Amazon is a vast marketplace where one product listing can be the entry point to multiple sellers: either the official brand owner or the resellers of that product; this can bother brands who are used to primary control of their digital and physical shelf. No matter the size of the business, brands on Amazon can face stiff competition from resellers who disrupt the product detail page and customer shopping experience with lackluster (or worse, inaccurate!) information.
Luckily, Amazon’s Brand Registry program ensures that only the registered brand owner can control the information on the product detail page. In this post, we will explain everything you need to know about Brand Registry so you can claim your brand’s PDPs, unlock new marketing opportunities, and grow your business.
What Is Brand Registry?
Amazon’s Brand Registry program enables brand owners to gain control over their listings and content on the product detail page and prevents resellers from changing any information. Brand Registry also protects the end purchasing experience for the customer by keeping detail pages best-in-class and removing any possible infringement.
To be very clear, Brand Registry does NOT restrict sellers from listing and selling your brand product; it simply protects the listing information under the registered owner, so the customer sees the best information possible on the PDP when shopping for your product.
How To Enroll In Brand Registry?
After securing a trademark, brand owners can log in through their Amazon accounts and complete the registration process. They will need to provide brand names, relevant trademark information (logo files and registration details), product and packaging images, owned websites and social, and company information such as account details, and identifier type (UPC, EAN, GTIN), and countries of manufacture.
It is critical to know that Brand Registry is not only for national brands and traditional manufacturers. For private brands or white label owners, Brand Registry is essential to presenting the customer with best-in-class content and supporting the business with additional marketing opportunities.
Business Benefits: Benefits of Brand Registry
Control of the Brand Experience
For every seller on Amazon, listing content is the foundation of business. Inaccurate information can misrepresent a brand or product and lead to a terrible customer experience. Brand Registry grants brand owners control of the informational inputs on the PDP so they can maximize conversion potential and drive more sales.
Efficiency Through Reporting Tools
Through the portal, brand owners can access deeper search and reporting, including notifications of Brand Registry infractions like unauthorized sellers’ use of trademarked logos and content.
Proactive Brand Protection
Amazon uses information provided by the brand owners to prevent potential infringement and trademark issues and removes listings as follows:
- Product listings that return for your brand and incorrectly use your trademarked terms in their titles
- Images that carry your logo but are for products that don’t carry your brand name.
- Sellers ship products from countries where you do not manufacture or distribute your brand.
- Product listings being created with your brand name when you have already listed your complete product catalog on Amazon
Dedicated Amazon Support Team
Amazon provides a dedicated global customer service team to assist brand owners with phone calls and help tickets created for infringement issues. The team is quick and usually responds on the same day.
Advertising and Branding Opportunities
The following marketing and advertising tools are only available for brand-registered owners: A+ Content, Brand Stores, Sponsored Brand tools, and Amazon Brand Analytics, a reporting tool that provides key insights such as top search terms, and customer demographics, market basket analysis, and most-clicked products.
Other countries can be found here.https://brandservices.amazon.com/eligibility
More Ways for Brands to Protect Their Image and Data on Amazon
Amazon continues to face scrutiny over counterfeit products sold on its site. Many sellers list banned or unsafe products with fake certifications. Project Zero utilizes Amazon’s sophisticated technologies to monitor and automatically remove counterfeit products free of charge. Launched in 2019 in the US, Project Zero operates in 17 Amazon marketplaces globally. Once a brand is registered in one market, it is also registered worldwide. Read more about Project Zero from Amazon to learn how to further protect your brand’s representation on site.
Another program is Transparency, a tracking and serialization service used to prevent counterfeit goods from reaching customers. It is available in seven marketplaces globally. Amazon provides serialized codes to a manufacturer who must have the ability to apply the code to every unit manufactured; these codes can also apply to products sold to other retailers and authorized agents. Customers can interact with a brand by downloading the Transparency app and scanning the applied code to verify the authenticity of the product and receive unit-level information.
Transparency can be helpful across all product categories, but it’s worthwhile for brands to evaluate their annual cost of lost business due to counterfeiting first. There is a small fee (1-5 cents/unit), plus the additional operational cost for printing and applying the barcode. Additionally, because Transparency codes apply to all units manufactured, Amazon can receive valuable information about a brand’s retail distribution that may need to stay private. Transparency guidelines can be found here on Amazon.
In Conclusion, Here’s Why it Matters
Amazon is certainly taking steps to protect the integrity of its marketplace for brands and customers through programs like Brand Registry, Project Zero, and Transparency. As you continue to evaluate your brand’s Amazon presence, it is imperative to enroll in Brand Registry and maximize all the benefits the program offers. Unlocking the key benefits that Brand Registry offers will not only help drive topline sales and conversions but also improve the customer shopping experience and build long-term loyalty.
Are you exploring Brand Registry and how it can benefit your Amazon sales? Get in touch with us at info@katalysst.co