Amazon has millions of products available in all sorts of categories. When bringing your brand to Amazon, there’s a good chance that your product is already on the site.
If this is the case, you have two options. You can either create a new listing and build up your brand and products from there. Or, you can use an existing listing to build up your brand. When you use a current listing, you’re using something that someone has already created and taking ownership of it. You can still sell products if you don’t control the listing. However, you won’t be able to control how the listing looks.
There are benefits and drawbacks to doing either one. Today’s article will focus on using an existing listing to build up your brand presence. We’ll talk about how you do it, as well as the benefits and drawbacks.
How to Use an Existing Listing to Build Up Your Brand Presence
Using an existing listing has some different aspects to it that you need to understand. There are several steps you need to take before you can build off of the listing.
Also, keep in mind that this is only recommended for brands starting on Amazon and looking to control their brand presence. If you’re trying to work off of an existing listing for a product you don’t own, this same advice does not apply.
On any page, certain brands control the buy box. The buy box is the white box on the right side that shows where shoppers can buy the product. If you’re the one in the buy box, your product is the one that goes in the cart.
Controlling the buy box is everything because that’s how you sell your products. Being in control of the buy box means being in control of sales, and that’s how your company makes a profit. Amazon technically owns all product listings. Whoever is currently in the buy box is the one who owns the page. You can take over the page by enrolling in Brand Registry and registering your product trademark. Whoever owns the page can make changes to the title, product images, description, and all of the other page elements.
Your brand has to be part of Brand Registry before you can register a product trademark. To enroll, go to this page and click on enroll now. You have to choose the country where the trademark is registered. You can only choose one country.
Once you choose, you’ll be prompted to sign in and then finish the registration process. Brand Registry is an essential aspect of owning your brand’s presence on Amazon. It gives you access to several other features that will help you promote your products and brand on the platform. Some of these features include the ability to create sponsored products, as well as sponsored brands. These are both two advertising methods that will help shoppers find your newly owned listing of the products for which you own the intellectual property.
The Benefits
There are two main benefits of using existing listings. The biggest one is that this product is already on Amazon. There’s an established presence for it. There are current reviews, which give the product high ratings. These ratings help shoppers decide which products to buy and which to avoid. The product you’re building off of already has traction and views, which you can take advantage of to start selling your product immediately. You won’t have to create an entirely new listing, which takes time, energy, and work to get off the ground.
There’s also already a built-in sales rank. The product on the listing has been selling and doing well in terms of sales. That’s going to show in the rankings. People are already aware of your brand, even though you’re not the one that’s been letting people know about it. Now, you’re taking a product that people already know about and love and letting people know about it. You’re taking control of how your listing is presented.
One thing to keep in mind is that even when you own the listing, you only have so much control over how people interact with your listing. Advertisements will help you create more methods of interaction. However, Amazon gives control and power to the shoppers on the platform. They choose what products they want. You can make it more compelling for them through what you put on your listing when you own it.
The Drawbacks
Using existing listings isn’t all beneficial. There are some drawbacks to trying to utilize an existing listing.
Because wholesalers may have sold your product, you may have to deal with weird quantities and variation groups. You can separate these, but it’ll also separate the reviews, bringing your product down in ranking.
Another drawback, at first, is that you won’t have control of the page right away. Amazon usually gives page control to whoever has the buy box, and whoever’s doing the most with the product. Unless you enroll in Brand Registry and claim copyright, there’s not any way for you to take control of the page.
If you don’t have the trademark verified through Amazon, you’ll have to compete with other sellers of your product. That means you’ll have to compete for the buy box and share your sales with other sellers.
Not having control of the page also means you don’t have any say in what goes in the product listing, images, text, and anything else related.
Case Study
Charmac is helping an existing client take control of a listing of their product. Packer’s Pine Tar Soap is a 140-year-old brand. Many people know about the product. It’s been on Amazon, however mostly wholesalers have been selling the product.
Packer’s wants to take control of their presence on Amazon. So what we’re doing is helping them go through Brand Registry so they can register the trademark and prevent other people like Qwik Goods, who currently has control of the buy box, from having control of the listing.
Here’s what the buy box looks like.
Their product is already on Amazon. It has 110 reviews for all of the variations. The rating comes in at 4.5 of 5 stars. Packer’s can utilize that to juice up their selling efforts.
Something they’re going to have to deal with is the weird variation groups. The different packs and sizes make for a messy listing, especially if Packer’s isn’t going to sell all of these varieties of soap sizes.
Right now, it looks like Qwik Goods has control of the page, because they currently have the buy box. What Packer’s is going to have to do is enroll in Brand Registry. That lets Amazon know that they’re the authorized representative of this brand. Amazon has tools to verify it, and will then give Packer’s control of the page.
Usually, the benefits of taking over an existing listing outweigh the drawbacks. However, each situation is different. There’s no one size fits all for this situation. You’ll have to decide what is right for your brand.
