With roughly 50% of e-commerce spending occurring on Amazon and 63% of US households holding a Prime membership, success in e-commerce hinges on your ability to win on the platform. And it’s only growing bigger.Your Amazon strategy must involve more than good product listings (which are vital, but not enough on their own). You also have to take control of your brand and protect against unauthorized sellers and counterfeiters. You need a solid brand protection strategy. Enter Amazon Brand Registry – your key to taking greater control over your brand and your product listings. In this article, we’ll go over all you need to know about Amazon Brand Registry, including:

• What is Amazon Brand Registry?
• Benefits of Amazon Brand Registry
• Amazon Brand Registry requirements
• How to enroll in Amazon Brand Registry
• How much does Amazon Brand Registry cost?
• How to build brand value and boost profitability with Brand Registry

What Is Amazon Brand Registry?

Amazon Brand Registry is a tool that helps brands maintain a consistent and accurate experience for shoppers visiting their brand. Amazon revamped Brand Registry in 2017 and now provides tools to help you protect private trademarks, remedy counterfeit problems, stop unauthorized resellers, and control what content third-party sellers can (and more importantly, cannot) manipulate. For example, you can identify suspicious activity and violations by searching for content using ASINs, keywords, or even images. If you discover a violation, you can then report it to Amazon. On Amazon’s end, they can use information about your brand to proactively protect it from inaccurate content and possible infringement. Amazon Brand Registry should have a valuable place in your brand strategy on Amazon. The tool enables you to protect your private label brand, which legitimizes your company in the eyes of shoppers. Building a better reputation will help you win the trust of Amazon shoppers, creating  an edge over competition that lacks such protections.

Why Brand Registry Is a Good Thing

Counterfeit issues on Amazon have been documented by the likes of The Washington Post and The Atlantic. But brand protection is about more than just fake products; businesses also suffer due to unauthorized sellers and MAP violations (minimum advertised price).The reality is that, on such a large site, monitoring every seller can get difficult. Fortunately, with the release of Amazon Brand Registry 2.0 and new features like Transparency and Project Zero (more on this below), Amazon has taken tremendous strides in reducing intellectual property abuses on their site. This is important. After all, if a customer receives a fake product, that reflects poorly on your brand. If a shopper finds a reseller with a lower price than you, that may not sit well with your customers (and it’s money out of your pocket). Such situations can decrease your revenue, lead to bad reviews on your brand’s listings pages and ultimately hurt your brand’s reputation and success on Amazon. Brand Registry gives you the resources and tools to eliminate these risks.

Amazon Brand Registry Benefits

More than 350,000 brands are part of this program and, to date, those brands have reported 99% fewer suspected violations than they did before this tool existed. That translates to tangible benefits. Here’s an overview of the main Amazon Brand Registry benefits:

1. More Accurate Representation of the Brand

Using Amazon Brand Registry, you get more control over your name and what is associated with it. Brands that participate in this program are able to make certain what shoppers are seeing is correctly representing their brand. Take a look at how Craft, a performance sportswear company, is more accurately represented through the Brand Registry.

2. Strong Report and Search Tools

This program makes it much easier to find potential violations. Brands can search through the content of many different Amazon stores from one screen. They can search by their images or logos, do a bulk ASIN search to locate possible infringement, and also look at popularity by sorting average customer ratings. Once a brand is done searching, Brand Registry walks them through a guided process to report possible violations. Amazon will then review and act appropriately. What’s nice is that Amazon’s brand protection team is global and operates 24/7. If you encounter an urgent issue on the weekend or over a holiday, such as an unauthorized reseller pricing your products too low, they’ll help you take action to minimize the damage and stop the unauthorized reseller from trying that again.

