Starting September 1, Amazon will require third-party sellers in the U.S. to list their business names and addresses on their public-facing profiles, making it harder for fraudulent accounts to sell knockoff products. This is step two in Amazon’s broader initiative toward a “counterfeit crimes unit” to sniff out illegal counterfeiters on the site. (Read more here.)
At Velocity Commerce Group, we believe the effects of this added transparency will be enormous. Not only will it make it harder for third-party sellers to stay anonymous, but it will help buyers make more informed shopping decisions before making purchases by factoring in the merchant’s likelihood of selling counterfeits.This comes just as lawmakers urged Amazon and eBay executives to take a stronger stance against 3rd party vendors who sell fake goods on their websites. In just 2019 alone, Amazon blocked over 2.5 million fraudulent accounts and over 6 billion phony products from being listed on Amazon.com.
Amazon released that third-party sellers generate more than half of sales on the e-commerce giant. This makes it easy to hide phony or unsafe products among the millions of legitimate ones. Some knockoff sellers source counterfeit products internationally and sell them on brand detail pages. Others buy damaged or nearly expired items on store clearance racks and resell them on the platform at a profit.
Either way, the effects negatively impact a brand’s sales and reputation. For instance, if a brand is wrongly accused of selling a sub-par product, it can cause negative reviews, which can weaken sales and degrade the brand’s credibility. If the problem persists, Amazon may even stop selling the specific product altogether.
Velocity Commerce Group works with clients to resolve these critical issues. In addition to providing Amazon business management, marketing and analytics, we’re experienced in stopping the sale of counterfeits, ultimately helping strengthen a brand’s revenue.
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