2 new marketing options for FBA sellers on Amazon’s Brand Registry

There have been many articles and discussions over the past few weeks about Amazon’s Brand Registry. We’ve addressed it here, at “Will Amazon’s Brand Registry restrict marketplace sellers?” and “Why Use Amazon’s Brand Registry?”

Resellers are concerned that these changes are pushing them out of the marketplace, in favor of brands and manufacturers selling directly. The crackdown on counterfeiters continues to accelerate, catching resellers in its wake. Meanwhile, ecommerce brands try to determine if the marketplace is the right tool to help grow their sales.

Regardless, the Brand Registry is clearly giving more power to manufacturers and brands.

In fact, Amazon has made changes that enhance the marketing of brands that use Fulfillment by Amazon and that are enrolled in the Registry. Amazingly, I don’t see a lot of brands taking advantage of them.

For those brands, under the Advertising menu button in the Seller Central account, there are two new items: “Enhanced Brand Content” and “Early Reviewer Program.”

For those brands that use Fulfillment by Amazon and are enrolled in Brand Registry, there are two marketing options: “Enhanced Brand Content” and “Early Reviewer Program.”

Both of these have been launched in the last six months and are good additions to enhance a brand’s FBA selling. Both are only available to sellers in the Brand Registry.

Enhanced Brand Content

There has always been a difference between a product page created in Vendor Central versus one created via FBA. Vendor Central product pages had far more content, images, and videos, while FBA pages were a bit sparse.

Enrolling in the Brand Registry allows FBA sellers access to this enhanced content.

Enhanced Brand Content allows the seller to create a product page with a better description, using images, text, and the brand’s story. All of this should lead to higher conversion rates.

Amazon provides five templates to choose from, to enhance a brand’s product page. Each product can have its own template.

Amazon provides five templates to choose from, to enhance a brand’s product page. Each product can have its own template.

After building the page, sellers must submit it to Amazon for approval, which usually takes less than seven days. There are certain items that Amazon will not allow on the EBC pages.

• No seller contact information.

• Do not reference competitors’ products.

• Do not use the term “product only sold by authorized resellers,” or any other authorizing statement.

• Only use the brand’s logos.

• Images are high resolution. No blurry or low-quality images.

• This is a brand story page, so keep away from pricing promotions, free shipping offers, top-selling product statements, or any other sales-focused terms. Use the space to highlight the benefits, using images and text.

• Do not include third-party information, such as press clippings, endorsements, and Amazon customer reviews.

• Do not simply repeat what you have already written on your existing product attributes.

• Create new content designed to speak to the brand and product.

• Do not mention warranties or guarantees.

• Do not link or otherwise direct users to other sites outside of Amazon or pages within Amazon.

• Use bold and italic fonts only for headings or select words. Don’t create strings of caps and bold words.

• Do not promote illegal activity.

• Do not violate Amazon terms and conditions.

• Avoid grammatical errors, spelling errors, and punctuation errors.

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Early Reviewer Program

Last year, Amazon eliminated the ability for sellers to trade reviews for a free or reduced-price product. Many sellers were abusing this. It was so out of hand that there was an entire ecosystem around paying or trading for reviews.

Reviews are very important, and since that time, sellers have had to find other ways to obtain them. This is very hard work. But Amazon is now trying to help.

Its first attempt is the Early Reviewer program. This is similar to the Vine program, for Amazon vendors, wherein Amazon invites high-quality reviewers for those products.

To enroll in the Early Reviewer Program, a company must be enrolled in the Brand Registry. The product needs to be new. It has to have less than five reviews.

Only “parent” items can be submitted. “Child” items will get picked up automatically.

The product has to sell for more than $15. If the price goes below $15, Amazon will stop collecting reviews. Amazon charges $60 per SKU for this service, which will result in five reviews.