Amazon’s Brand Gating: How Does It Impact Your Business

Brand Gating is another important piece of the brand policing “pie.” With all of the recent brand policing issues running rampant in Amazon, it’s a no-brainer that brand gating might be the most effective way to start.

After all, Brand Gating helps sellers create a wall or perimeter around their entire brand or ASINs to stop illegal third-party sellers from entering Amazon’s product listing.

Amazon’s Plan to Stop Counterfitters

Since 2016, Amazon is taking steps to protect large brands after a surge of counterfeiting. There is a myriad of rule-abiding sellers that pay the price due to this.

Online stores that sell products from brands such as Nike, Hasbro, and Addidas have been forced to pay a fine of $1,500 per brand. This is after the seller is asked to give invoices of from distributors or manufacturers that show the purchase of the last 30 items within the last 90 days.

This is when the amazon brand gating process was born, and it creates a big toll on sellers. There is going to be a lot of detractors in this highly competitive e-commerce business. But this is a sign that Amazon is planning to stop counterfeit services immediately. The site is making it difficult for unauthorized merchants to flourish or make a profit.

There is no list of products or brands that have been released publically, but sellers have been told about the $1,500 charge that Nike, Asics, and Addidas shoes. This means that you’ll have to pay around $1,500 to sell them on Amazon’s platform.

In other categories, Amazon is charging sellers $1,000 to sell products from brands such as Lego, Pokemon, Hasbro, and others.

The increased concern for merchants is that Amazon is eliminating the practice of doing retail arbitrage. The multitude of businesses that shop for clearance sales and liquidation only to sell them at higher prices on Amazon have to figure out what happens if the platform only allows online listings from authorized resellers.

How to Gate Your Brand

First, you’ll want to sign up your brand under Amazon’s Brand Registry. Remember, this is different than amazon brand gating. However, Amazon won’t consider you for brand gating if you don’t follow this step.

While this step isn’t mandatory, it will help Amazon know that you’re serious about your brand. Get your brand trademarked by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Give Amazon a list of ASINS that you want to be gated. On some occasions, individual ASINs are gated before the entire brand will. This is why sellers need to send in the ASINs they want to go through Amazon’s brand gating process.

And if you have a lot of ASINs, you don’t have to send them all at once. Make sure that you gate the products that are the most valuable and have a higher chance of being counterfeited. This makes it easier for Amazon’s platform to recognize your brand and finally protect your favorite products.

Explain the measures you’ve taken to protect your brand from counterfeiters. Amazon tends to increase their gating priority for brands that have dealt with counterfeiter problems from the past.

Conclusion

To conclude, we believe that Amazon brand gating is important for your businesses. As the e-commerce service continues to grow, the more you’re going to have to protect your brand from others attempting to sell your products illegally. Thus, find out how you should keep your brand safe by going through the process!