UPDATE: Amazon Brand Registry 2.0 has been released. Read more about it in Amazon Brand Registry 2.0 – Why The Upgrade?
As an Amazon seller you probably already know the importance of the Amazon Brand Registry program, as it is designed to help brand owners control their product listings on Amazon. Amazon has a lot of control already on how things are sold and how they are described, however with the Amazon Brand Registry everything changes.
What is Amazon Brand Registry?
Amazon Brand Registry is only available to sellers who manufacture or sell their own brand products. It allows the seller to create more details on the products page as well as register themselves as the brand owner. This allows sellers to create a company brand, manage it, and sell products under that brand name on Amazon.
It also helps buyers purchase quality goods as it removes counterfeit goods from the site. Brands can register their logo and property with Amazon so if anything is ever flagged as a counterfeit object, Amazon can investigate the listing, remove it, and take down the counterfeit sellers account. This is a strategic and smart move by Amazon, there have been many unhappy customers complaining of counterfeit items. However, this is a new update to the program and had put applications on a hold until this month.
Pros of Brand Registry
When you own the brand of your product you can influence the product detail information for those products. Usually, when you submit a product for sale, Amazon determines the product detail that will be displayed however as a brand owner the product displayed text that you input is automatically displayed. The brand owner also has control over the titles, images, and attributes for each product, as well as qualifying to take advantage of Enhanced Brand Content Pages.
Another benefit is that you can potentially list your products without the UPCs or EANs. Instead, you can specify an alternate key attribute to the product instead of the UPCs or EANs, a standard product ID. This will make it easier on a day-to-day basis to list your product and create product variations.
Brand Resellers on Amazon
Registering your brand does not immediately help you stop those selling counterfeit items, and it does not prohibit other sellers from selling your branded products. Fill out everything on your form, in detail, so that you can avoid it as being incomplete. Resellers exist and the only way to really stop unauthorized resellers from reselling your products is to prepare your application correctly.
Amazon has introduced a new beta program call “Enhanced Brand Registry.” This new program is designed for larger brands to combat counterfeit and unauthorized resellers.
How To Enroll In The Brand Registry Program
To enroll in the brand registry program you must apply to be considered. Amazon only accepts certain types of sellers, so not all sellers will be considered for the program. This includes:
- Brand Owners
- Manufacturers
- Distributors or resellers with written permission from a brand owner to manage a product’s detail page on Amazon.
To enroll a brand you must provide:
- Brand name that has a registered trademark.
- Government Registered Principal Trademark Registration or Serial Number
- For USPTO marks, the Mark Drawing Type must be equal to “4 – STANDARD CHARACTER MARK” or “1 – TYPESET WORD(S)/LETTER(S)/NUMBER(S)”
- Images of the brand’s logo.
- Images of products and packaging that carry the trademarked brand name. If the product is not branded, the packaging must be branded.
- A list of product categories (e.g., apparel, sporting goods, electronics) in which the brand should be listed.
- A list of countries where the brand’s products are manufactured and distributed.
You must also include unique project identifiers when you enroll in the program and the identifiers must be easy to spot on the package, product, website, or catalog. They also need to be uniformed, meaning no matter where they are seen they must be similar or the same. This makes sense as a brand name will keep their brand’s look and feel consistent and organized.
The identifiers that Amazon will check include:
- Manufacturer part number
- Model number
- Catalog number
- Style number
Please note that the following categories are currently not eligible for Brand Registry:
- Books, Music, Videos, and DVDs (BMVD)
- Products in the Entertainment Collectibles and Sports Collectibles categories
If you need to contact someone at Amazon to address any question, they have set up a Brand Registry Contact Form.
Filling Out Your Application
To successfully fill out the application and get approved you must have all the necessary information in order. The entire process will take 2 weeks, or 10 business days for Amazon to approve.
Also, if you are a distributor or reseller applying for brand ownership on Amazon, you will also need to upload an authorization letter from the manufacturer or brand owner.
Key Attributes For Brand Registry
During the enrollment process, brands will be asked to select a key attribute. This should be an attribute that you already use for your products on other pages. You can use a UPCs, EANs, or JANs however you can also use another attribute as listed above.
Remember, your attribute should never change for the product. It should be easily searched and be included on your packaging, website, etc; If you fail to do this it is highly likely that Amazon will not register you into the program and you will receive error messages when you create or update your products on Amazon.
How to List Products
Once you’ve been accepted into the program, you can go ahead and list your products. When listing your products, you must include:
- Their brand name spelled and capitalized the same way it was submitted for brand approval.
- A unique value for the key attribute selected in the application.
This must be done for every single product in your brand and none of them can be listed the same way or use the same attributes. If you do not list a key attribute then Amazon will identify one for you.
How To Enroll Existing Products
Going forward there will be two ways to list existing products into your Brand Registry. Through automation or manual entering.
Automatic: If the product listings already include the brand name and selected key attribute, all of your products will automatically be enrolled.
Manual: If product listings do not already include the brand name and selected key attribute, sellers will need to manually key in each name and unique key attribute for each product.
How To Add or Enroll New Products
When you need to add new products into the Brand Registry you will need to include your brand information and a key attribute. If you also sell your products in an Amazon Webstore the listing updates for these products must be done from Seller Central.
How To Update Enrolled Products
After products are enrolled in Brand Registry, sellers can update product information with product SKUs plus values in the specific fields the seller needs updated. However, you should not update an existing listing for a newer version of the product where the versions are a little different, including changes in:
- Color
- Size
- Material
- Features
- Product name
Instead, when changes need to be made to these things, a new product detail page should be created for the new versions of those products.
The Global Catalog Identifier
Congrats! Everything is running smoothly and you have successfully enrolled your products. So what’s next?
Well, when you enroll your products with unique values, each product is assigned a unique product ID called the Global Catalog Identifier (GCID). The GCID always stays the same and never changes, not even over time or across countries. The GCID is 16 characters long, doesn’t include spaces or hyphens, and is alphanumeric. They are also tired directly to their products, where as the ASIN is tied to the product listing and can change.
If there is no GCID assigned to your products, your submission to the detail page will not be automatically displayed. To ensure this make sure your products have:
- Brand name (case sensitive)
- Selected key attribute
How To View Product GCID
If you are looking for the GCID you will not find it on the product detail pages or in your listings on the Manage Inventory page. To view the GCIDs you will need to download an Inventory Report.
However, brands should still keep a close eye on their product information to make sure they don’t fall into an “Incomplete Brand Registry” issue. They can monitor the Brand Performance Reports to ensure all of their products have been accepted by Amazon’s Brand Registry.
Still Need Help With Brand Registry
When selling on Amazon, it always good to understand Brand Registry and how to take advantage. If you don’t have a strategy for Amazon or haven’t explored Brand Registry, perhaps it’s time to talk to some professionals. The team at OperationROI has been working with Amazon and Brand Registry for years. Contact us today at 1-888-277-5429 or by filling out our contact form to learn more.
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