Demystifying Amazon Brand Registry: What It Does (and What It Doesn’t Do)

Demystifying Amazon Brand Registry

You might not realize it, but Amazon is now the largest product search engine in the world. According to eMarketer, nearly 60 percent of US consumers start their product searches on Amazon, beating out search engines by more than 10 percent. On the B2B side, 87 percent of B2B buyers use marketplaces (Amazon and others), and 43 percent prefer Amazon Business. Now, more than 60 percent of B2B buyers make more than 25 percent of their purchases on Amazon. In other words, the majority of B2B buyers likely start their product research on Amazon. 

Of course, it’s taken a long time for buyers—and subsequently sellers—to trust Amazon. In the early days of the marketplace’s growth, many unscrupulous sellers took advantage of the fact that Amazon maintained few rules about sourcing legitimate products. Sellers didn’t have to prove they had the legal right to sell branded products. Too often, these sellers would offer counterfeit items or simply be unauthorized resellers of branded products. This resulted in a race to the bottom in terms of pricing, leaving well-known brands suspicious and hesitant to list their products on the marketplace. They viewed the platform as a discount marketplace; not a place for established brands. 

The customer experience also suffered. Product listings were incomplete or lacked accurate information, and buyers couldn’t be confident that the products listed were legitimate. Without a way to tell which brands were genuine or why one was better than another, customers couldn't rely on the platform for authentic product details or confidently make purchase decisions.

Amazon knew that if they wanted to attract more well-known brands and provide a trustworthy customer experience, they needed a way to make both brands and customers comfortable with selling and buying on the site. 

Enter Amazon Brand Registry

Launched in 2015 and overhauled in 2017, Brand Registry was developed to address both of these issues. It gives registered businesses control over their brand's presence on Amazon with more power over product listings and tools to enhance brand visibility and customer trust. It ensures that customers interact with authentic and reliable information about products directly from the brand owners themselves.

Amazon Brand Registry empowers trademark holders to take control of their product content, ensuring accuracy and eliminating incorrect or misleading information. One key benefit is the ability to consolidate multiple listings, a common issue where a single product might have two or three separate entries, often with inconsistent information.

By unifying these under a single Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN), which uniquely identifies each product, sellers improve product listing accuracy while reducing duplicate listings, and thus improving the shopping experience. Additionally, registering with Brand Registry is a prerequisite for setting up a storefront on Amazon and leveraging enhanced brand content, giving brands tools to stand out and engage customers effectively.

How to Register Your Brand for Amazon Brand Registry

To enroll in Amazon Brand Registry, brands must meet specific criteria and follow a series of steps. 

Criteria: 

• Trademark: Brands must have an active registered trademark or a pending trademark application. The trademark can be text-based (word mark) or image-based (design mark) with words, letters, or numbers.

• Product Branding: The brand name must be permanently affixed to the product and/or packaging using methods like printing, sewing, laser etching, or engraving. No stickers allowed! 

• Documentation: Brands need to provide their trademark registration number, product categories, and images of their products or packaging that display the brand name.

Registration Steps:

The process to register a brand is fairly straightforward and can take from two to four weeks. 

1. Gather Information: Collect all required details and documents, including the exact brand name, logo, trademark registration number, and product images.

2. Submit Application: Use Amazon's Brand Registry portal to submit the application along with the necessary documentation.

3. Verification: Amazon reviews the application and verifies the trademark ownership and product branding details.

4. Approval: Once approved, brands gain access to tools for intellectual property protection, enhanced marketing, and analytics.

Misconceptions about Amazon Brand Registry

Even though many sellers have heard about Amazon Brand Registry, there seems to be many misconceptions about how it works. 

Misconception #1: You must be selling on Amazon to register your brand. 

You do not need to be actively selling on Amazon to register your brand. All that is required is legitimate brand ownership, as recognized by an intellectual property authority, such as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Brand owners can allow others, like distributors, to sell their products on the platform without selling themselves, and provide select, authorized resellers with the ability to access and utilize their Brand Registry. 

Misconception #2: Brand Registry removes unauthorized resellers. 

Brand Registry helps protect against counterfeit or misleading product information but is not designed to enforce reseller restrictions or remove unauthorized sellers. It can, however, support certain gating programs in select categories, requiring resellers to prove they can legitimately sell a brand's products. Full channel control requires a broader strategy outside Amazon, involving MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) and Internet policies, as well as distribution agreements.

Misconception #3: Brand Registry is only available to third-party (3P) sellers.

Amazon Brand Registry is accessible regardless of the selling method, whether you're a first-party (1P) seller, third-party (3P) seller, or using other approaches.

So while not an enforcement tool, the Amazon Brand Registry still plays a key role in a comprehensive channel control program. 

Want to learn more about channel control on Amazon? Let’s chat! Our B2B Amazon consultants can help you develop a channel control strategy that mitigates frustration while boosting your revenue.