What You Need To Know About Brand Gating On Amazon

“Our products are consistently threatened by counterfeiters. They are driving down prices and hurting our reputation.”  Among the various ways to protect your brand, Amazon offers brand gating to manufacturers and authorized resellers to retain control over their brands and labels. Amazon Brand gating is a process in which third-party sellers wishing to sell a branded product need to apply and fulfill certain criteria set up by Amazon.

In simple words, in order to minimize counterfeit activity on Amazon, you can enroll in Brand Gating to help block unauthorized sellers from listing certain ASINs. So, all other sellers will be blocked from listing the products on Amazon. To sell, you’ll need permission from the brand itself.

When counterfeit products exist and consumers purchase them, those consumers are unknowingly aiding in brand erosion, driving down the brand’s hard-earned equity. By asking Amazon to have your brand gated, you protect your brand not only from the potential loss of sales due to third parties leeching them off your share but also from the loss of brand trust thanks to sub-par counterfeits reaching your customers.

And what Amazon does, is remove those selling counterfeit items under the same ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number) as the real item and disassociate them from the real brand. There are also gated categories and ASINs within Amazon. If you are a long-standing Amazon seller, it is easier to sell these items because you have a good standing with Amazon Seller Central.

Product launch and brand gating on Amazon includes several steps. The first important step is to have already enrolled in the Amazon Brand Registry. If you have not already done this for your brand, you’ll need to go through those steps before requesting to have your brand gated on Amazon. You also need to know if you have experienced any counterfeit activity with your products.

Once you are part of the registry,

Amazon will go through a verification process to ensure that you have the proper trademarks and qualifications.

You will need to provide:

1. The registered trademark for every Amazon marketplace that you wish to sell on.

(Registering with USPTO is important to prove your sincerity for compliance.)

2. ASINs that you want to be gated

3. Ways you have handled issues surrounding counterfeit versions of your items.

Amazon may want a detailed explanation of how you have attempted to thwart counterfeiters from your brand, as this is the goal of Amazon’s Brand Gating. Also, make sure your product does not fall under Amazon’s restricted product categories.

Resellers, distributors, authorized sellers, etc. have to go through the approval process before being able to sell the products of the Brand. After clicking on the Approval button on the gated ASINs page, they need to follow some steps:

• Approval on the basis of performance on Amazon.
• Fees payment.
• Send Amazon the invoices from Manufacturers.
• Provide proof of authorization from the Brands in order to sell their products.

After you’ve generated a request and provided Amazon with all the information to have your brand gated on Amazon, it takes up to 5 weeks for Amazon to gate your brand completely. While you wait to hear back, it’s a good idea to download DataHawk’s new 2022 eCommerce Calendar. A good business marketing strategy is planned well in advance, and you can use the calendar to get started planning for the most important eCommerce dates in 2022.

An easy way to verify if your products have been gated already is, to check the product listing manually.

Check if “Sell on Amazon” underneath the Buy Box and “Other Sellers on Amazon” box is visible.

1. While picking the ASINs to be gated, try picking the ASINs that are highly profitable and have had a counterfeiting history.

2. Check your trademark registration status here.

3. You can request to sell a brand-gated product by clicking on the button at the bottom of a product detail page.