Your brand is your most precious asset, which is why you’ll want to find out about brand gating on Amazon.
Amazon brand gating helps your business prevent unauthorized resellers from using your name to sell knock-off versions of your products. Instead, resellers must provide proof that they’re licensed resellers, like through an invoice and written permission from your brand.
If you’re curious about learning more about brand gating on Amazon, keep reading to learn:
What is Amazon brand gating?
Amazon brand gating, sometimes called Amazon Brand Gating, is an Amazon Brand Registry program that helps your business prevent unauthorized resellers from selling your product or a knock-off version that uses your brand’s name on Amazon.
How does brand gating on Amazon work?
Brand gating on Amazon requires resellers or third-party sellers to prove you’ve permitted them to sell your product. The program uses Amazon Standard Identification Numbers (ASINs) linked to your product catalog and your product listings on Amazon to work out if a seller must provide proof.
Typically, third-party sellers and resellers will receive a notification when trying to use your ASIN. With this setup, Amazon takes a proactive approach by preventing unauthorized sellers from creating an inventory, which they have to try to to to form money off your brand.
Resellers and third-party sellers can gain authorization by providing the following:
- Manufacturer invoice from the last 90 days
- Written permission from your brand to sell your products
They must also pay a non-refundable fee of $1500, which goes to your brand.
What brands like about brand gating on Amazon is that Amazon does the rest of the work after you’ve applied. You don’t have to check for listing hijackers or product knock-offs constantly. Instead, you can count on brand gating to protect your business.
Why use brand gating on Amazon?
Brand gating on Amazon is beneficial for a few reasons, including:
Stop your brand’s counterfeit sellers automatically
In 2020 alone, Amazon seized quite two million counterfeit products sent to Amazon warehouses. Amazon now focuses on taking a more aggressive approach to stop counterfeit listings, which is why the corporate invested in brand gating.
With brand gating, your business can stop counterfeit sellers automatically using your product ASIN.
That’s an incredible advantage because you’ve got a proactive (and automatic) system in situ that protects your business from knock-off product sellers. Plus, you save time, which provides you the prospect to specialize in other ways to drive sales, like through program optimization (SEO).
Increase your Amazon sales
You’ll always have competitors, but counterfeit sellers are a separate issue. They take legitimate sales from your brand that you’ve earned through your marketing efforts. Someone has chosen your business and your products but purchased from an unauthorized seller.
With brand gating on Amazon, you can fight back against counterfeit sellers.
The program prevents these sellers from even listing your product (or their knock-off version), which helps your company capture more sales from the marketplace because you’ve eliminated a source of lost sales.
Protect your brand’s value
Counterfeit products are rarely equal to the original.
Shoppers who purchase a knock-off product, but don’t realize it, will associate their experience with your brand. When someone mentions your brand or asks for a recommendation related to your product, that shopper won’t recommend you.
Instead, they’ll share their product experience, which will push people from your brand.
That all-too-common scenario can cause significant damage to your brand. Whether through in-person or online interactions, word-of-mouth is extremely effective at persuading someone to make a purchase or look elsewhere.
With Amazon brand gating, you can help people find, purchase, and experience your product. The result? People share real, authentic experiences with your product, which you can use as a trust signal or resource for your design and development team.
