Content and Catalog Policy

5.3K Published on January 18, 2023

Overview of Content and Catalog Policy

As part of our efforts to ensure Lazada provides you an excellent selling experience, we govern products according to various parameters. This is to make sure that all products online are performing optimally. We reject product listings due to the following reasons:

  1. Non-Performing Product Listing

  2. Willful Duplication of Product Listing

  3. Willful Miscategorization of Product Listing

Any breach of Lazada’s Content and Catalog Policy could result in issuance of Non-Compliance points and/or product-related actions. Please refer to the chart below. 

Contentand Catalog Policy – Seller Non-Compliance Points Chart

Consequences

(1) Non-Performing Product Listing

Deactivate Product

(2) Willful Duplication of Product Listing

Deactivate Product + 6 point

(3) Willful Miscategorization of Product Listing

Deactivate Product + 1 point

If you receive a notification for violating our policy and you would like to file appeal request, you may do so in the Growth Center.


Non-Performing Product Listings

At Lazada, we always strive to improve support that we provide to help you grow your business. We periodically monitor the traffic your products drive and we deactivate your non-performing products.

We take a series of criteria into consideration and make sure only product listings that have zero impact on your existing sales are deactivated. We combine the result of various topics such as the duration of the product onsite, last edit, number of orders and various traffic channels etc.

If the item meets the Non-Performing listing criteria for the past 90 days, it will automatically be deactivated by our system.


Why we are doing this?
We noticed some of your products are not gaining any traffic and therefore unable to generate sales.  To help you grow and focus on products that are performing well, we would like to help you clean those products with low traffic. By setting the non-performing products offline, it helps to drive more traffic to the performing products and gives the rest of the products more opportunity to generate sales.'
What will I see as reject reason?
When your product is deactivated due to non-performing reasons, you will see the reject reason “High search exposure but low page views”. This means that product has appeared many times from the search histories but has very low views into individual product page. 


Duplication Policy

Sellers should always create only one listing for each product. If the product is available in different options such as color or size, those options should be listed as variations under the same listing.

Duplicate listings negatively impact the shopping experience on Lazada by cluttering the site. This prevent buyers from easily finding and comparing items that interest them. It creates customer confusion which in turn reduce potential sales conversions.

To ensure our customers have a positive shopping experience, actions will be taken when a seller engages in duplication activities.

What does Duplication Policy cover?

1. Duplicate product listings are two or more product listings with no significant differences between them.

2. Willful Product Duplication is defined as a seller observed to have engaged in activities to duplicate or spam product listings intentionally.

Possible Consequences:

Sellers engaging in duplication of listings will have the corresponding product(s) locked and receive non-compliance points. The product(s) with the lower sales, less history of add to cart, and less click rate will be locked. Depending on severity, sellers may also face account restrictions and/or account termination.

Policy Violation

Possible Scenarios

Policy Violation Consequences

Duplication of Product Listings

1. Creating multiple listings for varying purchase quantity and minor differences to the product details such as price, color, size and materials, etc.

2. Creating separate listings for universal items with different product compatibility

3. Creating multiple listings for the same item under same or different categories

Product Locked + 0 points

Willful Duplication of Product Listings

Listing the same set of items under multiple stores, managed by the same seller

Product Locked + up to 6 non-compliance points

Sellers verified to have violated duplication policy several times

Engaging in duplication activities or actions that result in a negative impact on consumers or platform. Some examples listed (but not limited to the following):

a. Listing huge volume of duplicated products

b. Listing duplicated products that infringe IP rights

c. Duplication activities that result in negative PR issues

If you have received a notification that you had violated our policy and you would like to file appeal request, you may do so in the Growth Center

Illustration of Policy

Here are some examples of duplicate listings that is likely to violate this Policy:

Scenario 1: When a seller creates different listings for varying purchase quantity and minor differences such as color, size and materials, etc. Seller will have the listing with lower sales, less history of add to cart, and less click rate locked.

Image 1: Different listings with varying size

Image 2: Different listings with varying color

Scenario 2: Creating multiple listings for the same item under the same or different categories.

Image 3: Different listings of the same item in the same category

Scenario 3: Creating separate listings for universal items with different product compatibility.

Image 4: Different listings of the same item with different product compatibility

This policy also applies to sellers who may have multiple stores. Sellers who post the same products across their stores will be considered under Willful Duplication.


Product Miscategorization Policy

Product Miscategorization refers to product listings that are placed in inappropriate categories (e.g., putting "red skater dress" under "Electronics") making it difficult for buyers to find the right products online.

Products deemed to be miscategorized will naturally see their search ranking fall as more relevant products are promoted by our system.

Where does Product Miscategorization usually occur?

Product Miscategorization may happen at different levels of the product category tree (refer to image below). It is important that you choose the correct category level for the products at all levels.

What happens when a product has been identified to be miscategorized?

Lazada reserves the right to deactivate the miscategorized product. Seller will be notified to correct your product with the correct category before activating the product again.

How do I correct the category of the product?

There are tools that helps you categorize correctly. During product creation stage, category suggestions are provided based on keywords in your product name. You may wish to refer to those suggested categories.

You can also refer to our Lazada University page for more information on product categorization and recommended tips to ensure accurate categorization.

Disclaimer: Accuracy of category suggestion is solely dependent on the product name keyed by seller.

Possible Consequences of Willful Product Miscategorization

To ensure customers are receiving the most accurate product information while they are making their purchasing decision, we take Wilful Product Miscategorization very seriously.

Examples of Willful Product Miscategorization are as listed (not limited to the following):

  1. Seller observed to miscategorize the same product despite repeated notifications

  2. Seller observed to miscategorize the products to circumvent any policy restrictions

  3. Seller observed to miscategorize the products to circumvent category-level restrictions (ex. Blocking from Sponsored Solutions, Age-gating ,etc.)

If a seller has been identified to have willfully miscategorized a product, the corresponding product will be locked and the seller may have their available categories for product listing limited. On a case to case basis, sellers may also receive 1 non-compliance point.

Table 1: summary of Miscategorization scenarios

Remark: Should a seller be identified to have intentionally miscategorized for fraud purposes, issuance of non-compliance points and/or restrictions to seller’s account under the Fair Trading Policy may apply.

If you have received a notification that your product is locked due to Willful Miscategorization and you would like to file an appeal request, you may submit an appeal request in the Growth Center.

Help us improve our policies. Leave a comment here.

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