In my opinion getting brand registered on Amazon is crucial to compete as Amazon tightens up its marketplace.
With Brand Registry, you can easily compete with some of the biggest Brands in the world as Amazon has levelled the playing field, providing all sorts of seller tools and protections to Registered Brands.
So what are the benefits?
I’ll list them out and show you some screenshots of what each benefit means in reality.
- Your listing is protected from edits.Many private label sellers (or 3rd Party Sellers) don’t realise that their listings are effectively a ‘wiki’ where pretty much anyone can suggest edits to the detail or content of your listing. There a few ways other sellers can do this namely, reporting incorrect detail page information (there’s a link below the bullet points on every listing). But the main way other sellers edit your listing is by listing your product for sale and making edits to the listing page through the back end when they’re putting together their offer.With Brand Registry, the listing is locked to just you and Amazon itself. You have complete control of imagery, titles, bullets and descriptions.
- Access to A+ or Enhanced Brand Content (also known as EBC).EBC rocks. You are able to create a much more beautiful and graphical Amazon listing compared a slab of text you’re given if you don’t have Brand Registry! EBC also looks incredible on mobile (where more than 50% of Amazon customers actually shop). You get more words and characters per listing which means your product can be indexed and ranked for more keywords. In other words, it helps with your Amazon SEO.
Screenshot showing Enhanced Brand Content on an Amazon Product Detail Page - Access to Amazon’s Early Reviewer Program.
Getting reviews on new products has been a nightmare since Amazon tightened up its ‘discounts in exchange for a review’ policy in October of 2016. The Early Reviewer Program allows Registered Brand Owners to obtain up to 5 unbiased reviews from verified buyers of your products. It’s a welcome initiative as Brands were increasingly getting frustrated about the catch 22 they were in. No reviews meant very few if any sales and very few sales meant very few reviews. Mind you, it costs Brand Owners $60 for the 5 reviews, but it’s worth it long term. Here’s what they look like in reality:
Examples of Early Reviewer Program customer reviews on Amazon - Dedicated Brand / Product Showcase Page on Amazon
If you look at one of my client’s Brand Detail Page here you can see how products can be showcased as well as have product videos embedded on the page too! The great thing about these pages is that they allow for much more detailed analytics, meaning you can track outside traffic by channel. So if you run a Facebook Ads Campaign, you can simply tag up your links and you can see how traffic and how many sales were generated from the Facebook Ads.
Snapshot of Nanoman’s Amazon Brand Page - Brand Gating
Just this week, one of my own brands became “gated” which means if any seller wants to sell my products, they have to seek permission directly from me! I think this is the biggest benefit of all, as it prevents Hijackers and counterfeiters selling knock-offs or discounting your products and competing with you on Amazon. Finally, Amazon has enabled brands to fully protect themselves. I love this!
So how do you get Brand Registered on Amazon from Australia?
The answer is simple.
Get a Trademark.
Let me stress that you can use an Australian Trademark to apply for Brand Registry in most, if not all Amazon Marketplaces, including USA, UK, Australia, Canada and more…
Note: You will have to apply for Brand Registry for each Marketplace you sell in.
Here is a list (current April 2018) of countries where if you have a trademark, you can apply for Brand Registry.
Australia is as good a place as any to register, but you could register a Trademark in the UK for your Australian Brand and still use it for your Amazon Brand Registry Application.
To Register a trademark with IP Australia you’ll just need a single class and a word mark (don’t worry about trademarking a logo if this is a pure Amazon Brand Registry ‘play’).
It’ll take about 13 weeks and cost around $300. Here’s a link which you can use to get started and DIY your own Trademark Application without needing to get a pesky and expensive IP Lawyer involved.
So don’t procrastinate, start organising your Trademark today.
Once you have it, visit Amazon’s Brand Registry Application Page to get started.
