As a retail entrepreneur, do you think Amazon is the most dominant market player these days? Do you believe that this online brand will one day become more significant than Walmart and the Sears catalog of yore? The correct answer to these two questions is yes: the Amazon Marketplace has become as massive as its namesake South American rainforest.
To understand the retail magnitude of this online marketplace, which humbly started selling books and compact discs a couple of decades ago, it helps to consider the following 2017 statistics:
* Nearly 350 million shoppers are registered on Amazon.com, and at least 30 million are actively use the Amazon mobile app each month.
* Half of all American Internet shoppers make their online purchases on Amazon.
* More than 100,000 Amazon sellers reported sales in excess of $100,000 in 2017.
* Three quarters of Amazon shoppers make at least one purchase each month. This translates into $38 billion in quarterly sales.
Judging by these statistics, there has never been a time like the present to become an Amazon seller; however, there are also some unfortunate statistics to consider with regard to third-party sellers who unfairly bend the rules to their advantage. We are talking about dropshippers, counterfeiters and unauthorized sellers; independent vendors who seek to take advantage of retail arbitrage without any regard for sellers and brands.
The Problem With Unauthorized Sellers
In 2016, third-party sellers generated $23 billion in revenue for Amazon, which represented about half of all sales; with this in mind, it is safe to assume that these sellers provide an important economic contribution to Amazon. What is difficult to ascertain is how many of these sellers are operating without authorization.
The issue of unauthorized sellers on Amazon was first reported in 2012; this is an issue that has plagued eBay for more than a decade. There was a time when drop shippers would undercut Amazon sellers with intricate schemes involving eBay; these days, however, unauthorized sellers are emboldened by all the selling tools provided by Amazon, and they will not hesitate to sell your own products on the same marketplace where you are listing them.
To a certain extent, Amazon enables unauthorized sellers with enticing tools such as Fulfilled by Merchant (FBA) and the 3P Marketplace program. If you are a seller who also uses FBA, you may not notice that unauthorized sellers are piggybacking on your product sales.
Protecting Your Brand and Products With Brandlox
If you are an Amazon seller who has listed 10 or more products, how can you find out if a dropshipper, unauthorized seller or counterfeiter is not making a quick buck off your hard work? The clear answer is Brandlox, a software tool that keeps an eye on your Amazon product listings and allows you to prevent unauthorized sellers from plying their wicked trade.
Brandlox is for sellers whose product inventory features 10 or more items registered with Amazon Standard Identification Numbers. In essence, Brandlox is a security and loss prevention tool that constantly monitors Amazon activity related to your products. Similar to a store detective looking for shoplifters, Brandlox looks for unauthorized sellers using your ASINs in a surreptitious manner.
Benefits of Subscribing to Brandlox
Amazon sellers who subscribe to Brandlox can avoid losing thousands of dollars in unauthorized sales. The reasonable monthly subscription fee pays itself off almost immediately. Companies such as Apple and Birkenstock are known to spend millions of dollars for the purpose of protecting their brands; with Brandlox, you can spend less than $30 per month to monitor up to 100 items.
Depending on the subscription level you choose, Brandlox may even generate and send cease-and-desist letters to those pesky unauthorized sellers so that they clearly understand your position on the matter. To learn more about Brandlox, contact one of our online retail security specialists today.
