Tracking unauthorized sellers is difficult task for brands. Unauthorized sellers are offering low-quality products without customer service and other advantages that go along with authorized sales. While the authorized sellers are easier to control, the unauthorized sellers can be a real problem. Gray market selling has been made easier than ever by marketplaces and e-commerce platforms. These unauthorized sellers can purchase their goods online from an authorized distributor in one country, and sell them online elsewhere.

These unauthorized sellers can cause many problems for brands, bringing chaos to the market and misrepresent the brand if not handled right away. The reason for this is that many times these sellers don't comply with company quality controls and buyers are receiving low-quality items can express their dissatisfaction by providing negative product reviews. If you do not have a comprehensive brand control plan in place these unauthorized sellers can hurt you brands reputation, damage margins and strain relationships with large retailers. One option for manufacturers is the set up a warranty clause that states that customers that purchase from unauthorized sellers are not eligible for the warranty. However, the best way to stop unauthorized sellers is to create a MAP Policy

What is A MAP Policy

A Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) policy is a policy or condition that dictates the absolute cheapest price a distributor or retailer can advertise a product for outside of the store. Having a MAP policy is the best way for companies to protect their brand online. A MAP policy is created by a brand to make certain their sellers don't advertise their products below a certain price.  This policy helps to protect your brands price position and margins while preventing other resellers from undercutting sales based on price. But, It is important to note that a MAP policy does not establish an exact price that a reseller can sell a manufacturers product, it keeps resellers from dropping the prices below a certain level.

Here are three steps you can deploy to address unauthorized sellers  

1. Sign up for Amazon Brand Registry.

One options to prevent unauthorized resellers offering your products on Amazon is to establish your company or a trusted resale partner as the official “brand owner” on Amazon by signing up for Amazon Brand Registry.

By establishing yourself as brand owner on Amazon, you will enjoy additional protections for your brand across the marketplace which  includes increased systems to stop unauthorized sellers from creating listings, enhanced monitoring and enforcement tools Amazon's platform itself to give you a better chance of spotting these rogue sellers.

2. Apply to become a Restricted Brand on Amazon.

Restricted Brand on Amazon are put on a list that limits who can offer your products on Amazon ecosystem.  The Brands that are typically on this list are those in categories deemed extremely susceptible to counterfeiting like as luxury apparel brands, high-end handbags, and consumer electronics. Getting accepted onto this Restricted Brand list does require effort, but if accepted Amazon will be more aggressive in preventing sellers from creating listings of your products (accept for those retail partners you allow).There can be a downside to this approach as some manufacturer can sometimes go too far making it difficult for retail partners to sell thier products on Amazon.

These sellers often complain that their listings from manufacturer's that they are in good standing with are prohibited from showing on Amazon. The key takeaway here is unless if you are concerned about counterfeiters tempting customers with limitations of your products, you might want to stay away from the Restricted Brand approach.

3. Set up an automated brand protection

One of the most cost effective options is to utilize a price tracking brand protection software specifically geared toward targeting unauthorized sellers. This kind of software can monitor your brand's presence not only on Amazon but on multiple sales channels and will help you track and identify unauthorized sellers who are hurting your brand.

Although it's not Amazon's policy to assist you in removing your product listings just because you believe a retailer does not have your authorization to sell them, the good news is - there are several ways that an unauthorized seller might be in violation of Amazon's guidelines. If you can prove this the Amazon will be much more likely to help you remove these listing from their marketplace.