Webinar Recap – Understanding Intrusive Ecommerce Resellers for Brands on Amazon

At our December 5 webinar, Brandwoven CEO, Chris Gray, walked through MAP and UPP policies and strategies for managing authorized and unauthorized resellers across all channels of trade, including marketplaces like Amazon. As a topic that has arisen for many brands we’ve partnered with, leveraging effective ecommerce reseller management policies and tools are key to protecting products and brand reputation on competitive online platforms like Amazon.

What We Covered in the Webinar

• Objectives of UPP/MAP and Managing Amazon Resellers
• Foundational Knowledge for Managing Ecommerce Resellers
• Pricing PoliciesManagement Framework & Creation
• Authorized Reseller/Distributor Programs
• Enforcement Framework & Creation
• Tracking & Data
• Legal Action vs Other Enforcement Methods
• Common Roadblocks
• Frequently Asked Questions

Keep reading to learn more and visit the Amazon webinar page below to download your own copy of the slide deck and view the full presentation recording.

The Importance of Amazon Reseller Management

Stable Pricing

Foundationally, most premium brands want to see consistent, stable pricing across all channels of trade. Control should be in the hands of the brand regarding when, where, and at what price their product is sold. The arbitrage model of marketplace has been the demise of many really good brands, and we continue to see the importance of brands taking an active role in managing their pricing.

Channel Clarity

Brands today are maturing and understanding the unique attributes of each channel of trade; the different role that marketplace can play as opposed to specialty retail. With this often comes the decision to get rid of or limit rogue ecommerce resellers getting ahold of products. Having the tools to manage each channel, from product development to end use, is key for effectively managing unauthorized Amazon resellers for the long-term.

Consumer Journey

Nowadays, consumers are more connected than ever before, having easier access to all retailers simultaneously via shopping apps and marketplaces like Amazon. Because of this, being able to craft a positive shopping experience across the entire consumer journey, regardless of channel, has become vital to increasing conversions – and managing both price and Amazon resellers is a major part of this process.

How Amazon Resellers Obtain Products

There is an innumerable amount of resellers online, so oftentimes the biggest problem brands are facing is not knowing who is selling their product or how to manage resellers. To get to the root of this problem, brands must first understand how product is flowing and arriving into the hands of a reseller who’s then choosing to sell it on Amazon, causing them problems in the process. There are a ton of different ways that this workflow can happen, but there are mainly 6 primary ways that we see Amazon resellers getting their hands on product.

Direct from the Brand

Many Amazon resellers buy product direct from brands. About 50% we’ve seen have had direct relationships, are known by the brand, and welcome to resell; while the other half of ecommerce resellers change their name on Amazon, essentially hiding behind a different business entity. This keeps the reseller out of the purview of the brand and usually becomes hard to track down.

Distributors

Industries like hunt and fish and grocery often have 2-step distribution which can create a sort of black hole as product goes to the distributor who then sells the product to many different people – making the brand lose visibility into what’s happening with their product. There are definitely many incredible distribution partners that work hand-in-hand with brands, but there are unfortunately some that tend to sell products to whoever will buy it and aren’t super honest with the brand about that process.

Retailers on Discount

A less obvious product flow is from consumers going around to retail establishments looking for products to resell at a discount. More and more, we have seen an influx of shoppers traveling to find discounted products that they can resell onto marketplaces like Amazon. This sounds like it should be a small problem – but it’s not. There are thousands of people doing this every day.

Dealers or Retailers

It can be common for consumers to have a partnership with a dealer or retailer, capturing product at a discount to then resell onto Amazon. Some retailers will make deals with independent sellers who will buy a large volume of product at a discount. We’ve seen this happen frequently in every industry we work in.

Return Pallets & Liquidators

There are dozens of retailers who sell pallets of used products or new products at liquidation prices. People then try to take advantage of these return pallets by flowing the product right back onto Amazon – despite this being against Amazon TOCs.

D2C on Discount

The last one, that we actually see more often than some may think, is purchasing deals through D2C in bulk. This might happen at the end of a product’s lifecycle or season. All of a sudden, a brand may get a bunch of orders for a given product, which inevitably ends up back on Amazon a few days, weeks, or months later.

How to Establish Tight Product Control

In general, tight control is something that we believe in wholeheartedly and recommend to most Amazon brands. Usually, getting the brand as close to the end consumer as possible is something that we have seen the most success with, in regard to reseller management. And, in most cases, this requires using either FBA or Amazon Vendor Central. With Vendor Central, brands do lose some control, like management of price – which can be another problem in and of itself. However, this product flow is still a pretty secure distribution method for avoiding unauthorized Amazon resellers from popping up on your detail pages.

Why Amazon Doesn’t Address Unauthorized Resellers 

Marketplaces like Amazon and Walmart are not going to solve your reseller challenges for you. In fact, no major marketplace offers programs to effectively manage resellers or price. Ultimately, the power to manage resellers really sits with the Amazon brand itself since controlling supply is typically the root of most unauthorized reselling issues.  

Additionally, marketplaces like Amazon and Walmart are going to be reluctant because they want competition; they want more brands and sellers, and they want consumers to get the best price possible so that they keep shopping on their platform. Unfortunately, Amazon allowing as many sellers as they can onto their platform is beneficial to their marketplace.