Is It Safe To Sell On Amazon?  How You Can Protect Yourself From Bad Competitors

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Life as we know it can be unfair. We gave up trying to make sense of that after some unfortunate things happened to us. That does not mean that bad things happen to us because it just happens. Sometimes, bad things happen because of somebody. 

This can be the case on Amazon. 

Like crabs trying to pull you down if they think you are above them, some competitors won’t stop until you’re pulled down the food chain. This means getting your account suspended at all costs. If you don’t believe that this could happen to you, simply go to the amazon forum and you’ll read some stories of accounts suspended. No matter how strong their brand is. 

Of course, this does not mean that you cannot fight back or appeal. But with thousands of support tickets created daily, what are your chances?

Maybe there’s a resolution in trying to spam Amazon on all of their social media channels and raising your questions. Or you can use the often mentioned method of emailing Jeff himself.  Again, what are the chances?

Knowing the blackhat tactics that your competitors do will help you see danger ahead of time before it even starts. Who wants all that hardship that it takes to build a valuable Amazon brand only to have it burned to the ground? No one.

So keep your defenses up, these are the bad tactics your competitors might do to take you out of the competition:

The flooding of positive reviews

Amazon’s war on reviews is longstanding. When people with ill intentions try to flood a product with numerous negative reviews, Amazon’s justice is quick to take effect.

But the war does not stop there. When unscrupulous competitors are determined more than ever to dominate sales, they had to improvise. This time, flooding a product with positive reviews that are not even related to the product. 

This is still seen as a manipulation of reviews. That’s why if you recount the story of Zac Plansky who ran a multi-million dollar company on Amazon, you will know that it is a pretty serious deal. 

There is no clear line of defense on this but to report an entire listing to amazon’s support. They will then take a look at the reviews in question and see if they could be removed. You just have to be quick in taking action on your suspicions if you get flooded with these positive reviews.

Evil competitors buying tons of your products

Clearly, at this point, there is no stopping these competitors from trying to smear your brand. Another way that they could launch an attack on your brand is to buy tons of your products over and over again. 

Once they do this, they will eventually report your product as defective or counterfeit. This is a painful jab and the only defense you have is to provide Amazon with supplier invoices. The verification process of the invoices you sent will be a long and painful process but it is the best defense. 

Cloning your entire products

If buying products was not enough, how about copying your products intentionally? With not even the shame of trying to improvise something on your product, counterfeiters have challenged the system by creating fake products.

Of course, these knock-offs can be quite cheap, and since there really is no major difference, sales are now siphoned to these counterfeiters. 

How do you take care of this situation? The best method to defend this is to create a strong brand that is trademarked and then getting your product on the brand registry.  You can also do a test buy from these stores trying to put you out of business. Once you confirm that these products are indeed a copy-cat, send them to Amazon to confirm the legitimacy. Be warned though that like other decision-making, Amazon might take time to suspend the fake account. 

In the meantime, it means that you must wait and a few negative reviews may come your way. At least, it is not suspending your account!

Compromising your Amazon account

Persistent bad actors also have skills, in fact without persistence, how long can they try and do the above-mentioned tactics?

This is why some of them have resorted to hacking your account. It is pretty hard to take down Amazon’s login defenses considering there are many things to consider. A complex password can always help with that. 

Once this hack has been executed, they will try and change your listing and post some unflattering photos just to scare the buyers. On the other hand, if they are capable, they can just completely take over. 

However, it might be the panic of your life once your money has been drained and the hacker’s bank is still in your account!

When this happens, it might be time to lawyer up as many have been successful in recouping account hacks when brought upon by legal teams. 

The claims that your product is hazardous

You know what rings the Amazon ‘action bell’ more than anything? Safety risks! This method of bad actors trying to grind you down is quite similar to buying tons of products for bad counterfeit claims. 

The only difference with buying a product with this bad tactic is that the bad actors stage a fire hazard from your product. It seems like all of these people took a photography course for the kind of fire they can capture.

While it is both laughable and unbelievable, this can happen and has happened to many sellers. This happens to sellers who are selling electronics as it’s quite a believable story to say because of short-circuiting.

In Retrospect:

Amazon’s press releases are always the same: there is a team of both internal and external teams reviewing and enforcing suspensions and manipulation of the system. While there are success stories of getting Amazon to take action, some are still trying. 

