At RepricerExpress we often get sellers who manufacture and sell their own branded products asking if they would have full control over their listings and product details, if they listed them on Amazon marketplaces. Up until now, the answer may have been a grey, ‘yes and no’, however, Amazon has addressed the issue with the introduction of the Amazon Brand Registry program (login required) which is aimed at making it easier for sellers with their own brands to manage those brands and list their products on Amazon.
Amazon itself highlights the following benefits:
- Increased authority over listing content for your products: Registering your brand with Amazon gives you increased control over your products’ titles, details, images, and other attributes. It also has the potential to reduce matching errors that may occur during listing.
- Amazon-issued product IDs that can be used in place of UPCs: Registering your brand allows you to list your products without standard product identifiers, such as UPCs and EANs. Enrolment automatically assigns a Global Catalogue Identifier (GCID) to your products, which can be used in place of the standard product ID. (We recommend, however, that you continue to include standard IDs if they are available for your products. Although not required, the standard product ID helps Amazon and customers to locate your product.)
Types of Sellers and Exclusions
The following sellers are potential candidates for the Amazon Brand Registry:
- Traditional manufacturers
- Private label brand owners
- Producers of branded white-label products
- Creators of custom or hand-made products
- Sole or exclusive distributors of a product on Amazon for all European marketplaces.
Sellers should note that there are a number of sellers NOT currently eligible to apply to the programme, including:
- Sellers of Books, Media, Video, DVD (BMVD) products
- Individual sellers—as the programme is currently open to Pro sellers only individual sellers can still apply for registration, however, if they’re accepted, they will need to switch to a Pro Seller account (regardless, you’ll need an Amazon Seller Central account to sell on Amazon).
Applying to Participate
To apply to register your brand with Amazon Brand Registry, follow the following steps as outlined by Amazon:
- Complete the online application and select your identifying attributes (see below).
- Participate in a phone call or email interview with an Amazon representative, if required.
- Once you’re enrolled, begin listing your products—they will be automatically assigned a unique product ID called the Global Catalogue Identifier (GCID).
Identifying Attributes
When enrolling your products, you will need to provide identifying attributes that help establish your products as part of your brand. Amazon offers greater detail regarding the eligible identifying attributes and product categories (which they intend to update regularly), however, here’s a summary:
- Manufacturer’s Part Number: is the preferred attribute for the Amazon Brand Registry and should be used only if no two products share the same part number.
- Catalogue Number: are less easy to find but still uniquely identify products—you may know them as:
- merchant-catalog-number
- MerchantCatalogNumber
- catalog-id-number
- Standard Product IDs: can be used if you do not re-use them on different products.
- Compound IDs: can be used if you don’t have a single eligible attribute—rather you can use a combination of attributes to identify your product(s).
As mentioned earlier, Amazon intends to update its table of eligible identifying attributes by product category and so is welcoming sellers’ recommendations for new identifying attributes. It’s wise to check this table before registering any products to ensure you’re accessing the latest iteration of it.
