It’s obvious that Brand Registry is one of the most effective strategies to deal with unauthorized 3P sellers. However, the process of registering a trademark can deter you from joining the program. You might be wondering “Can I sell on Amazon without Brand Registry?” The short answer is: yes, you can sell on Amazon without Brand Registry. However, doing so comes with significant limitations and potential challenges. In today’s article, we’ll dive into the details of selling without Brand Registry, exploring the pros, cons, and alternative strategies.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Understanding Amazon Brand Registry
2. Selling Without Brand Registry: The Challenges
3. Weighing the Pros and Cons
4. Protecting Your Brand Without Amazon Brand Registry
5. Is It Time for Brand Registry?
6. VASO Group Can Help You Protect Your Brand
Understanding Amazon Brand Registry
Before we dive into the specifics, let’s briefly understand what Amazon Brand Registry is. It’s a program designed to protect brands and their intellectual property. By enrolling in Brand Registry, sellers gain access to tools and resources that help them protect their brand, improve product listings, and enhance customer trust.
Key benefits of Brand Registry include:
- Brand protection: Preventing unauthorized sellers from listing counterfeit or infringing products.
- Enhanced product listings: Access to advanced listing features and tools.
- Improved customer trust: Building credibility and trust with customers.
- Access to Amazon advertising tools: Effective marketing opportunities.
Selling Without Brand Registry: The Challenges
As mentioned before, it’s not an impossible feat to sell on Amazon without Brand Registry. In fact, many brands do this before they finally register their trademarks. Doing this comes with a financial benefit: you don’t need to spend your budget on filing a trademark application and maintaining the registration. On the flip side, all the work of protecting your brand falls on you and your team to manually execute. It’s fine if you have a smaller catalog, but with a bigger selection of products, the work can quickly double or triple, creating gaps in protection and revealing your vulnerabilities.
Consider these challenges that you will encounter to keep your brand flourishing on Amazon without the help of Brand Registry:
- Increased competition: Without Brand Registry, you’re more vulnerable to counterfeiters and unauthorized sellers listing your products. This can lead to price wars, negative reviews, and customer confusion.
- Limited control over listings: You have less control over your product listings, including images, descriptions, and pricing. This is because other sellers can hijack your listings and replace your existing content with their own content.
- Difficulty in enforcing intellectual property rights: It’s more challenging to protect your brand and products from infringement. If you don’t have a protected trademark, it’s hard to make the case that a certain 3P seller is copying your product design.
- Restricted access to Amazon tools: You won’t have access to certain Amazon tools and features that can enhance your sales.
Weighing the Pros and Cons
To sum up, here’s a handy comparison table that weighs the pros and cons of selling on Amazon without Brand Registry:
| Pros | Cons |
| Lower upfront costs: There’s no fee to enroll in Brand Registry, which requires a registered trademark. | Higher risk of intellectual property infringement: Your brand and products are more vulnerable. |
| Quick start: You can start selling immediately without the application process. | Limited control over your listings: You have less control over product information. |
| Potential for lower sales and customer satisfaction: Increased competition and product quality issues can negatively impact your business. |
Protecting Your Brand Without Amazon Brand Registry
Now that we’ve identified the challenges of operating on Amazon without Brand Registry, what are the actual tactics to protect your brand by yourself? We’ve compiled about 10 ways you can solidify your brand’s position in the marketplace and deter fake listings.
1. Apply for Intellectual Property Protection
Without a trademark registration, there are still other ways to protect your brand and other content that comes from it.
- Copyright Protection: Copyright is different from trademark: copyright protects original creative and artistic works that one produces, whereas trademark protects the brand name or logo that identifies a company or product. So instead of protecting your brand, you can protect your brand’s content: product images, descriptions, and other creative content.
- Patent Protection: Patent protection is in the same vein as copyright protection, but for your product designs. If your product has a unique design or functionality, consider patent protection. This will prevent unauthorized sellers from replicating your product design and pass it off as their own at a lower price.
2. Build a Strong Brand Identity Outside of Amazon
To avoid competition on Amazon, make sure your customers know who you are before they come to the platform. This means building a brand presence outside of Amazon and turning your brand into a household name in your category everywhere.
- Dedicated Website: Create a professional website to establish your brand identity and build trust with customers.
- Social Media Presence: Engage with your target audience on social media platforms to increase brand awareness and loyalty.
- Content Marketing: Share valuable content (blog posts, videos, etc.) to position your brand as an authority in your industry.
3. Level Up Your Product Listings Content
Having engaging, high-quality content separates your listings from the rest of the competition. In addition, add watermarks or other distinguishable elements to your images to deter poachers from stealing your content.