Things like this call for an experienced seller that can guide you in the right direction.  Navigating the Amazon mayhem alone is your choice but doing it alone can have consequences that might lead to miserable experiences. 

If you do not have any idea, researching will do you some good. If you want to focus your time on something important, try getting some help. 

VDM Partners has been helping several brands to take care of their Seller Central account and helping them grow their business. Schedule a call and we will be happy to discuss how you can avoid these attacks on your brand. 

 

What is MAP and How Can It Protect My Brand On Amazon?

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As a brand owner selling on Amazon one of the most important tactics of brand protection is implementing a MAP policy for your branded products.  Unfortunately, very few brands know about this tactic and fewer actually use it.  To give this topic formal clarity, MAP or Minimum Advertised Pricing is the lowest price a brand owner can allow its retailers to sell a product. 

 

If you have been dealing with third-party sellers on Amazon, you will know that enforcing a MAP policy is not as easy as simply telling them. Execution is always hard. Among the top reasons why it is challenging is you have to monitor these sellers when they try to dip the prices of your products in an effort to win the buy box and be the top seller of the product. 

 

And who has the time?

 

If you are a brand owner, monitoring other sellers can be a big inconvenience. There is only so much you can do to police these sellers. The hardest part is, Amazon will never help you monitor MAP violators. 

 

As you discover that Amazon doesn’t much care, you will scratch your head to know that you can either pay somebody to monitor MAP violators or add another expense to get software to alert you. 

 

Now, do you just simply quit enforcing MAP policy because it is too hard? 

 

Well, you might need to rethink that after you realize that not enforcing MAP will only cost you much more than braving the obstacles that come your way by executing it. 

 

So what are the terrible consequences of not enforcing MAP to your Amazon sellers:

 

  1. Your retail partners who have brick-and-mortar stores will slowly notice the decline of buyers. Simply put, why will people buy from these physical stores that ask customers to walk or travel more if they can get the same exact product from Amazon, delivered and at a lower price?

 

      2. Once your brick-and-mortar partners slowly notice that the Amazon sellers are stealing their customers, they will begin to remove your products from their shelves. At this point, there’s no sense in storing your products.

 

      3. Without brick and mortar stores to get your products, the only channel to distribute your products will be online or on Amazon. 

 

     4. You are now simply an online wholesaler and you will start to notice that many third-party sellers are wanting to sell your products on the same platform.

 

     5. Granting more third-party sellers on Amazon without them following a set of guidelines will never lead to more sales, it will only lead to the same amount of sales divided into all these sellers.  Eventually, the interest in sellers selling your product will wane.  

 

    6. Over time, the value of the brand will be devalued and concentrated to only one or two platforms, which further inhibits the brand’s recognition and potential.  

 

Now what? Do you avoid third-party sellers entirely?

 

Not exactly. There is wealth in having a limited amount of trusted third-party sellers to distribute your products. And if you select the right sellers, all of you will grow to prosper. 

 

Here’s how to get your MAP policy enforced and followed by your sellers:

 

Create and Write MAP Policy Rules in Black and White

 

A written agreement on MAP policy that is justified for both parties, the seller and the brand owner, is the very first step. You see, nothing beats anything that is in writing before bringing in your third-party sellers. 

 

The creation of MAP policies can be as simple or as complicated as a brand owner would like to make it.  Much of this depends on the size and reach of the brand.  However, the basic necessities of a MAP policy are the following:  Effective date.  To whom it applies.  The definition of the MAP.  To which retail platforms it applies.  Who monitors and makes the decisions about MAP.  And the consequences if MAP is broken.  

 

With writing MAP policy rules, you also need to be clear about what kind of consequences await those who violate these rules. It does very little good to have these policies but then never enforce them.  

 

Make it Serious, Enforce the MAP Policy, and Show no Exceptions

 

As mentioned earlier in this article, Map Policy execution is not easy for busy brand owners. However, the importance of it can not be understated.   

 

For one, if you find a violator who did not take you seriously, make an example and give the appropriate consequence of their action. Make it known to your other sellers that you take your MAP policy seriously and there will be consequences to anyone who violates it. 

Serial Numbers might be Your Best Friend

 

Serial numbers can be your best friend and for a very good reason. You see serial numbers track everything and give you clarity on where the leak is coming from. This is true especially when an unauthorized seller pops out of nowhere. 

