Amazon’s Brand Protection Tools: Which One Is Right for Your Brand

How POTOO Can Help: Insights from Amazon’s 2021 Brand Protection Report.

Amazon has published its second annual Brand Protection Report, a review of its innovative tools and strategies to ensure a positive and authentic shopping experience in the marketplace. Partnerships with leading industry associations such as the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition (IACC) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) support Amazon’s continued efforts to improve its tools, programs, and best practices. The recently published report details Amazon’s brand protection strategy, which focuses on proactive steps to protect the marketplace, providing powerful tools for brands, and holding counterfeiters accountable. This year Amazon added a new and important pillar to its strategy – educating and supporting customers.

In 2021, Amazon increased registration and verification requirements with their in-person verification program in the United States, Canada, the U.K., E.U. member countries, Japan, and several other countries, which now includes a one-on-one verification meeting with an Amazon representative. It is now much harder for bad actors to join the marketplace. It’s nearly impossible in the U.S. to set up a non-legitimate store right now. According to the report, Amazon stopped over 2.5 million attempts to create new selling accounts before they could publish a single product for sale – a decrease from over 6 million attempts in 2020. Even with increased security requirements, Amazon’s Brand Registry program grew massively, with 700,000 brands enrolling in 2021, an increase of 40% from the past year. To put this in perspective, compared to the largest brick-and-mortar stores in the country, Amazon has nearly four times as many brands as Walmart has unique items.

If you are a prominent name brand, you are likely already registered on Brand Registry. As a result, we may see enrollment rates slow down soon while existing brands on the marketplace expand rapidly. According to the report, the average number of valid infringement notices submitted by a brand in the Brand Registry decreased by 25% from 2020. That leaves us with the question of how Amazon defines a valid notice. We know these violations exist. Is this decline due to an increase in verification requirements? Or are there fewer violations to report?

The Transparency Program has seen a rise in units registered with labels, an excellent success metric. According to the report, 23,000 brands enrolled in the program globally, an increase of 35% in the last year. Project Zero (which leverages the combined strengths of Amazon and brands to drive counterfeits to zero) has seen only a 10% growth over the past year, with only 2,000 brands joining the program in 2021. Compared to the 40% growth in Brand Registry enrollment, this program is growing very slowly and seems to have been the least successful of Amazon’s brand protection efforts this past year.

Amazon continues to provide many different tools and programs that your brand can utilize to improve your health and success in the marketplace. However, these tools require time, knowledge, and resources to see their benefits. At POTOO Solutions, our eCommerce experts understand how to properly use Amazon’s various brand protection tools. We also have proprietary solutions and best-in-class data for protecting your brand on Amazon and other marketplaces.