Overview

Amazon's Buyer-Seller Messaging service is the official communication channel between sellers and customers on the Amazon marketplace. The system is designed to protect the privacy of both parties by using anonymized email aliases rather than exposing personal email addresses. Understanding how this messaging system works—and the rules that govern it—is essential for maintaining good account health and delivering strong customer service.

Key Points / What Sellers Need to Know

• Anonymized Email Aliases – Amazon assigns a unique, encrypted email alias to each buyer for every seller relationship. This means sellers never see a customer's real email address, and buyers are similarly shielded from seeing the seller's personal contact details.

• Consistent Aliases Per Relationship – The anonymized email alias remains the same for all future communication between a specific buyer and seller pair. This allows sellers to reference past conversations and maintain continuity without compromising buyer privacy.

• Buyer Opt-Out Rights – Buyers can choose to opt out of receiving unsolicited messages from sellers. When a buyer has opted out, sellers are restricted to sending only critical, order-related messages such as shipping confirmations or responses to buyer-initiated inquiries.

• Response Time Expectations – Amazon monitors seller response times to buyer messages. Sellers are expected to respond to buyer inquiries within 24 hours. Late or missed responses can negatively impact the seller's account metrics and overall performance rating.

• Permitted vs. Prohibited Content – Amazon enforces strict guidelines on what sellers can and cannot include in buyer-seller messages. Marketing content, external links, and requests for positive reviews are generally prohibited through this channel.

How the Messaging System Works

The Buyer-Seller Messaging system operates through Amazon's infrastructure, routing all communication through encrypted email aliases. When a buyer contacts a seller—whether through an order page, a product listing question, or a direct message—Amazon generates a unique alias email address for that buyer. The seller receives the message at their registered email address or within the Seller Central messaging dashboard, and any reply is routed back through the alias system. This architecture ensures that neither party's real email address is ever exposed to the other. Sellers can access all message threads through the "Buyer-Seller Messages" section within Seller Central, making it easy to track and manage customer communications from a single interface.