The Importance of Amazon Brand Protection in Avoiding Account Suspension

“Prevention is better than cure.” The old saying couldn’t be more appropriate when selling your products on Amazon. If you don’t keep your eyes on the ball you could fall victim to unscrupulous selling methods.

Indirect attacks such as listings being hijacked or also counterfeit may cause an unintentional account suspension that can bring down your company. Any seller doesn’t want to face the same fate, especially when it’s the brutal cybercriminal’s blame. There is an option to avoid this by utilizing Amazon branding protection.

Reasons for account suspension on Amazon

You should be aware of the motives behind why Amazon prohibits sellers. This is not only to keep you from doing it, but also to stop a malicious third party seller from doing the same thing at your cost. The following are top 10 reasons for the suspension of seller accounts.

1. Selling fake or counterfeit products
2. Selling products that are not allowed to be sold
3. Buy false reviews or ratings
4. Providing inaccurate information
5. Another seller was a victim of a grievance.
6. Setting up multiple seller accounts
7. Insufficient logistics or a late delivery
8. Performance of sellers is not satisfactory
9. Poor customer service
10. Selling items that are old as brand new

These causes are due to the non-compliance in Amazon’s Seller Code of Conduct. If you’ve not read it, you should get started right now.

In some rare cases it is possible to be removed and suspended from Amazon Marketplace even if you’ve not committed any of the crimes mentioned above. How? It’s through the nefarious methods employed by counterfeiters and hijackers.

How does being a victim of listing hijacking and counterfeiting get you suspended?

Nothing is more depressing than receiving a letter of suspension from Amazon. Your hard work is put to waste due to the actions of someone else. Let’s discover the nature of Amazon listing hijacking and how it’s associated with counterfeiting.

You could be an individual selling private label products with an inventory of your own, and you’re packaging. But the product is manufactured by either a manufacturer or a source. 

You then put your own label on the item and then create your own Amazon page for the product, thus the name private label. The fact that any seller from a third party could also gain access to your generic product leaves it susceptible to being hacked by thieves.

A hacker could take your listing and utilize it to sell the same product you sell (or an imitation of it) with a lower cost. At some point, you may be unable to access the Buy Box because the hijacker’s cost is higher than the one you have. The loss of Buy Box Buy Box also means losing sales.

Amazon brand protection tools

You can stay clear of these unfortunate circumstances by securing your brand from the start. Amazon continually creates solutions to protect brands like Brand Registry, Project Zero and Transparency since they are aware of how fierce competition is on their platform.

Amazon Brand Registry

According to the report that was published, the purpose of Amazon brand protection service is to resolve the many lawsuits that brands receive complaining about the high number of counterfeit goods sold on the website.

Who is eligible to enroll?

Amazon Brand Registry can be accessible for private label vendors; sellers who manufacture their own products or develop branded white-label products, traditional distributors and manufacturers who control their own brand’s content with Amazon’s consent.

Benefits

• You are able to have the sole ownership for your Buy Box.
• You can control the specifics of your listing for your product including your title and description and the images.
• Your brand name and listing of products are accurately depicted on Amazon.
• You can track and report sellers from third parties who use your brand’s name in a fraudulent manner and products.
• Your brand can be protected from shipping logistics.
• It is possible to market your product by using ads that are sponsored.
• You can access the A+ Content.

Requirements

1. Trademarked brand name
2. Intellectual Property Office trademark registration number
3. The list of product categories
4. List of countries where you can produce as well as distribute products from your company.
5. Images of your brand’s logo
6. Images of your product and packaging with trademarked brand names

Typically, you must wait for at least a year before you can get an official trademark. Amazon has recognized this issue and has therefore developed a program dubbed IP Accelerator. IP Accelerator.

Through this program, Amazon provides sellers with reliable IP attorneys who can quickly get IP rights or trademarks that are registered. Additionally, it provides an active brand security and brand building tools while you wait for a trademark. This means you can be a part of the Brand Registry even if you do not have a trademark.

Amazon Transparency

It uses an algorithm that prevents counterfeit items from being delivered from Amazon’s Amazon Fulfillment Center (FC). Once it is at the doorstep of your customer, Amazon will scan this code to verify that it’s genuine, thereby getting rid of the counterfeit item and avoiding negative customer reviews.

Who is eligible to enroll?

Anyone is eligible to join provided they apply specific Transparency codes to their products.

Benefits

• It prevents counterfeit goods from getting to your customers.
• Customers are able to scan the code by themselves with the Transparency application.
• With the application, users can report fraud by pressing the “Contact Us” button.

Requirements

• You may provide evidence that you own your product.
• Your items have an International Trade Item Number.
• You can put Transparency codes on each item you produce.
• If you wish for your devices to be pre-scanned into FCs then you must be a part of Fulfillment by Amazon.

Imagine the amount of security you will receive by enrolling into these 3 Amazon protection plans. But what is the price?

Brand Registry and Project Zero are both free to join and utilize. In the case of IP Accelerator, which is the IP Accelerator program, joining is completely free, except for working with Amazon’s certified IP lawyers. IP Accelerator is available in three pre-negotiated packages. In addition, Amazon makes no mention of any fees for Transparency.

Key takeaways

Being an Amazon seller, you need to take care to exercise due diligence. Consider other ways on how you can protect your business’s image on Amazon by performing manual checks on your listing pages , and then browsing the review section looking for fake complaints.

Nobody is more familiar with your brand than you. While Amazon brands protection services protect your listings and brand, take note that listing hijackers and counterfeiters are always innovating. They’ll do anything to stop your progress, and even steal the hard work you put into it.

Read More : Optimizing Listings: The Backbone of Amazon Optimization Services