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The Challenge

Removing unauthorized sellers through legal enforcement is a critical part of any eControl program, particularly during the initial cleanup phase.  Indeed, structuring the right legal foundation to support unauthorized seller enforcement is a key foundational requirement for achieving online sales control and setting expectations with sales channels.  While leveraging some ongoing legal enforcement is a reality for virtually all brands, most companies would benefit greatly from determining the source of their diversion problems and implementing the changes necessary to alleviate them.  Tackling the root cause of these issues is key to any comprehensive eControl solution.  By broadening their eControl strategy in this way, brands are able to strengthen their ability to achieve sales control, stop unauthorized sales at the source, avoid playing an indefinite game of “whack-a-mole,” and more quickly realize a healthier marketplace.

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How We Can Help

We work with brands to identify the likely root cause of their product diversion.  We then suggest and implement strategies to help stop these diversion causes.  We do this by investigating and identifying the diversion source of unauthorized sellers. We then dig deeper to understand our clients’ business practices with their sales channels (i.e., differentiated pricing corridors, promotional strategies, liquidation practices, customer incentives and others) to identify where and how their business goals are being disrupted. Specifically, we:

  • Search for and help identify unauthorized seller diversion sources by:
    • Gathering relevant, client-provided customer lists and related purchasing/transaction information, including product order volumes, bill-to and ship-to detail, and other information both through direct and two-tier distribution channels, as applicable. We augment these data with additional information, such as hard copy invoices and bills of lading, as necessary.
    • Using open-source intelligence (OSINT) and investigative techniques to examine unauthorized online sellers and determine their firmographic profile; their sales and financial activities; and their societal, familial and business connections to authorized sales channels.
    • Analyzing data (client provided, Vorys’ proprietary, and market intelligence described above) to determine patterns and red flags signaling potential diversion sources.
    • Leveraging red flag patterns to review sample sales transactions, sales channel credit notes, and bills of lading related to identified sellers and time periods.
  • Identify likely root causes, including business and channel management practices, creating the environment for seller violations.
  • Recommend potential corrective actions to stop or mitigate unauthorized sales in commercially realistic ways.
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Benefits

  • Help stop unauthorized sales at the source, reduce enforcement “whack-a-mole”, save enforcement expenses and realize a cleaner, healthier online marketplace.
  • Potentially stop practices inhibiting brands’ online marketplace sales and growth objectives.
  • Identify business practices fueling diversion and unauthorized sales and adopt corrective actions.
  • Implement an ongoing monitoring mechanism to efficiently identify and prevent future issues.

Download Root Cause White Paper

This free white paper details strategies to help identify and correct the root cause of product diversion within your brand. Learn how to help stop unauthorized sales at the source, reduce enforcement “whack-a-mole”, save enforcement expenses and realize a cleaner, healthier marketplace.