Category: Home and Kitchen

Challenges

The brand faced significant challenges in maintaining control over its buybox on Amazon. Unauthorized sellers were frequently undercutting prices and damaging the brand's reputation. Additionally, the presence of rogue sellers led to inconsistent customer experiences and confusion over the authenticity of the products.

Objectives

The primary goals for the brand included:

• Cleaning up distribution channels to prevent unauthorized sales on Amazon.
• Improving control over the Amazon buybox to ensure pricing consistency and brand integrity.
• Enhancing customer trust by ensuring that only authorized sellers were listing the brand's products.

Strategy

To achieve these objectives, the following strategies and tactics were implemented:

• Distribution Channel Cleanup: We worked closely with the brand to identify and clean up distribution channels. This involved ensuring that none of the brand's distributors were selling on Amazon or supplying products to individuals who sold on Amazon.
• Monitoring and Enforcement: We initiated a routine process of submitting claims against rogue sellers on Amazon. This included:
• Test Buys: Performing test buys to gather evidence of unauthorized sales and demonstrating to Amazon that the brand was actively monitoring its listings.
• Claims Submission: Routinely submitting claims to Amazon to remove listings by unauthorized sellers.
• Legal Enforcement: The brand's legal team sent cease-and-desist letters to rogue sellers to enforce the brand's online reseller policy. This legal action aimed to deter unauthorized sellers from listing the brand's products and to protect the brand's integrity.

Implementation

• Distribution Cleanup: Over the first three months, we collaborated with the brand's internal team to audit and clean up their distribution network. This process involved direct communication with distributors and implementing strict policies to prevent unauthorized sales.
• Routine Monitoring: From month four onwards, we established a systematic approach to monitor Amazon listings. Weekly scans and test buys were conducted, and any unauthorized listings were immediately reported to Amazon.
• Legal Actions: Concurrently, the brand's legal team sent out cease-and-desist letters to identified rogue sellers, reinforcing the brand's commitment to maintaining control over its product listings.

Results

The strategies and efforts led to significant improvements over the past year:

• Sales Growth: The brand experienced a 55.6% increase in sales this year compared to 43% in the last four months of 2023.
• Traffic Increase: There was an 82.9% increase in traffic year over year due to multiple factors:
• Buybox Control: Improved buybox control allowed for more budget and ads utilization.
• Ad Spend: Ad spend increased by 40% year over year, boosting traffic.
• Organic Page Views: Organic page views increased by 60% due to higher rankings driven by ads without buybox restrictions.
• Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): ROAS increased by 15%, attributed to the removal of buybox restrictions, allowing full execution of the ad strategy.

Conclusion

The partnership between the brand and our agency successfully addressed the challenges of unauthorized sales on Amazon. By cleaning up distribution channels, routinely monitoring listings, and enforcing legal actions against rogue sellers, the brand regained control over its Amazon buybox, leading to substantial growth in sales, traffic, and advertising efficiency. The ongoing collaboration aims to maintain these improvements and explore further growth opportunities.