by Katy Luxem, Ecommerce Nurse
Selling on Amazon has evolved massively over the years, from retail arbitrage-heavy listings to fake Chinese products, to the dawn of Amazon’s own-brand items. No program demonstrates these changes more than the Amazon Brand Registry. Originally launched in 2017 to help brands proactively protect their intellectual property, the Brand Registry is now a must-have for any brand owning business – seller or vendor – that wants to be successful on Amazon.
What does the Brand Registry offer that is so indispensable? No longer merely a tool for reporting violations and fighting counterfeit items, the Brand Registry is now a full suite of marketing tools and features to attract new customers, boost discoverability, increase conversion, and look into more detailed reports and analytics. With a better customer experience, the Brand Registry also puts a face to the brand, instilling customer loyalty across the full product range and lifecycle.
To better understand the levers available to Brand Registry users, this article will explain some of the best and underused marketing features (outside of brand protection) that can assist even the most seasoned seller on their brand-building journey.
What is the Amazon Brand Registry?
Originally a sub-tab of Seller Central, the Brand Registry grew out of a need for Amazon to address counterfeit goods and provide a more trustworthy experience for customers. Now more than 700,000 brands strong, the Brand Registry is a global service that tackles inaccurate listings, damaged reputations, and enhanced brand content. As a first step, it’s necessary to read Amazon’s FAQ for pre-enrollment information. At a basic level, brands will need a Seller Central or Vendor Central account and a registered trademark (or pending). Products will need to display this trademark or have it appear on the packaging. Amazon will verify this information against your SKUs, documentation, and countries of distribution and operation, and business licenses and details. Once registered, you will be able to access exclusive features when signed into the Brand Registry.
Assigning roles with the Brand Registry
Registration is the first step, but if you are a larger brand or work with an agency, you’ll need to properly assign roles for all parties to be able to utilize the tools offered. There are three roles you can assign to user accounts associated with your brand:
- Rights Owner: An individual who is the trademark owner or their employee, and authorised to report violations. Users with this role have access to the Report a Violation tool and listing benefits.
- Registered Agent: A third party who is authorised by the Rights Owner to report violations using Brand Registry tools.
- Administrator: An individual who has permission to assign roles to user accounts.
If you’re just registering for brand protection, you may not need a full range of intricately assigned roles. But if anyone is updating content, creating A+ detail pages, linking up Amazon Stores, and performing other marketing tasks on behalf of your brand, it’s important to ensure users have adequate access. Otherwise, your changes will not take effect.
Accessing the full potential of the Brand Registry means understanding the hierarchy of what is shown for the Amazon customer when they land on a detail page. For example, whose content takes precedence on products with multiple sellers? Who can edit a Brand Store? Etc. Without properly assigned permissions, the Brand Registry will not help your business reach its full potential.
The best Brand Registry features
A+ Content
Formerly called Enhanced Brand Content, Amazon unlocks A+ Content modules for Brand Registry users. This feature allows you to apply extra images, text, charts, and modules to your pages to inform and better explain unique selling points. On mobile devices (where customers increasingly use apps to shop), A+ Content actually appears before product features. This can be crucial in converting customers by answering questions, showing how to use the product, distinguishing features from the competitors, and encouraging customers to cross-shop products in your brand. Amazon claims A+ Content can increase sales on a product up to 10%. Any products without A+ on site are at a disadvantage, so this is one feature that you should utilize asap.
Brand Story
While most sellers know A+ pages exist, the Brand Story is a lesser-known feature of the Brand Registry. Also under the A+ Content drop-down, Brand Registry users can create a type of content called Brand Story. This can be applied to all ASINs across your brand. The customizable content appears as cards in a carousel that allows brands to link to your store, tell the story of how your brand began, introduce a founder, and more.
Brand Store
Easily one of the most useful features of the Brand Registry is an Amazon Brand Store. Acting as a website for a brand within Amazon, Stores can have one page or many. The layouts are customizable so that brands can showcase product ranges, items on promotion (such as Lightning Deals during Black Friday or Prime Day), videos, and more. Brand Stores can also easily be updated seasonally. Amazon says that on average, Stores updated within the past 90 days have 21% more repeat visitors and 35% higher attributed sales per visitor. Some Brand Registry users might not know about Brand Stores, as it sits under the Amazon Advertising space, though you do not need to advertise on Amazon to create a store.
Sponsored Brands
Once a brand has launched a Brand Store, Sponsored Brands allow a Brand Registry business to take advantage of the landing pages. Sponsored Brand ads are a cost-per-click marketing lever that can engage audiences with custom images, headlines, and videos that send customers to Store pages instead of product pages. Combining Sponsored Brands ad types can deliver real results. For example, Amazon says that advertisers who used the Sponsored Brands video ad format saw a 108.1% increase in click-through rate (CTR) compared to advertisers only using the Sponsored Brands product collection ad format.
Amazon Posts
For people used to social feeds like Facebook and Instagram, and for businesses utilizing these types of platforms, Amazon Posts can fit nicely into their marketing strategy. Launched in 2020, Posts also lives under the Amazon Ads space. Customers can choose to follow a brand and a Posts feed can be linked to from the Brand Store. Using Posts is an easy way to repurpose other social media content. The best thing about Posts is that it is currently free. No CPC budget here! Plus, Posts appear on competitor pages in your category. Brands can also monitor Posts engagement through the channel, gauging what works and what doesn’t. Leveraging those learnings can be beneficial both on and off Amazon.
Manage Your Customer Engagement
Along with Amazon Posts, Manage Your Customer Engagement allows you to contact customers who are following your brand on Amazon with template emails. This allows you to capitalize on your growing brand presence on Amazon and encourages customers to follow brands so they can know about deals, new launches, and more. Find this feature under the Brands tab in Seller Central and schedule emails weeks in advance to leverage your followers.
Amazon Vine
Amazon Vine helps brands combat one of the biggest challenges on Amazon when launching a product: Getting legitimate reviews. Since the end of the Early Reviewer Program in 2021, Vine is the only legitimate way to jumpstart reviews. Brand Registry users can access Amazon Vine via Seller Central. The cost to enroll is $200 per ASIN, plus however many units of free product you want to offer up. Eligible products must have fewer than 30 reviews at the time of enrollment. Depending on your product and margin, it’s highly recommended to enroll newly launched or slow-selling products in Amazon Vine. Participating in Vine can build product awareness and help new products climb the rankings
Manage Your Experiments
One of the most exciting additions to Brand Registry in recent years has been the expansion of analytics. Manage Your Experiments allows brands to run A/B tests on product titles, A+ Content, and images. Not all products will be eligible for every Brand Registry business, but it’s worth trialling content to ensure you’re getting the most out of it. Even changing a title slightly or testing what type of main image works best can drastically improve conversion over time. This feature can be accessed under the Brands tab of Seller Central.
Amazon Live
Feeling like an influencer? Amazon jumped on the bandwagon with Amazon Live. This interactive livestream feature allows Brand Registry sellers to showcase their items for a built-in audience. Engaging with shoppers in real-time is an extension of the Brand Registry’s brand-building tools, and doesn’t require celebrity connections to use. Learn more about using Live as a brand, and start the video right from the app on your smartphone.
Need more help with the Brand Registry?
From assisting the top brands in pet food with marketing on Amazon to managing hybrid vendor and seller set-ups for international brands, eCommerce Nurse has seen it all. Built to help sellers and vendors navigate and manage their Amazon presence, our agency provides account management, advertising management, marketing, consulting, translation and localisation. If you need assistance with any of the above features or anything else Brand Registry related, contact our experts today.
Katy Lexum
Ecommerce Nurse
