Marketplace store health check: a 12-point checklist

What is this checklist for?

When marketplace sales drop, the first reflex is usually to raise the ad budget or cut the price. More often than not, the real problem sits somewhere more basic: a title that does not show up in search, a variation that went out of stock, or an account warning that has quietly piled up. The 12 points below are the first things we look at when reviewing a store. Terms differ between Amazon, Walmart, eBay, Etsy and Shopify, but the logic is the same.

1. Listing quality

1. Title and search termsDoes the title contain the words customers actually type into the search bar? Brand, product type, key feature and size belong at the start of the title. Backend search term fields should not be left empty.
2. ImagesDoes the main image follow the marketplace rules (on most marketplaces a white background with the product filling most of the frame)? Are there secondary images that answer questions about use, size, contents and installation? Single-image listings almost always convert worse.
3. Description and bullet pointsDo the bullets answer the questions that drive a buying decision: what it does, what it works with, what is in the box? If you have brand registry, are you using enhanced content such as A+ on Amazon?

2. Price, stock and variations

4. Price competitiveness and the Buy BoxIf several sellers offer the same product, how often do you win the Buy Box? Price, delivery speed and seller performance decide this together.
5. Stock continuityDo your best sellers go out of stock? A stockout does not only cost that day's sales; it can pull the product's search ranking down for weeks.
6. Variation structureAre colours, sizes and pack options grouped correctly under one parent listing? Scattered listings split your reviews and tire the customer.

3. Performance and advertising

7. Traffic and conversion rateIf a product page gets visits but no sales, the problem is the listing, the price or the reviews. If it gets no visits, the problem is visibility. Decisions made without this distinction usually send budget to the wrong place.
8. Reviews, rating and Q&AIs there a common complaint dragging the rating down (size, packaging, missing parts)? Are customer questions left unanswered? Repeated complaints often come from information that could be made clearer on the product page.
9. Advertising efficiencyAre you tracking ad spend against ad sales (ACoS) and against total sales (TACoS)? Have search terms that never convert been added as negative keywords? Are automatic campaigns reviewed regularly?

4. Account health and operations

10. Order performance metricsAre order defect rate, late shipment rate and seller-cancelled orders within the marketplace targets? On Amazon, for example, sellers are expected to keep order defect rate under 1%, late shipment rate under 4% and pre-fulfilment cancel rate under 2.5%.
11. Policy warnings and documentsIs there an unresolved warning, a suppressed listing or a missing document (category approval, safety data sheet, certificate) in the account health dashboard? Small warnings can add up to real account risk.
12. Returns and customer messagesAre return reasons recorded, and do they point to a pattern? Are customer messages answered within the time the marketplace expects (usually 24 hours)?

How to use the checklist

Go through each point for your 5–10 best-selling products and mark it in three colours: good, could be better, urgent. The two or three urgent items usually explain most of the lost sales. Fix those first; make advertising and pricing decisions after that.