2 min read
Each year companies spend thousands of dollars trying to control their sales channel(s) and stop the distribution of counterfeit versions of their products sold online. Top e-commerce marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, and Alibaba, and commerce platforms like Facebook Marketplace, are typically the primary focus. Understandably, company CEOs, CFOs, and their General Counsel view this expense with aversion, considering it an unavoidable cost of doing business in this internet age. Like insurance, most C-level executives view brand protection and online channel management through the lens of risk mitigation, an important element of corporate strategy for all companies. However, an investment in smart brand protection tools and strategies can increase sales and drive revenue growth, contributing thousands (or even millions) of dollars to a company’s bottom line.
If your company is not analyzing and deploying its brand protection program as a driver for business growth, then you are doing it all wrong. Here’s how to get it right.
First, it’s important to remember how e-commerce marketplaces work and how counterfeiters make sales on platforms like Amazon. As explained in an earlier IPSecure blog post, every product listing on Amazon is assigned an Amazon Standard Identification Number, or ASIN, and every unique ASIN will have at least one, but more likely dozens of, seller offers (some authentic but some likely counterfeit) attached to it. Each seller competes to be the chosen seller when that user clicks “BUY.” Being the seller chosen to sell the product is called “winning the ‘Buy Box’.” Buy Box winners, over time, will capture most, if not all, of the revenue generated by a product listing on Amazon. A brand owner can measure the effectiveness of its brand protection efforts by tracking whether authorized sellers are winning the Amazon Buy Box more frequently than counterfeiters.
When brand protection tools and strategies identify unauthorized sellers winning the Buy Box and remove them, that increases the likelihood that authorized sellers of a company’s products win the Buy Box. Winning the Buy Box means increased sales and increased sales mean increased revenues. The connection between sales growth and effective brand protection is so critical that if a company is operating its sales, marketing, and legal teams in silos, it will miss the opportunity to turn its investment in IP protection and risk mitigation into revenue going to the bottom line.
IPSecure’s brand protection tools and technology enable company lawyers and non-lawyers to design and implement effective anti-counterfeit detection and enforcement campaigns to protect consumers from unauthorized sellers and the distribution of counterfeit products – products that can harm buyers as well as the reputation of the brand owner and authorized resellers. With a good strategy and innovative technology, however, the cost of brand protection isn’t wasted money but rather an investment in growth.
For more information, or to start protecting your brand on Amazon in minutes, visit ipsecure.com today!
