Counterfeit is one of the main threats for brands on Amazon. There are entire businesses set up around, knowingly messing up with listings, and selling piggy-backing on posts to sell counterfeit items. That’s the reason for Amazon Brand Registry; a set of tools and programs to help sellers protect their brands.
Amazon Brand Registry has become crucial to continue expanding an Amazon business because it will improve your brand’s reputation with the buyers so your store always has positive reviews.
Here, we’ll explain how to get started, the costs, and all the benefits it has for your online store.
What’s Amazon Brand Registry?
Amazon Brand Registry is a program that brand owners can use to protect their intellectual property using trademark, copyright, and patent protection.
Sellers who are verified brand owners and join the program can have access to a variety of enhanced reports and more control over their brand.
In a nutshell, with Brand Registry, you can:
- Report suspicious use of your trademark.
- Report any patent and copyright violations.
- Restrict your content on the product listing from any change in the content.
How to set up Amazon Brand Registry
First, there are some requirements to join the Brand Registry Program. Take a look:
- Active registered trademark for your brand. This must be visible on your products/packaging
- You need to provide enough evidence that you are the authorized agent for the trademark
- And most importantly, you must have an Amazon account associated with Vendor or Seller Central.
If your brand is still not trademarked, then you can get information from the Patent & Trading Office website and follow the instructions.
The next steps to get started are very easy to follow:
- Go to Inventories in the Seller Central Dashboard, find the program, and click on Get
- Enter your trademark logo and provide a high-quality image of your design.
- Answer the questions required. Here you have to select the category for your products. It’s recommendable to include your website here. It takes Amazon a few days to let you know when you’ve been accepted.
- Enjoy the benefits! Enhance your content and connect with buyers.
You can enroll multiple brands with different names with a single account. Brand Registry basically means nobody can edit your product, but you.
Watch this video on why you should take intellectual property seriously:
Pricing
Amazon Brand Registry is a free program. However, one of the requirements to qualify for the program is to have a registered trademark.
Registered trademark fees can range from USD $225 to $400, depending on the product and class of protection you want.
Features
Brand Registry is one of the most successful programs to launch and market your products on Amazon.
Amazon adds these type of tools, so brand owners can manage their online store without wasting a lot of time chasing counterfeit sellers.
Brands can use the features Amazon Brand Registry brings to drive their sales and profitability.
- Brand representation
Make sure the information on Amazon about your brand is correct by having more control over your brand.
- Search and report tools
They can be classified into three:
- Global search: look for content in different Amazon stores from a single screen.
- Image search: using images, you can find listings on Amazon that match your product(s) or logo(s).
- Bulk ASIN search: search for a list of ASINs or product URLs in bulk. That way you can report suspicious infringing content fast. You can also view average customer ratings of ASINs to get an idea of their popularity.
- Proactive brand protections
The brand information you feed to Brand Registry is used to implement additional predictive protections to identify potentially bad listings and remove them.
- Brand-building benefits
Build and grow your Amazon business with the tools to which Brand Registry grants you access. We’ll mention a couple of the best advantages below.
Advantages
Transparency by Amazon
Transparency is an authentication service of products that helps brands identify counterfeits and stop them from reaching customers. Transparency is available in the US, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and India.
How Transparency works is that it allows brands to assign a secure, alphanumeric code to every product manufactured under a single brand. Amazon scans and verifies these codes at its fulfillment centers to make sure that only authentic products are shipped out to clients.
To enroll in Transparency, you need the following:
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- Verify that you are in fact the brand owner of your products.
- A Global Trade Item Number (GTIN), like a UPC or EAN barcode on your items.
- Apply a unique Transparency code on each and every unit you manufacture.
Amazon Project Zero
Project Zero takes advantage of the combined strengths of Amazon and brands to tackle counterfeits and bring their number down to zero through these three mechanisms:
Automated protections
Amazon’s machine learning creates automated protections that scan Amazon’s stores to detect and remove possible counterfeits. Brands enter key data points about them like trademarks, logos, etc. and Amazon makes a daily scan of over 5 billion listing update to look for suspected counterfeits.
Self-service counterfeit removal
Brands can now remove counterfeit listings themselves from their stores without having to contact Amazon. They can do so by using the new self-service tool. Amazon makes use of this data to strengthen their automated protections and catch potential counterfeit listings more effectively in the future.
Product serialization
Every unit a brand manufactures for an enrolled product has a unique code. This allows Amazon to scan and confirm the authenticity of products purchased in Amazon’s stores. Product serialization allows Amazon to detect and stop counterfeiting before the product is sent.
Project Zero is an invite-only program so far for brands registered in Brand Registry.
A+ Content
A+ Content is a tool only available for sellers that are part of Amazon Brand Registry. A+ Content helps you create effective listings with enhanced content and keywords that have been shown to increase conversion on listings by 7–11%. It helps sellers to highlight their brand and the product’s unique selling features.
Videos
Only sellers that are part of the program have the option of using videos in their listings.
This can be a nice boost to your conversion rate since you can show your product in action and make it more appealing for potential buyers.
Amazon Vine
Positive reviews are a main factor in your online business success. Sellers have the option of using Amazon Vine to give out products to buyers approved by Amazon to get an honest review in return.
However, it’s important to highlight that the review will be very honest. Make sure you will get positive feedback with the help of programs like the Early Reviewer Program to assure a positive experience with your products.
Virtual Bundles
This a new addition to the Brand Registry set of useful features. Virtual Bundles allows you to kit together specific ASINs and create bundles for potential customers.
That means, if you sell cups as well as cup holders, then you can include an additional ASIN that includes both products to sell them together.
The benefit of this program is that if you use it, then you won’t have to designate inventory specifically for this bundle. Amazon pulls it automatically from your existing stock.
Brand Analytics
Amazon puts this data at the sellers’ disposition so they can use it to make better decisions. Brand Analytics provides insights into search terms or specific products.
You can include the search term rank, conversion rates, most clicked-on product, and other useful information.
Final Thoughts
If you’re already investing in having a private label FBA business, then it’s only wise to join the Amazon Brand Registration program to protect your brand form copycats and counterfeit sellers. Having your brand registered can help you make it coherent for clients and it will eventually increase the value of your business.
It makes your brand look more legitimate in the eyes of the consumer.
Overall, using Brand Registry along with the special programs and features it comes with, you can focus on marketing your product and boosting sales, rather than worrying if your brand is being misused by third-parties.