 

Give yourself a chance to do a test buy through an unauthorized seller. Once you get the product, track the serial number from where it is shipped off. This helps you better understand exactly who the unauthorized sellers are.  

 

Offer Manufacturer Warranty on Products Sold by Authorized Sellers

 

‘Material Difference’ in legal terms is an infringement on the brand owner’s original product. An example of a good material difference that can be defended, even by Amazon, is the manufacturer’s warranty. 

 

You see the manufacturer’s warranty on products sold by authorized sellers over products with no warranty through unauthorized sellers is heavily encouraged by trademark lawyers. You are best to follow this advice and list your authorized sellers on your website. If anyone violates, you can definitely send them a cease and desist letter and everything that follows after that. 

 

Brand-gating could be an option

 

There are a whole lot of steps to follow if you want your product to be gated on Amazon. The four important steps are:

 

  1. Getting your brand registered as a trademark in a country where you want to sell your product.

 

       2. Enrolling in the Amazon brand registry.

 

       3. Contact Amazon and submit a list of your most important and/or most counterfeited ASINs (Amazon Standard            Identification Number) to Amazon

 

      4. Inform Amazon of the resellers you authorized to sell your brand.

 

Another layer of protection that Amazon has recently released is the Transparency Program.  This is another item-level tracing service that places a unique transparency label on each of the products.  This allows only the correct products to be sold by authorized retailers and it protects the brand’s exposure to counterfeits.  This is a service that Amazon offers only for brand registered products.   

 

Get One of Your Resellers to Monitor MAP and Report it to You.

 

As you build relationships with your resellers and retain a strong foundation of doing business, you can ask a trusted reseller to monitor MAP for you. Regardless, some of your sellers would even do it for you without asking because it is not only good for the brand, it is good for the resellers also.  

 

VDM Partners has always been committed to brands that we sell.  Having our own brand that we monitor ourselves, we understand the importance of brand protection.  And we not only commit to improving the Amazon listing and the rank of your products, but we also can be your MAP police in order to enforce MAP for other sellers. Our goal is not only to have our partners get as many sales as possible but also to help in building a world-class brand that is respected across all selling platforms.  Aiding in implementing a MAP policy and policing that is just one level of service we can offer your brand today.  

 

How Can My Brand Generate More Sales on Amazon?

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We have all been there one way or another when we signed up for an Amazon seller central account. We have the right motivation. We want to sell products on Amazon. We want people to buy it. And in the long run, hopefully, our earnings will be enough to expand to our other life endeavors. 

 

It should be that simple, right?

 

Unfortunately, like all other things in life, simplicity packs complexity. One of the oh so simple things can be selling on Amazon. But you don’t just get a space to sell your products. It can also involve taking all the will out of you just to sell one product.

 

Let’s face it. We once expected to sell a product the minute we put the listing out. But we didn’t and now, we try to scramble through the tips and tricks on how we could make our product the next bestseller on Amazon. 

 

But first, let’s take a breath. Let’s understand that selling products is a journey. Top-selling products aren’t born overnight. They are made, tested, and reviewed thoroughly. 

 

The thing about our product listing is, it can always get some love. There is always room for improvements and sometimes, these tweaks make all the difference that reflects with our sales. 

 

Below are some helpful tips and tricks you can adjust when selling your product on Amazon. You can apply these changes and see what happens to your sales and customer feedback. We will definitely start with something simple, so you can always take this advice with a grain of salt.

 

Your Listing Needs Some Serious Copywriting

 

No matter what you believe, you need some good copywriting. It’s not just because you are dealing with words, or you know the ingredients of the product but because your customers need to know what’s in it for them. 

 

They don’t need to completely hear why the coffee was coarse ground or fine ground. They need to know what’s in it for them whether it’s coarse, medium, or fine. Does it have something to do with their coffee brewer? Imagine that your customers own one of these things.  What coffee grind is best for pour-over, coffee maker, or french press?

 

When you are writing copy, always think of your customers and what they are like. Write as if you are talking to them. And most importantly, if you still can’t get the point of good copywriting, you must highlight the product’s benefits. 

 

If you cannot write copy for yourself, you can always hire somebody else to do it for you. In fact, a copywriter will not have to come up with a lot of material to form a product listing. They can always refer to the products’ descriptions.

 

Write it like your customer can’t live without it.

Rank with keywords, especially long-tail keywords

 

Now that we accept the importance of copywriting, it’s time to reintroduce ourselves to keyword research. You can say that keyword research is the other side of the copywriting coin. We need keyword research as much as writing a copywriting that persuades our customers into buying. 

