How Amazon Brand Registry Can Protect Amazon Sellers

Last updated on May 16th, 2023

Written by Ken Zhou

Small brands and businesses are winning on the largest eCommerce platform in the world, and it’s easy to see why. Amazon sales rose to USD 475 billion in 2020, and more than half came from third-party sales. This is quite encouraging for aspiring entrepreneurs looking to grow their Amazon business. 

But with Amazon’s undeniable popularity, the platform has become a breeding ground for unscrupulous sellers engaging in black hat practices. These fraudulent individuals enter the market to copy the brand’s products and sell them as their own but at a lower quality.

Such practices negatively impact the business, hence the need for an Amazon brand protection program. One way to do this is by registering with the Amazon brand registry. 

This article delves into the significance of this form of protection and how it can benefit you as a brand owner.

4 Problems Caused by Unscrupulous Behavior

Unauthorized sellers are becoming a widespread problem on Amazon's eCommerce platform, requiring brand owners to prioritize product protection. This has led to numerous lawsuits against Amazon from affected businesses.

In response, Amazon introduced the Brand Registry program, where sellers make their brand registered under Amazon to protect their intellectual property against counterfeiters.

By enrolling in the program, Amazon sellers can address a range of issues, including:

1) Counterfeiters and Hijackers

Hijackers and counterfeiters are two types of Amazon users you don’t want to deal with. They are committed to ruining one’s products, listing, and credibility. Black hats can wreck everything you’ve worked hard for.

Hijackers look for listings that are dormant but have rich reviews. They ‘hijack’ accounts to rank quicker by skipping the hassle of getting reviews. Counterfeiters, on the other hand, are unauthorized resellers of a product. They can also sell a replica of a seller’s original products. 

2) Loss of Trust

When buyers encounter Amazon listing hijackers, they receive low-quality or counterfeit products from these sellers. It will harm your relationship with these customers because they will leave bad reviews on the product listing. In the long run, they may avoid purchasing from your brand altogether, causing the business to suffer.

3) Tarnish your Brand's Reputation

Negative comments from disappointed customers can spread quickly and deter potential customers from purchasing your products in the future. It will tarnish your reputation and leave a false review on your brand. 

4) Low Sales

Unauthorized sellers may offer the product at a lower price, attracting customers looking for a bargain. Branded sellers can lose the Buy Box, and their sales will suffer. Ultimately, this can lead to a decrease in revenue and hinder business growth.

6 Amazon Brand Registry Benefits You Can Expect

Luckily, Amazon’s Brand Registry is here, and they are now established both for sellers and customers. Sellers can legitimize the ownership of their brand by registering. If there are any copycats of the products, the registry is proof that they are the authorized seller of the brand. 

Let’s further explore the benefits you can expect from this program:

It Builds Credibility With Customers

When starting a business and contemplating the details of your products, your customers should always come first. Answer the four W’s and one H:

• What do customers need?
• When do they need it?
• Where will they see your product quickly?
• Why are your goods worth their money?
• How will they acquire what you are offering?

Ensure you can deliver on your promises. Aim for loyalty by providing quality products and services. 

One of the ways to do this is through the Amazon Brand Registry benefit of “Transparency.”

With this service, your products will be issued barcodes that customers can scan using iOS and Android apps to check whether your product is original. These barcodes are marks that will keep your products untouchable to counterfeiters and credible to customers. 

It Protects the Brand from Product Hijacking

Almost all private label sellers fear being hijacked by third-party sellers. To prevent these malicious activities from occurring, Amazon allows them to report incidents. These threats will easily be eliminated. It also gives private label sellers the sole ownership of the Buy Box.

The program also provides you with additional predictive protections to remove counterfeited listings. Some examples of these unscrupulous behaviors are:

1. Product listing that isn't for your brand and uses your trademarked brand terms in their titles.
2. Images that contain your product images but aren't for any of your product listings.
3. Product listings using your brand name but aren't yours.
4. Sellers shipping products in locations where you aren't distributing or manufacturing your brand.

It Showcases a Professional Brand Image

With total control of your Amazon account, you can showcase your unique selling points, differentiate yourself from your competitors, and build brand recognition and customer loyalty. You can enhance your reputation on the platform by presenting a professional and consistent brand image.

You can also prevent unauthorized changes or updates to your product detail page, protecting your brand’s integrity and maintaining correct information about your offer. This, in turn, can avoid confusion or misunderstandings among customers and reduce the risk of negative reviews or feedback.

