Amazon Price Glitch: Everything You Need to Know

Consider the Amazon price glitch as a tiny moment of brain fog we humans experience daily. As curious as you might be to understand what it is, Amazon price glitches can be of multiple types, each being a byproduct of server overloads, internal bugs, manual errors, or even API failures. 

Some may affect customer experience to a minor extent, the others can lead to major financial jolts, creating ripples throughout the e-commerce community. It can manifest as instances where it may even keep people guessing if it’s even a glitch! Say for example the charges for paper bags are $171.56 for this order which is unbelievable!

Nonetheless, we can equivocally admit to the fact that a price glitch on Amazon will create immense frustration for sellers, and as a result, Amazon will face significant criticism.

In this article, we’ll dive into the concept of Amazon price glitches, their types, and in what ways these glitches can affect your business. Additionally, we will offer tips for sellers on how to avoid such mishaps and the measures Amazon usually takes to clean up its own mess. 

What is an Amazon price glitch?

Amazon price glitches today are a commonly addressed term by Amazon users. It is one of those informal terms born out of audiences’ whim to suit the situation. “Amazon glitch” in particular emerged a few years back when people started noticing unusual happenings across listings, prices, search results, etc. 

As vague as ‘Amazon glitches’ or ‘Amazon pricing glitches’ sound, it’s still straightforward enough to explain the strange situation!

To put it across as a proper definition, we could refer to it as a temporary malfunction of price display in the Amazon eCommerce platforms, that arises from technical disruptions or manual mistakes.

This results in buyers finding certain products at an unbelievably lower price; it can go down as much as $0 or even negative, leaving people wondering what it even means! However, these are corrected immediately after discovering, to minimize the losses for the sellers on the platform.

Here, for example, the customer wonders how he received a laptop for $2!

What are the types of Amazon price glitches the world has experienced?

1. Percentage off glitches

Don’t fall off your chair next time you find an iPhone 16 pro at $30, rather go ahead and grab the opportunity. This dramatic price fall from its set retail value is a classic example of percentage-off glitches due to the obvious fall in price percentage.

For those of you who are thinking about it as an urban legend, let us explain! 

A diamond ring on Amazon was listed at $1166 retail price upon which customers found a 96% discount. Those lucky enough to grab the deal landed it for an unbelievable price of just $42.66.  

2. Free item glitches

As crazy as it may sound, some products can mistakenly listed as absolutely free in certain cases of Amazon price glitch. 

Back in 2018 Amazon Echo was found to be being sold for free. In a way we can’t even call it ‘being sold’ and rather it was given away. To the customer’s disappointment, the purchases ended up not being fulfilled by Amazon.  

While the Amazon Echo glitch didn’t directly impact sellers, a similar issue could drastically affect sellers, especially those who are new and haven’t yet built sales momentum or a financial buffer.

3. Bundle glitches

Bundle deals are in general listed at a lower price than the cumulated retail price of each unit included. A rare occurrence may happen where you can find a listed bundle costing significantly lower (almost as low as the listed price of a single unit). 

Let us make it believable for you. On November 16th, 2020 some Amazon doom scrollers found the deal of their life when saw the Samsung QLED 8K TV+ Alexa enables Q-Series nine-channel sound bar bundles being sold for $150 each. Needless to say, they flew off the shelves in a matter of seconds but to the biggest awe, the orders were never canceled by the sellers! 

This makes us wonder if it was really a glitch or a staged “Amazon price glitch” as the ecommerce giant dismissed this incident.

4. Coupon/promo code errors

Picture this: You have multiple coupons for a product, but even after stacking them all, you are mostly never left with an option to get it for free. Amazon will levy a limit below which the price cannot decline irrespective of the number of coupons you possess. But it actually happened, and we have the correct example to explain this Promo Code Error. 

If this anomaly makes you curious, it can happen due to several factors such as error in codes resulting in miscalculation, or incorrect coupon scanning. 

We have the perfect example of this. a 3D wooden puzzle worth $40 magically became $0 on the payment calculation page. This happened as a result of coupon stacking which almost always comes with a limit. But that one blessed moment caught in a glitch made it free for the buyer. ‘Praise the Puzzle Lord!’ is all that we can say.

How do Amazon price glitches impact sellers?

Needless to say, the impact of Amazon price glitches on business is prominent. As much as it is fun for buyers to land a deal at a supremely low price, for sellers it is a different story. In this segment, we’ll take a look at how and in what ways Amazon price glitches impact sellers in particular. 

We are talking about the obvious revenue impact, tainted brand image, competitive downside, or even operational drawback. 

Impact on revenue for Amazon price glitch

1. Loss of sales opportunities

If you put yourself in the shoes of a seller you’ll find that price glitches are a nightmare. A glitch in pricing even for a fraction of a second can result in massive losses if it is priced significantly low.

