To help shoppers, brands, and registered suppliers on the third-party market and make Amazon's experience useful, Amazon introduced brand gating and minimized the prevalence – and ultimately eradicate – of counterfeit products on Amazon. If counterfeit goods exist and customers purchase them, they unwittingly lead the brand to degradation, pushing down the it’s hard-earned value.
The process of branding Amazon seems easy enough, particularly from the perspective of the brand maker. Unauthorized resellers or counterfeiters are trying to sell poorly, so the company calls for more influence over who can list its goods.
Even if you're a legitimate retailer with a retail business model, what would you do to defend your listings against untrustworthy partners' unwelcome fate?
What Is Brand Gating?
In its root, brand gating Amazon aims to prevent unauthorized retailers from listing officially traded brands. It helps both brand producers and private label sellers track the ASIN resellers list, stopping illegal third-party sellers from jumping into listings and likely down seller scores.
To demonstrate its validity, Amazon needs registered resellers to include manufacturers' invoices showing purchasing goods within the last 90 days. They also have written permission from the company to sell their products and payments up to $1.500 per item.
In reality, many customers don't understand when they buy an imitation in low quality instead of the real product. After all, Amazon will not deter shoppers from checking seller feedback and carefully screening merchants. We are on the market to shop quickly and conveniently — and to compare prices.
And if a cheaper list in product search results emerges, consumers believe that Amazon has the best shopping choices.
Complications
When consumers mistakenly buy falsified copies of the real thing, sales are not only ruined. The popularity of the brand itself is also starting to erode.
Despite that very reason, many major brands are hesitant to sell direct to customers on the market.
Through leaving Amazon back in 2016 on product quality issues, Birkenstock made national stars, and up to 2017, Nike was regarded as one of the biggest holdouts when it was sold on the marketplace. More monitoring was needed. But Amazon took brand gating seriously.
Brand Registry Vs. Brand Gating
It took Amazon several years to admit that the grey market on the third-party market developed out of reach. Throughout recent years, the organization has introduced two measures aimed at stopping rogue sales. Brand Registry and Brand Gating are highly recommended services for sellers to promote new goods. These services provide some level of branding security and listing security, but not all sellers are eligible. The variations between Brand Registry and Brand Gating are discussed here.
Registry of the Brand and Its Advantages
As the name suggests, this initiative allows sellers to register their products with Amazon to prevent rogues operating in the marketplace from plundering their intellectual property.
To gain from this scheme, sellers must keep a registration mark or have a request awaiting US approval. Trademark and patent. In the case of vendors that are exclusive distributors of goods that are not already sold on Amazon's marketplace, the brand owner must have written authorization.
Brand registration facilitates the reporting by vendors of copyright infringement problems and forgery through a unique search tool and submission form that vendors can use to report rogue vendors.
Brand Gating and Its Advantages
Third-party sellers make nearly half of Amazon's sales, and many are not allowed to list the products they sell, but all of them are not malicious or rogue. Many of them enter the Amazon marketplace without an inventory, as they only want to do digital marketing without caring about the delivery or operation of a warehouse.
With brand gating Amazon, retailers will fence the exclusive products they are looking for to be covered with the Amazon Standard Identification Numbers (ASINs), meaning that the brand owner must license third party vendors who want to list such goods. This system was initially developed for retailers in the jewelry categories and later modified for sporting goods giant Nike. The new version of the program is more available, but not all sellers are eligible.
How You Can Start With Brand Gating
1. Enter the Product Register of Amazon.
They proactively take steps to maximize the brand exposure at Amazon by being a member of the Amazon brand registry. It provides the organization with the right details to identify which track counterfeit violations. When you are not registered in the Customer Register, Amazon does not find you to be a customer gating. To be registered with a brand, you need an active registered trademark in-country you wish to register, and filing with the USPTO will prove that you take compliance seriously.
2. Provide Amazon with the Gated ASINs.
Draw up the list of ASINs you want to apply for brand gating in priority order. Take your current Amazon support contacts with your file, concentrating on those that are essential, lucrative, or have traditionally identified counterfeit activities.
3. Demonstrate how the possibility of counterfeiting is mitigated.
Provide a thorough description of the measures you provide taken proactively to discourage unethical sales, as Amazon will give preference to counterfeiters. Provide the seller's ID and any other related details with concise and straightforward information.
If you sell in Amazon's third-party marketplace, you will be told that you do not have brand authorization and need approval before continuing. Once you have been through the approval process for each brand that needs gating, Amazon will take up to seven days to decide. It can then take four to five weeks to introduce the brand gating.
Is Amazon An easy-to-brand Market?
Amazon understands that the growing number of counterfeit products impacts not only consumers but also brands. The retail giant's problem has blasted in recent years and has caused brands to lose significant profits. While Amazon prioritizes customer protection, it also has a range of programs that protect sellers and brands.
According to the Federal government's effort to combat counterfeiting, Amazon has imposed certain restrictions on third parties selling large brands on the platform. This restriction is called brand gating and seeks to end income leakage of the brands. The program also protects major brands against unauthorized vendors, counterfeiters, and supply chain leaks.
Conclusion
Amazon Brand Gating helps brand owners preserve the credibility and prestige of their products. It also helps to overcome the long-standing counterfeiting problem in Amazon.
On the other hand, if you are one of the long-standing Amazon sellers, it is easier for you to sell gated items because you have a good standing especially in the gated categories and ASINs within Amazon.
So, now that you have already the approval to sell one of the gated products, your next move is to ensure that your pricing is competitive and the best way to do that is to use an Amazon repricer like Seller Snap.
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