- Robust product listing optimization: Focus on creating high-quality, informative product listings to stand out from the competition.
- Watermarking: Add subtle watermarks to your product images to deter unauthorized use.
- High-Quality Images: Use high-resolution images to make it difficult for counterfeiters to replicate your products accurately.
4. Monitor Your Amazon Listings Vigilantly
Amazon sometimes displays other sellers’ images and videos on your product listings. This hijacking is due to Amazon deeming the alternative content more appropriate or suitable to the product than yours. There’s not a specific tactic that can help you prevent this hijacking, but you can keep a close eye on your listings to address this problem as soon as it happens.
- Regular Checks: Frequently search for your products on Amazon to identify potential infringements.
- Report Violations: Utilize Amazon’s reporting tools to flag counterfeit or unauthorized listings.
- Build Relationships with Amazon Seller Support: Maintain a good relationship with Amazon Seller Support to expedite issue resolution.
5. Communicate with Customers
Be transparent with your customers about your brand and products. That way, it will be easier for them to spot fakes and counterfeit products trying to pose as you.
- Clear Product Information: Provide detailed and accurate product descriptions to help customers distinguish your products from counterfeits.
- Educate Customers: Inform customers about the signs of counterfeit products and how to identify authentic items.
- Encourage Reviews: Positive reviews can help build trust and deter potential buyers from purchasing counterfeit products.
- Strong customer service: Build trust and loyalty by providing excellent customer support.
6. Leverage Amazon’s Tools and Policies
Aside from Brand Registry, Amazon also has other tools and policies that will help you protect your brand.
- Amazon’s Anti-Counterfeiting Policies: Understand and utilize Amazon’s policies to protect your brand. See resources like the Amazon Counterfeit Crimes Unit and Amazon Project Zero.
- Brand Approval: While not as comprehensive as Brand Registry, Brand Approval allows you to protect your brand to some extent without a registered trademark.
7. Consider Third-Party Brand Protection Services
If manually monitoring counterfeit activity gets too overwhelming, consider looking at third party services that help you keep track of your brand presence on the platform, or legal services specializing in brand protection.
- Brand Monitoring Tools: There are software solutions that can help you track online mentions of your brand and identify potential infringements.
8. Build Strong Relationships with Suppliers
Oftentimes, unauthorized 3rd party sellers are dropshippers that order stock from your suppliers (or similar suppliers) and operate with little overhead so that they can price their products much lower than you. Having a strong relationship with your suppliers can make a big difference.
- Transparent Supply Chain: Work with reputable suppliers to minimize the risk of counterfeit products entering your supply chain.
- Secure Packaging: Use distinctive packaging to make it harder for counterfeiters to replicate your products.
- Supplier Vetting: Carefully select suppliers with a proven track record of quality and authenticity.
- Contractual Agreements: Clearly outline intellectual property rights and quality standards in your supplier contracts.
9. Take Proactive Legal Action
Without Brand Registry, your manual monitoring work may sometimes let slip some vulnerabilities. In those cases, you need to take proactive steps and address any potential problems that prop up. Nipping the problem in the bud signals to other unauthorized sellers that you’re serious about protecting your brand, and deters them from making moves.
- Legal Counsel: Consult with an intellectual property attorney to develop a comprehensive brand protection strategy.
- Cease and Desist Letters: Send cease and desist letters to infringers as a first step in protecting your brand.
Is It Time for Brand Registry?
These strategies are great for maintaining your brand presence and protecting it from unauthorized competition. But it is a lot of work to do. That’s why we recommend setting up Brand Registry for serious Amazon sellers. The tool basically picks up all the leg work for you in the protection sphere and helps you focus time on growing your business. Here are some scenarios where it’s particularly beneficial:
- You have a strong brand identity: Protecting your brand is crucial for long-term success.
- You’re facing significant competition or counterfeit issues: Brand Registry can help you combat these challenges.
- You plan to invest in Amazon advertising: Brand Registry provides access to valuable advertising tools.
- You want to build a long-term, sustainable business: Investing in Brand Registry is a strategic move for long-term growth.
Read more about Brand Registry use cases in our article dedicated to understanding Brand Registry.
VASO Group Can Help You Protect Your Brand
Our account managers are always looking for ways to keep your brand presence strong in the competitive landscape of eCommerce platforms like Amazon and Walmart. We are equipped with the most up-to-date information on brand protection tools and policies. Brand Registry or no Brand Registry, we’re here to help you solidify your standing in the Amazon marketplace.
Let us help you protect your brand from counterfeits and fakes.