3. More Brand Protection Tools

Amazon will actually take information you provide about your brand and put into place additional protections in an effort to find and remove bad listings. The more information you give them, the better they are able to help protect your brand. They will look for things like incorrect use of your trademarked images, terms, or logos, and listings made under your brand name that are not actually affiliated with the brand. They also look to identify sellers that are shipping your brand’s products from countries that you do not manufacture or distribute in.Additionally, Amazon offers vendors and sellers access to advanced brand protection tools through the Brand Registry. These include:

• Transparency: This tool stops counterfeit products by identifying them and then preventing sale and shipment. This improves your brand’s transparency with consumers, boosts trust with your customers and facilitates more accurate reviews.
• Amazon Project Zero: Project Zero has automated protection capabilities and can serve as a self-service tool for removing counterfeit products. This tool also scans products’ unique codes to stop counterfeits.
• IP Accelerator: This program helps brands in the early stages of their product life cycles obtain intellectual property protections more efficiently. Since getting trademark approval can take a long time (even a year or more), IP Accelerator is a very useful option if you don’t have a trademark yet. Through the IP Accelerator, you can get approved for Brand Registry while awaiting trademark approval.

4. Enhanced Features to Help Your Brand

Using Amazon Brand Registry, you have access to tools such as A+ Content (formerly enhanced brand content), brand stores, sponsored brand ads, and the brand dashboard. This can lead to higher conversion rates and better return on ad spend (RoAS).

5. Improved Brand Value

Think about this: 40% of customers who buy a fake product complain directly to the brand, according to a market research study. Even though that brand didn’t sell them that fake product, the fact that counterfeiters are out there can drive potential long-term customers away.  Brand Registry helps put a stop to this problem. The ability to proactively stop unauthorized sellers, counterfeiters and inaccurate content or representations of your brand pays long-term dividends for your company. Most importantly, you build trust with your customers by ensuring they only ever encounter authentic, high-quality products. Over time, your brand will reap the benefits by having more loyal customers.

What are the Amazon Brand Registry Requirements?

The first question sellers ask is this: “Do you need a trademark for Amazon Brand Registry?”The answer is yes. You need a trademark for Amazon Brand Registry. We’ll talk about that more below. To qualify for Amazon Brand Registry, you must meet all of the following requirements:

1. You must manufacture or sell your own branded goods. You can’t be a random reseller.
2. You must have an Amazon account, which can be an existing one, that has its credentials associated with Seller or Vendor Central. You use the same login credentials.
3. You must be able to verify yourself as the authorized user or rights owner for your trademark. Trademark owners must submit the Amazon Brand Registry application. Even if you have an authorized Amazon agency such as Amify handling your Brand Registry, you must still do the initial registration as the trademark owner. (You can add the agency as an additional authorized user later).
4. You must have an active registered trademark. The trademark can be text-based (word mark) or image-based with words, letters or numbers (design mark). Look at Amazon’s example below:

5. You must register that trademark in each country or jurisdiction where you wish to have Brand Registry. Amazon also accepts trademarks registered with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and European Union Intellectual Property (EUIPO). Note: Amazon only accepts trademarks from government trademark offices of the countries listed below. See the links for country-specific details:

• United States
• Australia
• Brazil
• Canada
• European Union
• France
• Germany
• India
• Italy
• Netherlands
• Japan
• Mexico
• Saudi Arabia
• Singapore
• Spain
• Turkey
• United Arab Emirates
• United Kingdom

Now that you know about the Amazon Brand Registry requirements, let’s go over how to get Brand Registry on Amazon.

How to Apply for Brand Registry on Amazon

You must meet all of the Amazon Brand Registry requirements. The trademark will probably be the most time-consuming first step if you don’t have one already. Once you’ve met the requirements, learn how to get Brand Registry on Amazon. Follow these steps:

1. Gather all the necessary information:
3. Your brand name with the active registered trademark
4. Your trademark registration number as given by the Intellectual Property office
6. A list of your brand’s product categories (Home & Kitchen, Office Products, etc.)
8. A list of countries where you manufacture and distribute products

5. Once you have all documentation, go to the Amazon Brand Registry login page. Note that your Amazon Brand Registry login credentials are the same as your Vendor or Seller Central credentials. 6. After signing in, you’ll need to submit all the information you’ve gathered: brand name, trademark info, list of categories, and manufacturing or distribution location. Note the trademark information you provide must match exactly what’s registered in the government trademark database. 7. Once finished, Amazon will verify that you own the trademark. If you meet the requirements, you can begin using Amazon Brand Registry’s features.

