Unauthorized Amazon Seller Enforcement: Two Metrics That Matter and Two That Don’t
Many brands engage in some form of enforcement activity against unauthorized Amazon sellers. Few brands, however, focus their enforcement efforts on driving metrics that translate into real commercial improvement. Most brands’ ultimate goal is to stop lost sales or erosion of their hard-earned brand equity, not to create reports showing seller “takedown” numbers. As such, brands need to develop and track metrics that measure the actual effectiveness of their efforts and indicate whether they are, in fact, fixing the underlying issues that are causing their unauthorized sales problems. If your brand is spending time and money on enforcement but not making a meaningful difference in the metrics that matter, you should rethink your strategy. To that end, below are two metrics that matter for many brands in driving real commercial gains through enforcement, as well as two commonly used metrics that don’t.
TWO METRICS THAT MATTER
Two critical KPIs for brands seeking to drive real business value through their enforcement programs are (i) the percentage of sales volume and (ii) the percentage of revenue being captured by your authorized Amazon seller in the channel. To drive these KPIs, brands must first monitor the sales volumes and revenues being attained by all sellers in the Amazon channel. Next, brands must prioritize the identification and removal of the disruptive sellers that are actually taking sales away from their authorized seller(s). If your enforcement efforts are not specifically focused on driving these KPIs or you are failing to meaningfully improve them, see our recent blog post: Five Reasons Why Your Unauthorized Seller Enforcement Strategy Is Not Driving Meaningful Results.
TWO METRICS THAT DON’T MATTER
Many brands erroneously focus their enforcement efforts on (i) the number or (ii) the percentage of unauthorized sellers removed. Both are vanity metrics that often fail to translate into real commercial improvement. For example, simply removing [x] number or [x]% of unauthorized sellers does not mean that your authorized seller(s) will be able to win a materially greater percentage of revenue in the Amazon channel. Brands will find that 20% (or less) of their unauthorized sellers cause 80% (or more) of their Amazon brand erosion problems. To win, brands must be able to prioritize and remove the specific unauthorized sellers that are actually causing them harm, rather than focusing on the mere number or percentage of sellers removed at any given time.
If your enforcement strategy is not focused on metrics that matter, or is otherwise failing to drive commercially meaningful results, please contact Daren Garcia at dsgarcia@vorys.com or (513) 723.4076 for a complimentary initial consultation.
For a comprehensive overview of unauthorized seller enforcement best practices download our eBook: Achieving Brand Control and Stopping Unauthorized Sales Online