On-Boarding Your Brand on Amazon

The first thing to make sure you understand is the process of Brand Registry. Make sure your brand name is trademarked with the USPTO and on the principal registry (Side Note: Pending trademark applications or trademarks not on the principle registry will not work). When you physically register your brand with Amazon, make sure that you register it the exact way that it shows up on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office website. One common issue we have seen brands make is registering the brand on Amazon in a manner that is inconsistent with the way the brand was officially trademarked. Make sure to fill in the “brand name” field at the product level with the registered trademark (capitalization and punctuation matter). Your registered brand name goes on every listing and if the brand name is incorrect it can be very difficult to change. Brand registry has multiple features which include the ability to easily update titles/bullets/images, the creation of A+ content and storefronts, video uploading capability, and multiple advertising perks.

Another thing to keep in mind as a new seller on Amazon is the buy box. In essence, winning the buy box means that your specific listing has the “Add To Cart” button. If you are a re-seller, we recommend looking at the product listing for the product you want to re-sell and make sure it is feasible that you will be the company that is actually getting the sales of this product. Products with multiple sellers on the listing can be very difficult to get any true sales momentum due to constant price-changes and buy box movement. If you are a registered brand with your own product, you still may not win the buy box right away. If you are fulfilling orders yourself, Amazon may temporarily remove you from the buy box until you “prove yourself” as a seller. Admittedly, this is also Amazon’s way of pushing sellers to use their FBA service. A few other things that may affect your buy box percentage are any rapid price increases, selling on other platforms for a cheaper price, and poor order-defect-rate.

In years past, one of the major question marks surrounding the whole process of selling on Amazon was the tax situation as a whole. States were collecting taxes individually from sellers and it was a very murky area until the Marketplace Facilitator Act began getting adopted by states. This Act forces third-party marketplaces to be the seller of records. Essentially this means that Amazon will collect taxes on your behalf. As of 2020, 33 states have adopted the Marketplace Facilitator Act.

Amazon has the third-largest advertising platform behind only Google and Facebook. To put it bluntly, you need to prepare yourself to advertise your products. Reviews and pricing affect the ranking of your products, but sales velocity is the biggest factor. Some well-known brands can launch products and rise through the rankings by driving external traffic simply because their brand is so well-known, however, this is not the case with a majority of new brands. Amazon is essentially a “pay-to-play” platform, and you should form your strategy to account for advertising costs.

Last but not least, we want to remind you to be mindful of the various fees you will encounter on your selling journey. If you are using the FBA service there will be fees that are included.

Understand your KPI’s and account for FBA Fees, Storage Fees, Commission Fees, and cost of Inventory Reconciliation,