Ultimate Guide to Amazon Brand Registry

Ever heard of Amazon Brand Registry? Even if you haven’t, this article is all your need to familiarise yourself with it – Amazon’s very own programme is designed to help Amazon Seller Central sellers exercise more control over their brands and have greater protection.

Amazon Brand Registry/Brand Services explained

Amazon Brand Registry is a service focused on providing sellers with tools to protect their intellectual property, as well as to find and report any IP violations. However, the service also packs a range of useful features which can help sellers improve conversions, increase discoverability and ultimately build better customer loyalty.

Once you’re enrolled in the Brand Registry programme, you have access to exclusive features which can help you increase brand presence, as well as gain insights through detailed analytics and other useful information – which can help to boost sales and provide an overall better buying experience to your customers.

How do I enrol my brand into Amazon Brand Registry?

To get started, you need to first ensure that you meet the underlying requirements for enrolling into Amazon Brand Registry. Here’s what you need:

An active and registered trademark, which can be a text-based wordmark or an image-based mark containing words, letters and/or numbers.
Verify yourself as the right owner/authorised agent for the trademark by providing links to the brand website which clearly shows the information you want to register. In addition, provide product images by hand which shows the information you wish to register.
An active Amazon account, either Seller Central of Vendor Central

Sign in to your Seller Central account and then go to Amazon Brand Registry’s eligibility page to enrol. Again, just to reiterate the above, you’ll need to provide your brand’s current trademark registration number which you got from the IP office. If you’re currently waiting for the trademark to be issued, you can still enrol in Amazon Brand Registry – simply provide the application number and you’re all set.

Now provide the list of product categories you want your brand to be listed in. Once your Brand Registry application has been submitted to Amazon, you will get verification as the Rights Owner of the brand trademark. You’ll also get a verification code from Amazon via a designated contact person, which must be sent back to Amazon in order to complete the enrolment.

Once all your information has been verified, you can start accessing Amazon’s Brand Registry features to protect your brand and intellectual property. To view the detailed steps, you can skip to the end of the article.

Are there any pros and cons to enrolling in Amazon Brand Registry?

There are definitely advantages to enrolling in Amazon Brand Registry, particularly for first-time sellers who often don’t see these advantages at first, as they likely have not been involved in a contest over product rights on the marketplace – not yet, anyway, that is.

If you enrol now, you are, in a way, future-proofing yourself – allowing your brand and Amazon to collaborate in order to reduce any potential IP rights violations, and in turn, promoting a more accurate representation of what your brand is about on Amazon.

Pros of Amazon Brand Registry

A trademark helps to protect your brand;
Amazon is constantly working to come up with more unique ways of protecting sellers from counterfeit listings and hijacking;
Proprietary tools such as brand analytics, A/B testing, Access to Amazon Vine, Amazon Stores and A+ Content.;
Innovative features are being added for Brand Registered sellers, including uploading custom videos to the product page, having your own Amazon URL and more product detail customisation filters.

Cons of Amazon Brand Registry

You need to follow due process for registering a trademark first;
In order to enjoy Brand Registry’s full IP protection benefits, you must re-enrol any existing brands which were registered via the old system;
For any upcoming product launches, you might not be comfortable investing in a trademark until the product has been fully tested and shown proven sales records.

How to set up your Brand Registry Account: Step-by-step guide

Once your trademark has been processed, you can set up an Amazon Brand Registry account – however, bear in mind that Amazon does not cater the service to two product categories namely:

Music, DVDs, videos and books
Any products falling under the sports collectable and entertainment category

Just to reiterate quickly: Amazon Brand Registry is only available to sellers who are either product manufacturers, brand owners or distributors/sellers who have formal permission in writing from the product brand owner to oversee the sales of the said product on Amazon. If you’re not in any of these three categories, you cannot enrol in Amazon Brand Registry.

Step 1 – Sign in

Using the same username and password you used to register your Seller Central or Vendor Central account ensures full access to Amazon Brand Registry’s features and benefits. After signing in, you’ll come across the Brand Eligibility section which has three questions you must answer to the best of your knowledge.

Step 2 – Upload product

Next, you need to upload your product, along with packaging and your logo images. Make sure the brand name is mentioned clearly on both the product and packaging.

Step 3 – Answer additional questions

The Characteristics section of the application must be completed which asks a few straightforward questions, all of which are self-explanatory for the most part.

What if Amazon denies my application?

While this isn’t exactly uncommon – it does happen and if it happens to you by any chance, it’s important not to panic!

Amazon probably had a genuine reason to turn down your application – read the message more than once if you need to, and try to get a grip on the underlying message and the reason for rejection.

In some cases, the denial email can be a bit vague and confusing, although in most cases, denials are due to sellers not meeting some of the requirements. Generally, one of the more common reasons for denial is not having a proper image of the brand on your packaging as Amazon requires your brand/logo to be printed on the packages, as opposed to the sticker.

Closing thoughts

This guide provides insights into what Amazon Brand Registry is, how it can benefit you, and how you can kickstart the application process. However, to gain an edge over other sellers and ensure that your application gets pushed through easily and accepted, it’s vital to consult an expert Amazon marketing agency that has years of experience helping sellers protect themselves on Amazon and building brand loyalty as well as trustworthiness, among other things.