Selling on Amazon allows you to sell your products worldwide and reach new customers with over 9.7 million sellers today. However, a growing problem for brands is unauthorized sellers. Unauthorized sellers on Amazon list your products without your permission, at a discounted price, and sometimes with inauthentic goods. This can harm your brand’s reputation, lessen your profits, and more.
What Are Unauthorized Sellers on Amazon?
Unauthorized sellers on Amazon are third-party merchants that list your products for sale without your authorization. This can happen in a few ways:
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Unknown Inventory Sourcing: Sellers can get your products in a variety of ways. Some of the most common ways are:
- Sometimes it’s from the brand directly and they don’t realize it because the sellers uses a fake name, or a DBA unknown to the brand.
- Sometimes it’s from the brand’s wholesale distributor(s). Because brands usually don’t know who the distributor sells to.
- Sometimes it’s from international distributors that divert outgoing shipments at the US FOB point. OR international distributors that actually export their inventory to a us-based Amazon DC (note that this could be a gray market situation).
- Sometimes it’s from retail arbitrage or Amazon returns.
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Counterfeit Products: Sellers may list fake versions of your products, impacting your brand quality and potentially harming consumers.
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Gray Market Goods: These are genuine products that were manufactured for a different country and don’t necessarily conform to US safety regulations. Packaging, instructions, warranties could be different that domestic supply.
How do Amazon Unauthorized Sellers Hurt Brands Like Yours?
Unauthorized sellers on Amazon pose a significant threat to your brand. You lose control over aspects like product descriptions, pricing, and customer experience, which can significantly damage your brand. These sellers often undercut your prices which leads to lost sales and reduced profitability. Furthermore, counterfeit products and inconsistent pricing confuse customers, eroding brand trust and loyalty. Lastly, poor-quality counterfeits can lead to a surge of negative reviews, further tarnishing your brand reputation.
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Take BuyBox sales from Authorized Sellers
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Damage relationships with Authorized sellers by making it harder to compete for consumers.
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Damage relationships with Authorized sellers by violating MAP and hurting margins
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If they own the ASIN then they may hurt the brand image by using bad/wrong images and/or product descriptions.
How to Stop Unauthorized Sellers on Amazon
Learning how to stop unauthorized sellers on Amazon is crucial to protect your brand. Understanding MSRP vs MAP and the overall e-commerce landscape is just the beginning. Here are some first steps you can take:
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Identify Sellers:
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Ask them who they are and where they got the products.
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Skip-Tracing - MAPP Trap does this
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Cross-reference sellers with brand-owned and distributor customer lists
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Compare inventory levels and changes
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Find out where else they sell products and use that as leverage.
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Test Purchases: Consider making test purchases from suspected unauthorized sellers to gather evidence for Amazon.
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Distribute: Send out Do Not Sell lists to Independent Sales Reps and Wholesale Distributors
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Brand Registry: Enroll in Amazon's Brand Registry to gain access to tools for reporting unauthorized listings and merging ASINs
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Regular Monitoring: Proactively monitor Amazon for unauthorized listings using automated tools or manual searches.
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Legal Cease and Desist Letters: In some cases, sending legal cease and desist letters to unauthorized sellers can be effective.
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Hire the Pros: Hiring a professional team to manage and stop unauthorized sellers is the most effective tool for protecting your brand.
How We Actually Stop Them
MAPP Trap equips you with powerful MAP enforcement tools to stop unauthorized sellers in their tracks:
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Automated Enforcement Wizard: This user-friendly tool allows you to create customized email campaigns for MAP violation notifications. You can define the sequence of emails, set time intervals between them, and personalize the content.
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Pre-written Email Templates: MAPP Trap provides a library of attorney-approved email templates to jumpstart your communication with violators.
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Customizable Templates: You can create your own email templates to tailor your messaging to specific situations.
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EnforceWatch: This AI-powered system analyzes data and offers actionable insights to optimize your enforcement strategy. It acts as a virtual assistant, guiding your team with expert-based recommendations.
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Managed Enforcement Services: For businesses lacking the resources for in-house enforcement, MAPP Trap offers expert-led managed services. Their team handles everything from crafting enforcement strategies to sending out notifications and monitoring compliance.
Protecting Your Brand with the Right Tools Starts Today
Now that you understand what unauthorized sellers on Amazon are and you know how to stop them, what are you waiting for!? By taking proactive and consistent steps and partnering with MAPP Trap, you can effectively stop unauthorized sellers and safeguard your brand reputation on Amazon. Contact us today!