 

How to properly do keyword research, you might ask? A simple and quick way to do it is to go to Amazon.com itself and type in what your customers will normally use to search for your product. As you may know, the Amazon search bar already gives us several keyword suggestions. 

 

It is no accident that these keywords are showing. This only means that these keywords are what customers normally search for. If you are not using these keywords for your product listing, then you are seriously missing out!

 

On the other hand, if you are not also using long-tail keywords, then read further as it can be a gold mine of customer traffic. 

 

Long-tail keywords are very specific keywords. Instead of leaning on very generalized keywords, digital marketers use a long-tail keywords approach to target customers with specific needs. You can read more about this on the link above. 

 

So how do long-tail keywords affect Amazon searches? As you know customers nowadays do not just use the search bar, to say, look for coffee. They often type in ‘coffee bean medium grind’ or ‘3-in-1 coffee latte.” Sure, there are customers who will mindlessly search for ‘coffee’ but how much are you losing if you are not targeting the customers who know what they want?

 

To look for long-tail keywords, you can simply repeat the method above or utilize some Amazon-specialized apps like Helium10 or Jungle Scout. 

 

The pricing of your product must be competitive

 

Here’s where dirty tactics are going on. If you can afford to be a lousy competitor who wants to take down other sellers, then by all means, you should stop right now. However, if you want to know how to utilize pricing to be competitive instead of just doing black hat tips that’ll get you banned, stick around. 

 

We all know that pricing is everything. It is one of the main decision factors why a customer decides to check out your product. It is also why Amazon often puts sellers who have low prices on the buy box. 

 

So where do you stand when it comes to lowering your price? This is the tricky part. Lower your price to the bottom and you lose in revenue even if customers want to buy all your products. On the other hand, try and make it higher and you’ll watch your competitors rack up the sales all on their own. 

 

If you are selling a product that stands out (more reviews, special attributes, etc) a premium price may be warranted.  However, most of the time we will need to adjust the price and then track your sales rank as we look to be competitive with other sellers.  

 

Run PPC campaigns and beat them at their game

 

Here we are in the ads game where all is fair if you have a budget and good search terms. Advertising can be a strategy to be used to get in front of more buyers, get more sales and therefore, improve your rank, which gets even more sales.  

 

Similar to Google, Amazon wants you to check for products that were paid to be promoted. Because of this, many new product listings are in the sponsored area pushing above organic searches to get more clicks and eventually, sales. 

 

Amazon sellers think that when you have money to burn, it’s easy to run PPC campaigns. This is definitely wrong on so many levels. 

 

Sure, having an ample amount of PPC budget gets you ahead. However, mismanaging your money for PPC campaigns is equally devastating and will put you at a disadvantage. 

 

This is where tracking needs to be emphasized. Simply running PPC will not do you any good. You have to see what search terms you should put your budget more on and what search terms you should discard. 

 

Getting the Advertising Cost of Sale (ACOS) gives you a clearer picture of how you are doing when it comes to sales and advertising.

Give your customers offers they can’t resist


Deals are a few motivations here on the Amazon jungle!

This is not just because your competitors are doing it but because it is a common human instinct to go for something that presents an opportunity to save a couple of dollars. It is also why customers would rather go for FBA sellers that offer free shipping than merchant-fulfilled shipping that could add extra costs. 

Get that product for a lightning deal for your product, set up a buy one get one free discount, or offer a social media promo code to let your customers feel more ‘exclusive’ than the rest of the buyers!

 

These deals can become shiny promotions on your products without even trying so hard. Promotions are always used to get high velocity on your sales. Do it right and you might not believe what happens next when you log in to your seller central and see your sales trend. 

 

You can check a complete list of Amazon promotions and how you can do them here.

CONCLUSION

 

In retrospect, the most common mistake rookie Amazon sellers make is believing there is a shortcut for your product to sell. We are inevitably selling products that demand marketing ideas. And the peak marketing advice from us who have been doing this for quite some time, is it is all about testing. 

 

Product copy and listing are changed every now and then, split testing when it comes to title variations and bullet point changes, photos are taken to reflect customers’ needs or a routine in different promotions. All of these are trials and errors we take to get to where we are now. 

 

One final piece of advice is not to give up. There may be tips and tricks, but there is no shortcut.