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Amazon is the world’s largest online retailer with 20 marketplaces spanning 6 continents. It’s also home to millions of sellers vying for customers’ attention.
Given the sheer size of some of these marketplaces (Amazon US alone has more than 3 million third-party sellers), it’s not surprising to find some merchants using underhanded tactics like selling counterfeit products and sabotaging competitors’ sales and brand image.
To prevent the spread of such activities—and protect its reputation in the process—Amazon launched a seller protection program called Brand Registry. By enrolling in this program, third-party sellers gain access to a range of seller tools that offer valuable insights and protect their store from bad actors.
In this post, you’re going to learn all there is to know about Amazon Brand Registry, its application process, features, benefits and much more.
Amazon brand registry is a program designed to legitimize brands and protect their intellectual property. Sellers that successfully enroll in the program gain access to perks that help build customer loyalty and boost conversions. Brand Registry is a must-have if your main source of income comes from selling products on Amazon.
Image Caption: Amazon Brand Registry – a third-party seller protection program since 2017.
Before we get into the nitty-gritty of things, let’s answer some commonly asked brand registry questions.
No. Amazon Brand Registry is not a prerequisite to sell on Amazon. Nonetheless, it’s highly recommended to apply and enroll in the program to protect your trademarks including product and brand design. What’s more, you also gain access to tools that enhance your selling capabilities and position you above your competitors!
Amazon Brand Registry is free for Amazon sellers—but there’s a catch. To get brand registered, sellers must have a registered trademark (or are currently in the process of applying for one) to enroll in the program. Trademark fees in the US usually range from $250-$400 depending on the class of protection you apply for (and could hover around the $1,000 mark once you add legal fees e.g. the cost of hiring an attorney).
For more details, visit the official United States Patent and Trademark Office page.
Getting brand registered on Amazon doesn’t take that long; anywhere from 2 to 10 days. It’s the trademark registration process that sets sellers back. It takes around 8 months to a year for a trademark application to get approved and only then can sellers apply for Amazon Brand Registry–or that’s how things used to be.
Today, brand registered sellers have the option to enroll in the IP accelerator program and cut the entire trademark + brand registry process down to just 2 weeks!
To get brand registered on Amazon you must first meet one of the following conditions:
We’ve mentioned trademark a couple of times, but what type of trademark do you need for an Amazon business? For an Amazon brand, you either need an image-based (design mark) or a text-based (word mark) trademark that you’ll submit as part of your brand registry application.
Image Caption: Brand Registry Eligibility requirements for Amazon US. Review eligibility requirements for other marketplaces by visiting this link.
Sellers with an image-based trademark containing letters, numbers, or words must upload a copy of their trademark image exactly as it appears in their trademark records.
After successfully applying for a trademark, it’s time to get your Amazon brand registered.
Step 1: Search Amazon brand registry on Google, click on the brandservices page, and hit the orange Get started button.
You’ll then be asked to review the eligibility requirements (the details of which you’ve just read), scroll down and select the Enroll now option.
Step 2: Select the country in which you’ve filed for a trademark.
After selecting the country of choice, you’ll be redirected to the brand registry dashboard. Once you land on this page, hit the Enroll your brand button.
Step 3: Add your brand name, select the USPTO as your trademark office, and add your registration number.
Fill out the remaining section with relevant information such as trademark-type details, image(s) if you’ve applied for a design mark, and additional brand information such as links to your website (if you don’t have one, don’t worry; this is optional).
Step 4: In the selling account information section, Amazon wants you to provide information regarding your seller status and product category type.
Note: If you filed for more than 1 class of trademark and wish to sell products in multiple categories, select all relevant categories from the drop-down menu.
Step 5: The final step requires sellers to submit distribution and licensee information. If you’re a new seller, select No for both options and finish the application processes by clicking on the Submit button.
It takes up to 24 hours for Amazon to respond after which you gain access to the full suite of Brand Registry features and benefits.
