Overview

Amazon sellers frequently have to suspend a listing—whether to address a policy breach, accommodate a product redesign, or cope with a temporary stockout. When the issue is resolved, the critical question becomes whether the original customer reviews can be retained. Keeping those reviews intact is vital for preserving conversion rates and advertising efficiency.

Key Points

• Same ASIN, same reviews — Reactivating a deactivated listing under its original ASIN automatically restores all previously earned reviews.
• Identifier consistency is mandatory — Changing the UPC, EAN, or ISBN forces Amazon to assign a new ASIN, which erases the prior review history.
• Brand Registry enables review migration — Brands enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry can petition Amazon to move reviews when a legitimate identifier change is required, such as a packaging overhaul.
• Parent‑child structures carry reviews across variations — Adding a new child SKU beneath an existing parent keeps the parent’s rating visible to the new variation, eliminating the need to start from zero reviews.
• Policy violations block review recovery — Listings removed for counterfeit, safety, or other serious violations cannot be reinstated with their original reviews; Amazon deletes the review data as part of the enforcement action.
• Timing matters for migration requests — Amazon prefers review‑migration cases to be filed within 48 hours of the identifier change, otherwise the request may be denied.

How Relisting / Relaunching Works

1. Diagnose the deactivation cause — Determine whether the listing was suppressed due to a policy infraction, a missing or incorrect product identifier, or simply an inventory shortage. Example: A seller’s “AquaPure” water filter was taken down because the product title exceeded the allowed character limit.
2. Fix the issue while preserving the original identifier — Amend the offending attribute (title, description, images, etc.) but keep the original UPC or EAN unchanged. : The seller shortens the title to meet Amazon’s 200‑character rule while retaining UPC “987654321098”.