Does Amazon Brand Registry Cost Anything?

With all the Amazon Brand Registry benefits, you may wonder, “How much does Amazon Brand Registry cost?”To actually enroll in Amazon Brand registry, the cost is zero. You don’t have to pay a cent!However, filling out the Brand Registry application requires time. And if you haven’t registered a trademark yet, you will have to pay for that. Fees range from $225-$400 or more. For example, U.S. trademark fees begin at $225, with costs varying based on the class of goods and services.So, does Amazon Brand Registry cost anything? Getting on Brand Registry doesn’t cost money, but meeting the initial requirements will involve you spending some money and resources.

How to Build Brand Value and Boost Profitability with Brand Registry

We’ve discussed the benefits of Amazon Brand Registry. Now, let’s discuss how to actually build brand value on Amazon and boost profitability through this program. First, you have to know what Brand Registry can do. Through Brand Registry, you can optimize the process of discovering potential infringement by performing the following:

• Global Searches: On one screen, you can search quickly for content across different Amazon stores
• Image Search: Quickly find listings using your product images or logos
• Bulk ASIN Search: Search all your product ASINs or URLs at once so that you can find potential infringements fast

Second, understand that the more you use Brand Registry, the more you get out of it. Amazon offers a lot of other proactive brand protections. Provide them with as many brand details and as much information about your intellectual property as possible. This will make it easier for Amazon’s tools, such as Transparency, to recognize infringements such as:

• When sellers from places where you don’t manufacture are selling your products
• When your logo is being used on products not associated with your brand name
• When listings use your brand’s trademarked terms

Third, build a relationship with Amazon. When launching the program, the e-commerce giant created a bunch of Amazon Brand Registry roles, and they now have a global team ready to resolve issues at any time. Fourth, consistently monitor Brand Registry. It should be a part of your work processes, and you should track your progress in solving intellectual property issues. Finally, utilize the enhanced content features Brand Registry gives you. Through A+ Content, the Brand Story feature, Sponsored Ads, the Brand Dashboard and more, sellers can enhance their brand content on Amazon. Better brand content creates better customer experiences. And that turns into higher conversion rates and greater profitability.

Realizing All the Amazon Brand Registry Benefits

Taking full advantage of Amazon Brand Registry benefits can be time-consuming, and certain aspects can be complex. That’s why we advise partnering with an expert Amazon agency to ensure you get the most out of this tool. At Amify, we offer a full-service solution for selling on Amazon. Leveraging Brand Registry, we help each of our partners gain control of their brand, increase profits and build a better reputation. From removing unauthorized sellers to winning the buy box to creating stunning A+ Content, we utilize all the tools Brand Registry has and more, protecting your company’s intellectual property and winning over more shoppers. Read how Amify helped a large beauty brand reduce MAP violations by 99% and unauthorized sellers by 81%. To get an idea of how enhanced features can help your brand, check out this article on Amazon A+ Content. With the right enhanced brand content, you can boost conversion rates by 10% or more.

Ready to Build Your Brand on Amazon?

Brand Registry goes way beyond simply proving you own the products you’re selling. It enables you to take full control of your brand and provide your customers with a consistently enjoyable experience. From proprietary image and text search to increased authority over your product’s listings, you can leverage this tool to greatly improve your performance on Amazon. All brands, old and new, should apply to Brand Registry to receive all of the amazing benefits outlined in this article. If you’re interested in Brand Registry and need some help navigating, Amify is here to help. Let’s talk.

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