The benefits of a Professional Amazon selling plan extend to other marketplaces at no extra costs e.g. you could sell in Amazon US and Canada for $39.99 per month. On the other hand, the features and benefits provided by Amazon Brand Registry do not extend to other marketplaces—you’ll need to register for each marketplace separately.
Note: You don’t need a seller central account to create a brand registry account; both can exist separately. However, it’s recommended to create a seller central account and use the same email address to create a brand registry account so the benefits of brand registry appear within seller central.
Are brand registry benefits worth the cost? Yes. Just take a look at the benefits you receive once you enroll in the program!
Even though brand registry Amazon equips sellers with tools that enhance their marketing capabilities, the most commonly cited reason sellers enroll in the program is to protect their brand and products from counterfeit and intellectual property theft.
Non-registered users must reach out to Amazon customer support when confronted with bad actors and wait for a resolution which can take up to a few weeks.
That’s enough time to wreak havoc and destroy the reputation you’ve worked so hard to build. Amazon brand registry lets you take full control over your product listings and ensure other sellers don’t tamper or misrepresent your product in any way.
What’s more, the Report a Violation tool within the brand registry dashboard allows users to keep track of their submissions and reach out to a dedicated customer support team when needed.
Brand registry sellers benefit from sophisticated machine learning software that crack down on counterfeits and remove:
Sellers who wish to go the extra mile and protect their brand from all possible threats can leverage brand registry-specific features like Transparency and Project Zero. The Transparency program is a product serialization service, i.e. a unique code is applied to each product and any product without the code is held back by Amazon, ensuring only genuine products reach your customers.
With Project Zero, sellers provide Amazon with additional information about their brands and don’t have to worry about contacting Amazon customer support to report infringements—automated machine learning software scans for violations daily and removes product listings suspected of IP infringements.
Note: Both programs (i.e. Project Zero and Transparency) are not free and users are charged with a per-unit cost.
New Amazon sellers are limited by how much product information they can display to visitors. But an Amazon seller enrolled in the brand registry program can access promotional tools and upload A+ content to elevate their marketing game to a whole new level.
Formerly known as EBC (Enhanced Brand Content), A+ content refers to the ability to incorporate high-quality imagery and video within product listings to enhance your brand image and boost conversions. According to Amazon, product listings with A+ content experience increased sales by 5.6% on average.
Brand registered users can leverage A+ content to showcase their products in greater detail—colorful comparative product charts and technical specs set you apart from non-brand registered competitors.
Brand registry provides these benefits in two main ways:
Here’s an example of what A+ content looks like:
There’s also something known as A++ or premium A+ content that unlocks even greater features; however, this is an invite-only feature and is available only to very large brands. Plus, it’s costly and is only accessible via Vendor Central.
Registered brands that want to create A+ content should:
There are plenty of modules to choose from. Select the one you like and start uploading!
Note: Amazon recommends image resolution for each module to prevent low-quality images being uploaded to the A+ content section.
Aside from A+ content, Amazon Brand Registry also provides access to tools that help sellers increase visibility and build a loyal customer base. These include:
Now, let’s take a look at the advertising features brand registered users benefit from.
When it comes promoting Amazon products to relevant audiences, nothing brings in sales and increased visibility like paid ad campaigns. Fortunately for brand registered users, extra PPC features makes it easier to turn heads in your direction.
Amazon’s brand registry unlocks advertising options for users that are unavailable to sellers outside of the program (Amazon Vine is one of them). The most prominent of these ad products include Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Display ads.
Image Caption: Non-brand registered Amazon sellers can only run Sponsored Products ads.
The top row of search results is usually reserved for sponsored product ads belonging to different buyers within the same niche. With Sponsored Brands, however, your brand’s logo, custom headline, and three products appear at the top or middle of search results. The increased digital real estate enhances brand reputation and brings in extra traffic to your store.
Image Caption: Example of a Sponsored Brand ad on Amazon US for the keyword “gaming chair”.
Next, we have Sponsored Display ads that are also exclusively for Amazon brand registered users. Sponsored Display ads are unique because they let you target buyers on and off Amazon.
