Keeping it Clean at Outdoor Retailer: Protecting Amazon Channels from Price Slashing Rogue Sellers 

— Cleaning was a major focus at Outdoor Retailer Summer Market this year, from a full-scale parking lot takeover by KEEN to promote recycling and conservation efforts to presentations about how to clear Amazon channels of unauthorized sellers. For many brands, the solution to both issues is to take control of the process themselves.  

The Challenge 

The greatest ecommerce challenge for the outdoor industry is achieving the right balance between their online and B&M business. In many cases, B&Ms are the main source of revenue within this category, so many brands have allowed B&M retailers and distributors to also resell product on online marketplaces, including Amazon. 

While the decision may seem insignificant, many brands we spoke with described their frustration with B&Ms reselling online because they end up competing for sales, driving down prices that cuts into their bottom line. Perhaps even worse, they’ve also seen their products misrepresented by poor and inconsistent content, undermining their brand image and harming their relationship with their customers. Repairing your online representation and Amazon channel is a time consuming and difficult effort that can takes months or even years of proactive work to resolve. 

The Solution 

Restrict sellers. The root of the problem is having too many sellers and sellers who don’t uphold your brand’s pricing policies or content standards. Brands are best served by working with a select few, trusted sellers, with contracts that clearly define where retailers are permitted to sell. Brands can also use brand watch software like Perispect to monitor their sellers and pricing, ensuring that they always know who is selling their product and how they’re representing your brand. 

Brands can restrict retailers all the way down to 0, instead choosing to sell their products themselves on Amazon. This path is one of the most effective ways to maximize brand control and profitability, but it requires a huge investment in time, technology, and manpower, as well as extensive knowledge of best practices for Amazon SEO, sponsored ads, content marketing, fulfillment, distribution, accounting, sales taxes, case management, legal and marketplace compliance, and more.   

It’s a lot of work that requires a dedicated team to execute successfully. 

If you want the brand control, but don’t have the desire or means to run everything, we encourage you to connect with Marketplace Growth Partners, a division of etailz that operates as an Amazon agency. They’ll serve as an extension of your brand, implementing etailz’s technology and expertise from within your seller account to grow your Amazon business.  

Contact Marketplace Growth Partners today to receive custom recommendations and a quote.