It’s a fact that people want to buy products. And so, online platforms such as Amazon were created to ease the process of buying and selling. There are fresh opportunities for businesses on Amazon, which is a huge and ever-developing selling platform. The bad news is that when opportunities exist, people will constantly try to exploit others’ efforts.
One way malicious people will try to exploit these opportunities in Amazon is through listing hijacking. Amazon listing hijacking is when a malicious seller tries to sell a fake form of product which they can do by hijacking the business’s Amazon product listing. They often sell their product version at a lesser cost and quality.
If this happens, these ill-intent people can affect sales and advertising. They can do that by competing with such a business’s product price, leading to the original product being taken out of Amazon’s buy box. Moreover, this can lead to the listing having negative reviews, which can also impact sales and brand reputation. Shoppers will not be happy about the fake product, which customers can mistake for the original version.
And so, if you want to know how to prevent Amazon listing hijacking, then read on.
1. Monitor Your Listing
You can monitor your listing daily—weekly will suffice too. Doing this allows you to prevent or stop hijackers from destroying your reputation, the number of customers, and sales. This is crucial, mainly if your sales are growing and other businesses see your achievement.
Yet, doing this manually can be inefficient concerning time. Moreover, it can be hard to manually take note of the listing, especially if it’s enormous. And so, to make things easier, you can automate your monitoring through Amazon hijack alerts. Amazon hijack alerts tools are software that automatically checks your listing for possible infringements. They also notify you when it occurs and report Amazon hijackers as soon as possible.
Likewise, if you want an example of Amazon hijack alerts, you can consider this tool to notify you of possible Amazon listing hijackers.
2. Bundle Your Products
Another way to avoid hijackers is to bundle your product offers, especially if such products are generic. If you bundle your product, you combine various products to be packed and delivered to shoppers. For instance, you can take note of having a beard grooming kit. This kit is often made up of items such as beard oil, beard balm, and beard brush bundled together for caring for and styling beards.
Because generic products have fewer inventory management protocols and lower manufacturing costs, online businesses are advised to bundle such items. Individual and generic products are less complicated, allowing hijackers to copy them without much effort. Yet, if you bundle such products, you make it hard for hijackers to replicate your listing.
Ensure your product bundle is logical once you choose to do so. Think about why your customers love the product in your Amazon listing and what items might complement it. If you’re unsure how to conduct this step, you can check other listings from your competitors through the ‘Frequently bought together’ section. This can offer you information on how to bundle products ideally.
3. Sign Up For Amazon Brand Registry
Enrolling in Amazon’s Brand Registry program is a significant step to preventing Amazon hijackers. There are various reasons why it’s so. For one, Brand Registry gives you the tools needed to represent your brand more precisely. It also allows you to use enhanced tools, giving you a way to send reports. This report can help you send messages to Amazon about inaccurate listings. And so, it allows Amazon to become more aware that your product is from your brand.
You can register to the Brand Registry portal if you already have an active Amazon Vendor Central or Amazon Seller Central account. But what are Amazon Seller Central and Vendor Central accounts? An Amazon Seller account is what gives you the right to sell in Amazon’s store. If you sign up to become an Amazon seller and decide on a selling plan, Seller Central can be available in your business account.
Likewise, Vendor Central is a web interface allowing businesses to sell products to Amazon. If your products are sold via Vendor Central, you become a supplier. Amazon can buy your products in bulk which it then resells to consumers.
In addition, you can also sign up for Amazon Brand Registry only if you have an active registered trademark in every nation you want to register. You can also register if only your business has a pending trademark application that’s indexed via the Amazon IP (intellectual property) Accelerator.
Wrapping Up
Amazon hijacking is where a hijacker tries to sell a fake version of your product in your listing. This can harm your sales and reputation. Gladly, you can avoid this mishap. For one, you can monitor your listing manually or automatically. You can also bundle your products to make it hard for hijackers to replicate how you deliver them. Lastly, you can sign up for the Amazon Brand Registry program to distinguish your original products from the fake ones. Hopefully, you learned something in this article to prevent Amazon listing hijacking in the future.
