Amazon Transparency Project

Recently, I saw a seller complaining on the forum. He said that he launched a schoolbag product in 2016 and has accumulated more than 300 reviews, and dozens of orders can be issued a day during the peak season. However, in September of this year, it was discovered that the trademark of the product had been modified. At that time, it was disapproving. It was not until the product entered the FBA warehouse that a transparent code was required to be sold before it was discovered that the seriousness of the matter was.

After searching, it was found that the product was not only modified by others, but also participated in the transparency plan. The most annoying thing is that this registrant just started selling, isn’t this just a steal? Fortunately, the seller has registered a trademark in the United States in 2017, and he can also complain to the other party and get the brand of the product back.

From this case, we can draw a conclusion that our products must be registered as trademarks and filed in advance, so as to prevent the brand from being registered by others. If you participate in the Transparency plan again, you can also effectively prevent follow-up sales.

The Transparency Program is a service launched by Amazon in 2015. It allows brands to apply unique barcodes to each product or product packaging they produce. Amazon can actively identify the authenticity of each product through the barcode, thereby Prevent consumers from buying counterfeit goods. So far, 500,000 suspected counterfeit goods have been intercepted.

Recently, Amazon announced the expansion of the transparency program to Amazon Japan and Australia sites. So far, the service has covered Amazon’s top ten sites in the United States, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, Japan and Australia.

To participate in the program, you need to meet several conditions:

• (1) It must be a brand owner who holds the R mark and completes the brand registration on Amazon;
• (2) The product must have a global trade item code (GNIT), such as ENA or UPC barcodes on the product ;
• (3) Ensure that the products added to Transparency can apply the unique Transparency code. This can be done by pasting the code on the packaging of each unit-level product, or printing the code directly on the product packaging.

There are 4 steps in the operation process of the Transparency Plan:

1. Brands register their products in the Transparency backend, and Amazon will grant a QR code (a blue T mark), which corresponds to a 26-digit Transparency code.
2. Apply the Transparency barcode to the product.
3. FBA sellers send goods to Amazon warehouses, and warehouse personnel will check the authenticity of the products through barcodes, so that genuine products can be placed in the warehouse. If it is found to be counterfeit and shoddy products, Amazon will destroy the goods and remove your buy box.
4. After purchasing the product, consumers can also use the mobile app to scan the Transparency barcode to verify the authenticity of the product.

At present, more than 10,000 brands worldwide have registered to use the Transparency program. Mainly because the transparency plan has the following benefits:

1. Prevent the follow-up sale of fakes

Following sales is a headache for many sellers, because being followed up will not only affect the flow and sales of the products, but may also bring negative reviews to the products, so many people join the program to prevent fakes from being sold. This benefit comes.

After the product has joined the Transparency Program, code verification will be carried out when entering the Amazon warehouse, and only genuine products with correct labels can be successfully put into the warehouse. The follower cannot follow the seller without the code. It can prevent counterfeiting from the root cause and solve a lot of troubles for sellers.

2. Filing in one country, multi-site protection can be turned on

As long as the seller activates the transparency plan in one country, the remaining 9 sites can be used and the protection will be turned on simultaneously. There is no need to re-open every site.

3. Increase brand benefits

Because the prerequisite for participating in the transparency plan is the brand owner who holds the R mark and completes the brand registration on Amazon, which means that the brand-specific functions can be used in operation, for example, the brand story can be displayed through graphics and video. , Product description, more display methods;

And the brand + transparency plan is equivalent to adding another layer of protection to the product, and the product can be more trusted by consumers. On this basis, if the seller conducts publicity and promotion, it can further promote the growth of sales.

4. Increasing new touch points for interaction between brand owners and consumers

After purchasing a product that has participated in the Transparency Program, consumers can scan the Transparency barcode to verify the authenticity, and at the same time can see the product’s production date, manufacturer, production location, raw material, expiration date and other more information. How much product information consumers can see depends on how much information the manufacturer uploads to the transparent database. So sellers can use this point to add more information to increase interaction with consumers.

(Source: Senior Cross-border E-commerce Observer)