Amazon is the go-to online platform for selling.
However, companies should be wary before they open their Amazon store.
They need to think about online brand protection while selling on the e-commerce giant.
The Benefits of Selling On Amazon
Amazon is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, e-commerce sites in the world. Virtually everyone shops or has shopped on the site.
Amazon is valuable exposure, even for bigger companies. The site receives a cool two billion visitors each month. That’s two billion views that small companies might get if they sold on Amazon.
Additionally, Amazon listings act as free SEO. They show company and product information that search engine crawlers can read and rank.
Plus, search engines take traffic and links into account while ranking. Amazon has no short supply of traffic and links.
Amazon’s Struggles With Companies’ Online Brand Protection
Many products sold on Amazon are not sold by their brand. In fact, Amazon itself sells products owned by other brands.
Of course, Amazon is in contract with those brands. A contract ensures those brands get their fair share of Amazon’s profit.
But many sellers don’t have a contract with the brands whose products they sell.
They come by the products in a few different ways.
They can often find them for reduced prices on clearance sale. They can also find them gently used in thrift stores.
An added advantage of browsing clearance racks and thrift stores is the novelty. Many items are ready to go out of production or are already out of production. That makes them rare and therefore valuable to the niche buyer.
Regardless, when sellers find good items for cheap, they can sell them for more on sites such as Amazon and eBay.
Brands struggle with these sellers. They represent products that they did not make and sometimes charge more than what the product is worth.
For that reason, they can hurt brands’ images.
Protecting Your Company’s Brand Online
Thankfully, there are several ways to protect your brand’s image online.
Let’s review those ways below.
Focus Your Brand Identity
Another efficient form of online brand protection on Amazon is brand focus.
Amazon product pages are popular search engine hits. So are optimized websites and social media accounts.
Take care to create a uniform, professional image across your website and social media accounts. That way, consumers can recognize you as a wholesaler and credible business.
Additionally, ensure your website hits every SEO opportunity.
Pick and incorporate all necessary keywords. Include links to credible, reliable sources. Ensure all content posted has been proofed and vetted accordingly.
Brand identity goes beyond your online space.
Make sure all products have your logo and name on them. That way, there is no question where any of your products originally came from.
A logo and name are also useful when identifying counterfeit products.
Join Amazon’s Brand Registry
Amazon’s Brand Registry program lets companies identify themselves as brand owners.
It helps the true brand owners defend their brand from sellers who sell their products without authorization.
Post-registration, you’ll gain access to tools that will help guard your business’s intellectual and copyrighted property.
What’s more, you and Amazon will work towards identifying and stopping sellers that are selling your products without permission.
One way Amazon does this is by giving your brand preference when it comes to making product descriptions. Your keywords and descriptions will trump any that unauthorized sellers might use.
Create A Strategy For Dealing With Sellers
There is no automated or Amazon-facilitated way for dealing with sellers.
If you want to deal with them, then you’ll need to do it yourself. Manually.
Keep an eye on all of your products’ listings. When you find an unauthorized seller, you can shoot Amazon a notification. From there, Amazon will issue a cease and desist order to that seller.
In some cases, it may be necessary to purchase the item from the seller.
One case is if you suspect the seller is selling a counterfeit. Obtaining the item gives you proof that the item is indeed a counterfeit.
Once Amazon receives proof that the seller is selling counterfeits, it will shut down that seller.
Manually checking for unauthorized sellers may or may not be worth it. It takes a good deal of time and energy to manually check all of your products’ pages regularly. Plus, many sellers sell items for small amounts.
However, aggressive sellers who target your products need to be dealt with.
Until you get a handle on what kind of sellers are selling your products, it’s best to keep an eye on your listings.
Sign Up for Marketplace Valet’s Brand Protection Services
Protecting your brand and listings on Amazon is an arduous process at best, and often does not bear fruit unless you know the nuances of dealing with Amazon. Essentially you need the ability to speak “Amazonian” with the right folks on the marketplace side if you are going to succeed at getting infringers or grey market sellers removed. Marketplace Valet has spent years, dealing with exactly this problem, and we are prepared to go to bat for you. Our service allows you to completely outsource all necessary activity to us so that we can constantly monitor and remove unauthorized resellers. The process is extremely effective, averaging over 94% removal rate. Check out more about Brand Protection.
Need More Online Brand Protection Tips? Check Us Out!
At Marketplace Valet, we understand your need to ensure your brand’s protection online. We offer a variety of services, including Amazon brand protection, as well as resources for our clients and readers.
For more online brand protection tips, check out our blog reel!