On the other hand, if the price glitches jump too high, it can effectively sabotage your potential sales, or even lead to cancellations. If it occurs during peak shopping hours imagine the extent of customers it is going to ward off. 

We empathize with the sellers but it can spiral down creating more damage. 

Amazon keeps a close vigil on the prices of the listings to maintain its Fair Pricing Policy. In case their algorithm detects a price that is significantly higher than Amazon’s benchmark, Amazon will flag it as price gouging. 

Double the loss for sellers as once the product is flagged, it will be temporarily removed from search results. Buyers will not be able to access the product for an unmarked period of time as long as the issue is resolved.

2. Order cancellations

Amazon is known for canceling orders that were placed during the times of Amazon price glitches. It may seem like the saving grace for sellers preventing major losses but there are negative implications to it. 

A buyer (definitely frustrated due to the cancellation of his winning deal) may come back and bash the brand in the review section. The negative review may repel buyers affecting immediate sales and loss of trust among customers.

Reputation decline due to the loss of customer trust and negative feedback

It is frustrating for a seller to lose customer trust and gather negative reviews for a technical issue for which the brand cannot be held accountable. Amazon’s algorithm can suppress its reach due to which its visibility can be harmed. This leads us to competitive disadvantages. 

Price wars: Amazon price glitch and the market

We mentioned Amazon price glitches are capable of creating a ripple effect across the board. 

Price wars are a similar scenario that can get triggered due to sudden price glitches. When more than one seller faces a price glitch it may send out an incorrect signal among its competitors. 

When these competitors witness brands lowering their prices they are often under pressure of giving into the suit; this can spiral into creating unsustainable pricing due to unstable profit generation all across a certain category.

Furthermore, as a consequence of this glitch-induced price war, you’re at risk of losing your ownership over the buybox; or more importantly, you may end up setting the wrong selling price. This will have adverse effects on overall profitability, leading to decreased sales velocity and inventory stagnation.

Amazon’s response to Amazon price glitches

The only way Amazon pricing glitch is confirmed is via Amazon’s official statement across their social media handles.

According to Amazon’s policies, in case a customer pays more than the retail price of a product due to an Amazon pricing glitch, the price difference is refunded. They can also return the product expecting a full refund. However, it is important to note that you as a seller have complete control over cancelling an order due to pricing errors. 

Customers on forums often land such deals and wonder if Amazon is going to automatically cancel them!

How to protect your products from future Amazon price glitches?

There are only a few ways by which you can safeguard your business from Amazon price glitches as most of it is not in your hands as a seller. Apart from proactive monitoring take note of these three steps to ensure decreased impact from price glitches on Amazon. 

Monitor your Amazon sales

To track sales and search rankings you can use third party intelligence tools such as SellerApp. This dashboard can help you effectively track your pricing and even offer pricing trends to help you effectively prep and adapt in case of a glitch. Of course, it won’t be registered as a glitch. 

But you can track the fluctuation from one dashboard instead of manually looking at your listing pages all the time. You can also reach out to us to help you set up a custom alert in case your price falls or rises beyond a certain threshold.

Immediately contact Amazon

In case you get a hunch of any anomalous circumstances, inform Amazon’s Seller Support from Amazon Seller Center and let them come back with a confirmation or solution. Patience is a virtue when your reach is limited.

Use automated repricing tools

Repricer tools can be of great help during times of Amazon pricing glitches. Automated repricing tools will prevent prices from going beyond a set limit and spoil the customer experience. So if you’re wondering if repricer tools are effective during times of Amazon glitches, yes, they will safeguard your profit margin to a great extent depending upon the nature of the glitch. However, during times of API outages, repricing tools will not be effective. 

No solution can bring you absolute immunity against Amazon pricing glitches, but adapting to an advanced repricer tool can thin your chances of getting caught in such an awkward situation. Check out SellerApp’s repricer tool if you’re looking for an ally to fight the possibility of unseen pricing errors. 

Final thoughts

There are certain technical roadblocks such as Amazon price glitches that although unfortunate are beyond our control. What you can do for your business is adapt quickly and do the needful and hope for the best.

Amazon price glitches can severely impact a brand’s performance, that too in multiple ways. 

While complete immunity against price glitches can be a distant dream considering the limitations of contemporary technology, being proactive towards monitoring your Amazon Seller Center dashboard can mitigate the impact to a great extent. 

Your thriving Amazon business can benefit from constant vigilance, proactiveness, and automated tools to curb its possibility of occurring.

Additional Readings:

Best Amazon Price Trackers: Top 5 Tools to Spy on Competition

Cross Selling and Upselling on Amazon— Effective Strategies For Success

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