It Offers Marketing and Protection Resources

Another benefit of the Amazon Brand Registry program is that it gives you access to various marketing and protection tools. As a registered brand owner, you can use these to promote and protect your products. Some of the notable tools include:

• Enhanced Brand Content: Amazon Enhanced Brand Content (EBC) allows sellers to edit the product description using rich content and images. They can enhance the images and text to convey the brand's message.

• Project Zero: Project Zero allows brands to remove suspected counterfeits. Thanks to Amazon's machine learning, you can scan over 5 billion listings to check counterfeit items.

• Amazon Transparency: This application lets brands create an alphanumeric code for every product unit. Amazon scans these codes so only authentic products are shipped to customers.

It Provides Access to Reporting Tools

Through a brand dashboard, sellers can quickly search for counterfeit product listings that use their brand’s images, logo, or descriptions without permission. They can also track and monitor ASINs or product URLs containing potentially infringing content. 

With these brand registry tools, sellers can protect their intellectual property and enforce their rights on Amazon’s marketplace.

It Comes With a Dedicated Amazon Brand Protection Team

Amazon Brand Registry Support Team can help you with any questions or concerns related to your brand or the Brand Registry program. You can email or call them anytime, 24/7, for assistance.

How to Apply for the Amazon Brand Protection Program

Are you concerned about the Amazon Brand Registry cost? No need to worry, it is entirely FREE! Simply follow the steps and meet the requirements outlined below:

1) Review Your Documents

You need an active registered trademark to fulfill the Amazon Brand Registry process. Check if this is the same as the brand name. Remember, your trademark should also appear on the packaging and product itself.

2) Sign Up for Amazon Brand Registry

The trademark owners must be the ones to apply for the Brand Registry Program. If the owner is not available, an authorized agent is allowed. The owner must first enroll the agent as an additional user. Once done, you can now sign into the Brand Registry.

1. Use your existing Vendor or Amazon Seller Central account. If not, create it for free.
2. To verify a Brand Registry account, provide your legal/corporate information.
3. Validate your information via text/SMS.
4. Read and accept the terms and conditions.
5. Click Save.

3) Enroll Your Brand

To enroll your brand, you'll need to fill up these four criteria:

• Brand Eligibility: Provide details of the brand name, the brand logo, and the number of brand names to be registered.

• Intellectual Property: Select your trademark registration number, type, trademark name, and registration office.

• Identification: Upload the product images, brand logo, packaging images, website images, and social media images.

• Brand Information: Provide the vendor account details, manufacturing details, license details, and countries where your brand's products are manufactured and distributed.

You may now click the "Submit Application" button.

4) Validation of Information

After submitting your Brand Registry application, Amazon will review it to verify that you are the trademark's rightful owner. It will take them 2-10 days to validate your application. Eventually, your trademark office will receive a verification code from Amazon, and you have to contact them to forward it to you.

Once you have the code, log into your Amazon Seller Account, and type your respective case ID from the initial email. Click the View button, select the reply button, and type in the code. After completing these steps, the process should be completed within 1-2 working days.

Reminders on Amazon Brand Guidelines 

Now that you completed your Amazon brand registration brand process, you can proceed to expand your business. Grow through Amazon paid ads management and product ads, but don’t forget to study, understand, and follow Amazon brand guidelines to avoid being penalized.

When we say guidelines, it means your call-to-action (CTA), brand phrases, branding on and off Amazon, Amazon logos, icons, and pictures should all be used according to the instructions provided on the Amazon brand guidelines page.

This ensures you know the dos and don’ts when using Amazon product ads. The hassle of knowing and following these guidelines will eventually pay off because of the increase in your brand’s credibility, leading to a higher conversion rate. This is on top of the strategies you already implement for your Amazon product ads.

If you need help on these aspects, there are many reliable Amazon brand protection agencies you can count on. They can help you create a customized Amazon PPC for your brand. 

Key Takeaway

We don’t live in a perfect world, but we should always try our best. The same goes when selling on Amazon. Illegal doers will always be there, but legitimate sellers can stop hijackers and counterfeiters by ensuring they are registered for Amazon Brand Protection.
Here at Seller Interactive, we have a group of experts who can monitor the initial signs of unscrupulous behavior. To learn more about Amazon account protection, you may email [email protected].