Pro tip: PPC ad campaigns can be used to target keywords (i.e. they appear against specific search terms) or competitors (i.e. they appear on competitors’ product listings) but not many sellers know that you can also use Sponsored Display ads to target your own listings!
But why would sellers target their own listings? Because by targeting your own product detail page, you occupy the space that would otherwise be targeted by a competitor. This strategy prevents potential customers from switching to your rival's stores.
Finally, brand registered sellers can participate in Amazon’s Brand Referral Bonus program. Participants gain the opportunity to earn bonuses from their non-Amazon marketing campaigns and boost their advertising efficiency. Bonuses resulting from qualifying sales vary according to product category. For more information, visit the official Amazon Brand Referral Bonus page.
According to Amazon: “Brand Analytics is a feature that contains valuable insights to empower Brand Owners to make informed, strategic decisions about their product portfolio and marketing/advertising activities”.
Use the Brand Analytics dashboard to download reports that help you better understand your customers. Getting into the mind of the average buyer lets you formulate strategies that increase brand loyalty and ultimately boost conversions.
Image Caption: Consumer Behavior reports available for download within Amazon Brand Analytics dashboard.
The Consumer Behavior Dashboard lets you download the following reports:
The Amazon Search Terms report contains information regarding popular keywords during a specific period. It ranks each keyword across multiple categories and assigns a search frequency rank. Also, the top 3 most clicked ASINs for that keyword are mentioned with each entry.
Sellers can derive a number of benefits from the Amazon Search Terms report including:
Note: Be mindful of the reporting range; some products are high-performers only during certain times of the year, i.e. seasonal products.
The Market Basket Analysis report reveals the top 3 products your customers purchase most frequently alongside your (i.e. the brand owner) products.
Do you have these complementary products in your lineup? If you do, you could create bundle offers and make your products more lucrative and if not, consider expanding your Amazon store by adding products you know your customers want to purchase.
When it comes to identifying bundling and cross-marketing strategies, few tools offer the same insights as Market Basket Analysis, so keep checking up on these reports.
It’s well-known in the business world that it’s easier and less costly to retain existing customers than it is to attract new ones. The stronger the brand loyalty, the higher the number of repeat customers.
The Repeat Purchase Behavior report shows the number of orders brand owners received and what percentage of those purchases came from unique customers. By comparing both figures, you can identify products that were ordered more than once during a specific timeframe.
Did you use a different ad strategy during that time? Was there more emphasis on driving external traffic via social media? Whatever it was, it worked, and you should attempt to replicate the same strategy and/or test it on different products.
Amazon attribution is an analytics and advertising tool that informs brand owners how well their off-Amazon marketing activities are doing. The tool is available for Amazon brand registry owners, agencies, and vendors and measures media such as email marketing, video ads, search ads, display ads, and social ads off Amazon.
The Attribution report also allows you to view key metrics like detail page views, purchases, and Add to Carts by using Attribution tags placed on off-Amazon emails and ads. You can use Amazon Attribution to optimize and tweak your marketing campaigns and improve your customers’ overall shopping experience.
The Demographics report contains information regarding customers’ profiles based on factors such as age, gender, education, marital status, and household income. The report shows ASIN sales based on each factor and also provides metrics such as the number of unique customers and ordered product sales as a percentage of the total for each demographic segment.
The information provided by the Demographics report helps brand owners create and improve upon existing targeted marketing campaigns and make their product detail pages relatable to their target audience.
Considering all the benefits Amazon brand registry offers, it makes sense to invest in the trademark and apply for a brand owner status.
Yet, despite the advantages offered by Amazon brand registry, it’s still not enough to create the ultimate Amazon store. Sellers still need extra help when it comes to researching the right products, targeting keywords, optimizing product listings, and sourcing the best suppliers.
Fortunately for you, there are plenty of Amazon seller tools that offer assistance with these tasks, and one tool that stands out from the pack is known as ZonGuru.
A holistic seller toolkit, ZonGuru can help you in grow your Amazon business, automate core operations, and assist with:
We believe ZonGuru is the perfect tool for your business, and that’s why we’re handing out a free 7-day trial!
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