As of 2021, Amazon has 1.5 million active sellers (and over 6 million total), so the ever-growing number of sellers on the marketplace makes it a competitive platform. If you are the manufacturer or owner of your brand, and you want to sell on Amazon, how can you make sure that your brand is protected from copyright infringements and counterfeit products?
Amazon’s answer is the Amazon Brand Registry. If you are a manufacturer, private label brand owner, distributor, or reseller, you can register.
However, if you are a distributor or reseller, you need a licensed trademark and written permission from the owner of the brand stating that you are allowed to manage their product detail pages on Amazon. The brand or trademark owner has the authority to grant permission to a reseller.
The Pros of Amazon Brand Registry
Amazon Brand Registry is free to use. Once your brand is enrolled, you’ll have access to more reporting tools. These tools can be used to search for counterfeit products, copyright, and intellectual property violations. Once you find them, you can submit a support case directly through the Brand Registry portal, where a dedicated Brand Registry support representative will investigate the case.
You also gain access to more advanced A+ Content, Brand Analytics, Amazon Stores, and Amazon Live. All of these tools can help you increase your customer engagement.
Being able to build an Amazon Brand Store, in particular, is beneficial for telling your brand story, building customer engagement, trust, and loyalty, as well as being able to create pages and sub-navigation in your store to organize and categorize your products the way you want.
Another pro to Amazon Brand Registry is that when you create or edit a listing, your content, such as titles, descriptions, images, and bullet points, gets priority over other third-party sellers that may also have a sales offer on your product. This can ensure that the customer-facing product information is accurate. It’s also helpful when you’re creating listings of products that do not have UPCs, GTINs, or EANs. However, if you need a GTIN exemption, this must be applied for in Seller Central.
The Cons of Amazon Brand Registry
While the enrollment process for Amazon Brand Registry typically takes two weeks, there are dependencies that can make the process longer.
You need to have a trademark registered with the associated government you conduct business in. For example, in the United States, you must have a registered trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. If you do not have a registered trademark, you will need to apply for one. This process can take up to a year in some cases.
If you have a pending trademark, you can use Amazon’s IP Accelerator service, which does have an additional cost.
You must also have a website off of Amazon so that the Brand Registry team can find your brand online. If you don’t have a website for your brand, you must create one.
You may need to change your packaging if your brand name is not on the box it’s sold in. This will increase your per-unit cost if you have not done this since the beginning of your product, but it will serve you well in the long run.
The Bottom Line
If you want to have complete ownership of your branded products on Amazon, or if you are an authorized reseller with exclusive rights to a brand, the pros outweigh the cons. You gain access to tools to protect your copyrights and intellectual property and keep counterfeiters from putting fraudulent products on your listings. You also get to create your own brand store on Amazon, which gives you more options to showcase your products and engage with your customers.
