Amazon is a marketplace where anyone can sell items that they acquired legally. Its strategy is to offer the largest assortment of goods, with competitive prices and the most convenient buying experience. However, some brands find themselves surprised when they see that their products are sold on Amazon by sellers they have never heard of. So, how are other people allowed to sell their products on Amazon without their permission? Today, you’ll learn the importance of Amazon brand protection and how to protect yourself from unauthorized sellers.
Amazon Brand Protection: Does Amazon offer it?
Amazon offers to help reduce unauthorized sellers on the Amazon platform through Amazon Brand Registry. This serves as a way to reduce Amazon’s counterfeit problem. For brands to qualify for Amazon brand protection through Amazon Brand Registry, they need to have a registered trademark first. The only problem is its ineffectiveness against unauthorized sellers who sell legitimate products.
The Brand Registry program also offers other benefits, which include the following:
- Access to Enhanced Brand Content
- Access to the Early Reviewer Program
- Access to the Global Catalog Identifier (GCID)
Being part of the Amazon Brand Registry makes it easy for brands to report infringements of your brand’s intellectual property rights. But then, it doesn’t necessarily block all unauthorized sellers from hijacking your products. It also doesn’t prevent listing contributions from being added by unauthorized agents.
In short, while the Amazon Brand Registry offers enhanced legitimacy, it still doesn’t close some loopholes hijackers use today. Because of this, you need to do everything you can to protect your brand, to completely get rid of the culprits.
7 Ways of Amazon Brand Protection Against Unauthorized Sellers
Below are 7 ways you can protect your brand from unauthorized sellers:
1. Understand that Amazon won’t help you take down any unauthorized seller. Amazon supports the idea of having multiple sellers of each product because it helps to keep prices competitive, so making the products all the more appealing to consumers. It’s useless to ask Amazon to help police your brand, even if you have protective assets like a trademark or patent. Amazon doesn’t see unauthorized sellers as policy violators because it’s a catalog business that is designed for more than one seller to be on an individual listing. What they can only help you with is to eliminate counterfeiters.
2. Apply for the Amazon Brand Registry. The Amazon Brand Registry is important for brands to ensure that their product pages are represented correctly. It is a program that’s easy to enroll in, especially if you’re an OEM with a branded product or the manufacturer. Your enrollment to this program will ensure that other sellers cannot make changes to your product detail page. However, this doesn’t prevent other sellers from listing your product. It certifies you as the brand owner, though, which will give you several important tools including:
- Not listing your UPCs to your products
- Your content contribution will outweigh any other sellers.
3. Put MAP policies and exclusivity in place for your distributor contacts. Sign an agreement with resellers, distributors, or retailers who are going to sell your products. Explicitly prevent them from selling your brand on Amazon, or to strictly follow your MAP policy if you prefer that. If you think that wholesale distributors are ignoring the MAP clause or the exclusivity, then you can choose to take further action, like raising the wholesale price so they won’t continue undercutting your brand on Amazon.
You can also include serialization on your products to further protect your brand from unauthorized sellers. This will allow you to determine which distributor is doing this so you can trace back to the problem distributor. Setting up an exclusivity contract and enforcing it is very important. Doing this will help you track who is selling your products on a regular basis and further protect your brand from any unwanted seller.
4. Keep your brand identity front and center. Try to maintain a public website for your brand so you can prove your ownership. This is one of the requirements for you to apply to the Amazon Brand Registry. You need to have your brand name printed on the packaging and the actual product. This requirement can help consumers identify which products are legitimate and which ones are counterfeit items.
5. If you’re using the Amazon FBA Program, make sure not to use stickerless mixed inventory. When you sign FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon), you have an option to not apply Amazon barcode labels or stickers to your inventory when your product is shipped in. It may seem very convenient, but do not use this option. Using it means that your product will be mixed in with potentially counterfeit goods.
6. Be reactive when handling unauthorized Amazon resellers. Another approach to Amazon brand protection is to proactively monitor accounts and product pages to determine when products have unauthorized Amazon sellers. Once you identify such products, you can handle the issue in two ways:
To send a cease-and-desist message through the Amazon system, directly to the unauthorized seller. This will eliminate a good percentage of these types of sellers.
If you think it’s a counterfeit item, then try to place a test buy to confirm it. Once you have confirmed that the product isn’t authentic, then you can file a complaint with Amazon and then try to have the seller take down the offer. However, you won’t be getting any compensation from Amazon for doing this.
7. Become an Amazon vendor. Being a vendor on Amazon means that you will become the defacto brand owner on Amazon. By doing this, it will be very difficult for sellers (authorized or not) to make any changes to your product detail page. They also won’t be able to change other details like the product description and product images. They’re also not allowed to add new variations and other changes that aren’t approved or initiated by you.
Regardless of whether your brand is sold on Amazon or not, you’ll need Amazon brand protection for the longevity of your business. Take action to ensure that your brand is protected and stop unauthorized Amazon counterfeiters and sellers to try to undercut your business.