Amazon has become one of the major and ever-evolving eCommerce platforms. This means that Amazon offers new opportunities almost every day allowing people to shop for everything right from a single platform. It is a general understanding that wherever there is an opportunity, there are those who would wish to exploit it. In Amazon’s case, this would be an Amazon “hijacker”.
Listing hijackers are only successful only if the Amazon sellers remain unaware of their existence. No doubt, there are people who can hijack your Amazon listing but that does not mean that you can do nothing about it. There are certain preemptive steps you can take to make it difficult for them to easily hijack your listing on Amazon.
In today’s article, I will discuss what Amazon listing hijacking means, what hijackers do, how can you protect your account from them, and what to do if something happens.
What Exactly Hijacked Amazon Listing Means?
A hijacked Amazon listing means that there is someone out there selling a similar or counterfeit version of your products registered under your private label. Not only this is frustrating for the private label seller but also unfair when you see your efforts and products being used by someone else.
A hijacked Amazon listing is a major concern for sellers. As per a survey, 48% of Amazon sellers are concerned about listing hijackers copying their private label products.
Hijackers offer counterfeit versions of your products at lower prices and poor quality. Hijackers not only sell counterfeit versions of your product but they also negatively impact your product listing. Since customers have purchased these counterfeits of your product, they will complain or leave negative reviews on your listing. Hence you are at a loss in both ways.
How to Know if Your Amazon Listing is Hijacked?
There is not any perfect definition, however, the following three points can help you understand better if your listing is hijacked:
- A person who is not affiliated with your company or an authorized reseller starts selling on your listing.
- The Buy Box for your product’s listing has been taken by someone.
- Customers start leaving negative or unusual reviews on your product listing.
Difference Between Amazon Sellers & Hijackers
The counterfeit products either appear on the product’s Buy Box or in the “Other Sellers on Amazon” section. It looks somewhat like this:
As it is clear from the picture above, the original seller is MOCREO while the counterfeit products are selling at a $2 discount. So, it is highly likely that shoppers would be attracted to counterfeit products. So, this becomes clear that the MOCREO is the original Amazon seller while the other sellers are most likely to be hijackers given they are selling the right of the main listing page at a lower price.
Consequences of Hijacking
A hijacked Amazon listing not only impacts your customers but also impacts your business as well.
To put things in perspective, imagine an unsuspecting customer who purchases from a hijacked Amazon listing. Now, instead of receiving the original product, the customer would receive a counterfeit and it would be the hijacker who gets the sale and not you.
No doubt, the customer would be unhappy with the low quality and will leave a negative review on your listing. This is possible because the hijacker has control over the Buy Box but you have to face the consequences. Your business is affected in two ways, first, you do not get a sale but get a negative review, second, the negative review would deter future sales as well.
5 Ways to Protect Your Amazon Listing from Hijackers
You need a simple yet smart strategy to deal with Amazon hijackers. Following is a list of five steps needed to protect your Amazon listing:
- Close Monitoring
- Building Your Own Website
- Better Product Branding
- Filing Complaint
- Enroll in Amazon’s Brand Registry
1. Close Monitoring
The threat of Amazon listing hijackers is imminent and you should always remain cautious. You should check your Seller Central dashboard and also view your listings from the shoppers’ point of view. Looking at your listings in this manner will help you identify if there are any other sellers selling your private-label product. Remember that it should only be you selling that product otherwise there may be a hijacker situation at hand. The frequency of checking your listings can be weekly especially when your private label product hits off.
2. Building Your Own Website
Setting up your own eCommerce website on Square Space or Shopify, etc., can prove to be very beneficial for your business. It would also prove to be a safeguard against listing hijackers. It will allow you to verify your business through your website and help you create a strong and credible brand image.
3. Better Product Branding
You can save your product from listing hijackers with better branding of your business logo. With your packaging and your actual product, you need to show the customers that you have a distinct brand and a unique logo that should not be mistaken for any copycat. This will help you to clearly present your brand identity, and even in case of a hijacked listing, the customer will be able to easily identify that it is a different seller with a counterfeit product.
Make sure your product as well as your brand is clearly visible in product images and videos. By doing this, you would be further emphasizing your private label product and your brand making it easier for your customer to identify that it belongs to your business.
4. Filing Complaint
Be sure to notify Amazon of any listing hijacking with a single form. All you need is to gather evidence that includes purchasing the counterfeit product yourself, and recording and analyzing all the ways that the product appears to be deceitful. Then submit these proofs to Amazon.
Be sure to collect as many photos as possible and ensure that they are enough to differentiate between your original product and the counterfeit version. As we all know, Amazon is highly concerned about improving its shoppers’ experience and making it better. So, if you succeed in convincing Amazon that the counterfeit products would lead to unhappy customers, there is a high chance that they will take action.
5. Enroll in Amazon’s Brand Registry
Enrolling yourself in Amazon’s Brand Registry is an effective method to save yourself as well as your brand. This will allow you access to powerful marketing tools as well as gives you higher control over your Amazon listings.
Amazon’s Brand Registry also provides you with a dedicated internal team to escalate and submit IP infringement claims in case of counterfeit or IP concerns. Please note that this will not necessarily prevent hijacking of your listing but will increase the level of protection for your registered brand.
Registered brands can also leverage the Transparency Program, a program for product serialization, that enables Amazon to authenticate every item before it is shipped. This further quality check will ensure the end consumer gets a quality product and not a cheap counterfeit.
Summary
Not a single seller would like their listings to be hijacked or want someone else to steal their revenues. So, it is best to adopt a proactive approach instead of a reactive approach. This means that sellers should enact precautionary measures beforehand to minimize, if not eliminate, the threat of listing hijackers. The precautionary measures include steps such as Amazon brand registry, product packaging and branding, listing trademarks, product bundling, and developing your own website.
It is important to note that these steps do not guarantee 100% safety from listing hijackers, however, it provides a certain degree of cover to ward them off. Remember to always be vigilant and check your Seller Central dashboard frequently and make sure that your product listing is live and running. Also, view your listing from the shopper’s perspective, at least once or twice a month, to ensure there are no other sellers selling your private-label product.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Amazon listing hijacking?
Amazon listing hijacking occurs when an unauthorized seller hijacks your listing and lists copy version of your private label product. These listings are shown in the “Other Sellers” section on your listing usually with a lower price tag.
What is a dummy listing on Amazon?
A dummy listing refers to an ASIN that is set up by Amazon sellers for their potential product listing yo see if there would be any requirements set out by Amazon before they can start selling.
Can sellers get scammed?
Few barriers and checkpoints and thousands of new sellers every day increase the probability of fraud. It can be said that there is a high risk of scams and sellers need to be very watchful.
What are listing hijacking and a Buy Box?
The unauthorized seller gets a hold of your Buy Box after he hijacks your listing. This means that he is making money out of the sales made through your listings. This hits sellers in two ways; reduced revenues, and negative customer reviews due to the poor quality of counterfeit products.
Feel free to consult XpertVA’s professionals for efficient Amazon Listing Services to boost your ranking and improve sales revenue. Book a consultation with our skilled professionals and grow your business.
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