Brand Protection is one of the most important facets of growing and protecting your brand on Amazon. Without proper brand protection, unauthorized sellers may sell counterfeit products to your customers or new customers.
Did you know that your brand could be being sold on Amazon right now, whether you want it or not? In today’s highly competitive market, it is harder than ever to make sure your brand is protected to ensure your company’s success. With a vast online marketplace such as Amazon, protecting your brand can become even more complicated with the multiple different risks that can plague a brand, and create detrimental financial losses. Luckily, with the proper Brand Protection program, these dangers can be avoided, monitored, and restored to help increase profitability.
BENEFITS OF AMAZON
Becoming part of Amazon’s Marketplace can provide many positives to brands. However, being fully optimized and brand protected can help your business go from good to great instantly. Here are some of the benefits that selling on Amazon’s marketplace can provide for your business.
Instant access to millions of new customer
Instant access to millions of new customer
- Access to loyal Amazon Prime members
Access to loyal Amazon Prime members
- Ease of using Amazon’s automated fulfillment
and distribution centers.
Ease of using Amazon’s automated fulfillment
Having your store on Amazon can increase exposure, profitability, and can help to expand your brand across the globe. However, there are different problems that come along with these new opportunities.
NEGATIVES ON AMAZON
Just as you want to avoid shoplifters in real life, you would want the same for your digital storefront. There are different issues that can occur on Amazon when it comes to protecting your brand that we will discuss today. All of these can be avoided with a proper Brand Protection Service in place.
THIRD-PARTY RESELLERS
The biggest issue that plagues Amazon revolves around unauthorized third-party resellers. These Unauthorized Resellers are defined as third-party retailers who buy your products and resell them without your permission. They then list without permission, steal sales, and damage brand reputations. Additionally, these resellers create many different dilemmas for your brand.
MAP VIOLATIONS
MAP is the Minimum Advertised Price that you register with Amazon for a given product. When an unauthorized reseller gets their hands on your product, they are able to resell them for much more or much less than your defined MAP. If they sell a product at a higher cost, they would earn a profit off of your item, but if they sell it for a lower cost, then this can end up really hurting your business because customers always want the best deal. You will end up losing your customers to these resellers, and may not be able to bounce back with production costs.
BUY BOX COMPETITION
Most consumers use the Buy Box to make their purchases on Amazon, so it is imperative that your brand wins its product’s Buy Boxes.
The Buy Box refers to the white box on the right side of the Amazon product detail page, where customers can add items for purchase to their cart.
A buy box winner is decided by whoever is the highest-ranked seller listed for each product. Being the buy box winner means that the sale will always go to you every time someone uses the Buy Box to purchase said product. Winning the buy box is extremely important for conversions, as you will get the most sales than any other seller of said product.
When there are unauthorized sellers for your brand, the competition to win the buy box increases immensely. The goal is to be the highest-ranked seller for every listing, and if there are multiple sellers for your products, then there is a high chance that you lose out on the sale, the buy box, and subsequently all of the sales and conversions that come from buy box purchases from then on. The easiest way to achieve this goal is to be the only verified seller for your products, so there is no competition on who wins the buy box or the sale.
COPYCATS & COMPROMISED INVENTORY
Another issue that comes from having unauthorized resellers is the quality of the products that are being distributed. With no permissions to sell an item, there are no regulations to the quality of the products actually being distributed from third-party sellers to consumers. These can be in the form of copycat items that steal the likeness of your brand and its products, but by no means share the same qualities and standards of your brand. Another occurring issue involves resellers taking returned retail and turning it around to resell it as new or even selling expired inventory to customers, which compromises the quality of your brand’s products and reputation.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
All of these negative issues that come from having unauthorized third party resellers ultimately lead to potentially receiving critical and damaging reviews, major loss of profits, the loss of consumer trust, and potentially the destruction of your brand’s reputation in the marketplace. If you are not in charge of the retail process on all of your products on Amazon, you risk hurting your brand on other channels and may lead to irreversible damage to your company’s success overall.
WHAT BRAND PROTECTION CAN DO FOR YOU?
Even with these potentially negative factors lurking on Amazon, there is no need to fear! Having a successful Brand Protection Service will eliminate all of the unauthorized third party resellers for your brand and its products. Brand protection allows you to specify which sellers are authorized to sell your products, therefore making sure that everyone abides by the set MAP and protects from unfair competition and fluctuating pricing. Additionally, eliminating these bad resellers helps to leverage the competition on Amazon to win more buy boxes, increase conversions, and drive sales. Finally, Brand Protection is dedicated to fighting back against counterfeit products and eliminating negative reviews associated with these faulty sellers.
Having a trustworthy and effective Brand Protection Service is vital for your company’s success on Amazon, and subsequently on all other sales channels. If you are struggling to reap the benefits of selling on Amazon, contact the brand protection specialists at Amazzia today! We are experts in cleaning up listings, removing unauthorized sellers, and maintaining brand integrity to help brands grow and prosper on Amazon.
