Amazon Ads thrive on precise keyword targeting. If you’re not running structured campaigns with exact, phrase, and broad match types, you’re wasting spend. 

No clear strategy - Running ads without a strategy is like turning on a tap and hoping water flows in the right direction. You need to understand the role of each campaign: are you driving awareness, protecting your brand, or capturing competitor traffic? 

Ignoring organic and paid synergy - The biggest misstep is treating ads in isolation. Amazon’s algorithm rewards sales velocity. That means your ad-driven sales directly influence your organic rankings. Brands that don’t connect the dots end up paying more than they should. 

What to do 

• Build ad architectures. Separate campaigns for brand defence, competitor targeting, new product launch, and retargeting/search. 

• Track ACOS, but don’t optimise blindly for lowest ACOS. You need to balance with growth, ranking, and margin. 

• Use Amplifi’s ad-audit tools. We benchmark your current ad setup, find leakages, optimise bids and keyword match types, monitor performance, and shift budget where it’s working. 

“These pitfalls are exactly the kind of things our clients need to be aware of. Almost every brand I speak with has either made one of these mistakes already or is at real risk of doing so, which could cost them thousands. The more conversations I have, the more I realise how common these challenges are. That’s why agencies like Amplifi are so valuable — they help brands avoid expensive missteps and set themselves up for long-term success.” - John Upton, Ecommerce Account Manager, Amplifi. 

Post-setup mistakes you can fix 

The good news is not everything is set in stone. While some pitfalls (like barcode errors) are irreversible, others can be corrected once you’re live. 

• Listings: You can always optimise copy, imagery, and keywords. 

• Advertising: You can pause, restructure, and relaunch campaigns. 

• Inventory: You can refine forecasting and implement better systems. 

• Pricing: You can align strategies across channels. 

That said, fixing issues takes expertise, time, and often a lot of trial and error. Many brands learn the hard way that “just testing” on Amazon is an expensive experiment. 

Why expertise matters 

Amazon is a high-stakes channel. Get it right, and it can unlock exponential growth. Get it wrong, and you can lose money, momentum, and credibility fast. The challenges aren’t insurmountable, but they require a deep understanding of Amazon’s systems, quirks, and opportunities. 

That’s where  Amplifi comes in. We’ve helped brands:

• Audit and straighten out fundamental setup issues (barcodes, trademarks, listing structure) 

• Build compliant, high-converting listings from launch 

• Forecast inventory, manage packaging and compliance to avoid delays or costly reworks 

• Design ad strategies that grow both paid and organic performance 

We know which mistakes can be fixed, which can’t, and how to set you up for long-term success. 

Selling on Amazon doesn’t have to be a minefield. With the right partner, it can be the growth engine you’ve been looking for. If you’re thinking of starting on Amazon, or you've already launched but aren't seeing the traction you expected, get your free audit with Amplifi today.