Previously, I wasn’t advising people to register their brand – I didn’t think it was essential to the majority of sellers. But in the past few months, Amazon Australia has introduced a few things that have made brand registry a very worthwhile thing to have.
First of all, what is ‘brand registry’?
Amazon Brand Registry is a program that helps protect your brands and your listings, it also offers extra tools to optimise your listings.
So, what’s changed?
Recently, brand registry in Australia has changed in 3 significant ways making it more attractive than ever to the average Amazon seller.
Reason #1: It now has a support desk located in Australia
Having a ‘local’ English-speaking support desk dedicated to brand-registered sellers is a HUGE benefit. It gives you access to a much higher level of help than what standard sellers get.
This is an excellent reason to become brand registered, but it doesn’t stop there…
Reason #2: You now have ‘brand analytics’
Another recent introduction is something called brand analytics, which sounds boring but it’s actually something incredibly useful.
Brand analytics gives you access to Amazon’s data – sales, search information etc. – that is massively helpful for researching new products and analysing current listings.
It also means that whatever software you’re currently using for analysis, be it MerchantWords, Jungle Scout, Unicorn Smasher, Egrow, Helium 10 etc. you can just throw them out – you won’t need them anymore. Brand analytics is superior to them because it uses Amazon’s actual data and not educated guesses.
Do you need another reason? Ok!
Reason #3: You now have better protection from ‘nefarious hijackers’
‘Hijacking’ is when someone checks out a seller’s product and decides to sell the same product. There’s nothing wrong with doing this. In fact, Amazon encourages multiple sellers to sell the same product. This is so the item’s always in stock and the customer gets the best price.
A nefarious hijacker is someone who starts selling the same product as you but doesn’t actually have any stock (or they’re selling a much inferior version). Their goal is to rip off customers, and in doing so, ruin your legitimate listing.
Another benefit of being brand registered is getting access to a much higher level of protection against nefarious hijackers.
What do I need to become brand registered?
Before you do anything else, you need to register a trademark. Here in Oz, you head over to IP Australia. Beware! The process takes around 7 months. You cannot become brand registered until your trademark has been approved – so it’s best to do it as soon as possible. It will cost you around $300 plus GST.
I once thought that brand registry was something you only do when your store is huge and selling thousands of items… but not anymore. Since they’ve introduced these 3 benefits, there’s no reason why any Amazon seller shouldn’t become brand registered.
If you have any more questions about Amazon FBA, please check out my other articles. You just might find the answer you’re looking for 😉
Hugs!
Stacey