The online marketplace is becoming a staple for brands to present and sell their products. But what does it take to secure your brand’s products and presence online? How can you combat violations from unauthorized sellers?
Your brand registry establishes the requirements, rights, and advertising guidelines for your products. Without this, your brand does not have a legal foundation, which means that unauthorized rogue sellers can soil your brand presence, hurt the consumer experience, and lower your product prices. This damages your brand’s revenue and margin.
By being in control of your brand registry, you can designate entities and authorized sellers — and maintain a consistent brand presentation in the online marketplace. Andy Buss of Retail Bloom says that having good brand protection in place can reduce the risk of counterfeit products being sold and secure your brand’s presence online.
This gives you the control to partner with sellers who will elevate your brand in the marketplace.
Many brands are plagued by unauthorized sellers. Without the proper policies and protection in place, the door is open for rogue dealers to violate your products. Karen Palmquist, the National Sales Manager at Stormy Kromer, says a lack of policies also makes it difficult to hold unsanctioned sellers accountable. So how can you remedy the situation?
By creating and implementing a checks and balances policy, your brand can begin to build the foundation blocks of a legal foundation. To accomplish and formalize this, you should implement software that focuses on visibility, is fully customizable, and can easily track and monitor all the different methods sellers use to market products.
Andy Buss says that you should implement a tool that can look beyond marketplaces to all the retail websites that are selling your products and deliver actionable market data. Once you can identify the problem, you can create the solution.
Dealing with problems that plague your brand’s online presence can feel like a never-ending burden. Even with protection, unauthorized sellers can still appear. When asking nicely doesn’t work, what are the next steps to effectively handle these disruptive sellers?
Once you have brand security in place, you can begin to create an effective enforcement process. Disruptive sellers that are plaguing your product and brand's buy box need to be identified and removed to eliminate the problem — but many brands are unaware of how to remove unauthorized sellers.
According to Andy Buss, most sellers will cease their infringement with a request, but sometimes it is necessary to escalate the situation to a cease and desist order. Additionally, running a full-service program that tracks the brand’s day-to-day operations and enforcement platforms is crucial for identifying, preventing, and stopping unwanted situations.
