You can’t upload products without filing?! Amazon’s new policy sparks controversy

Amazon recently updated its “Brand Name Policy”, requiring sellers to provide a correct and valid brand name. Unbranded products must fill in “N/A” in the “Brand Name” column.

At first glance, there seems to be nothing fishy about this column. Most people will fill in their own brand in this column. Now the refined operation ideas are deeply rooted in people's minds, and everyone wants to go the brand route. However, after the actual operation, some sellers cried out that they were cheated. This policy is so deceptive!

The pitfalls of brand policy changes

The content of the new policy is not only to require sellers to fill in the brand name according to regulations. In actual operation, if the brand filled in by the seller in the "Brand Name" column has not been registered, an error will be reported directly and the product cannot be uploaded!

Because the filing requirements are not low and the steps are a bit cumbersome, many sellers are in this situation. Although they have a brand name, they have not registered the trademark or filed it. After the new policy was updated, most of them encountered this problem.

Some sellers may think that if there is no registered brand, they can just fill in "N/A" as required. I found a front-end display page after filling in no brand for you to see.

Products filled in with "N/A" will display "by Unbranded" under the front-end title, which means "unbranded product" .

You should be able to sense that something is wrong when you see this. Amazon's display looks like it is a "three-no product". The traffic and conversion of a product marked as "no brand" will definitely be severely hit . But if you want to fill in the brand, you must have a brand record. Isn't this a scam!

Not only that, Amazon’s policy reform has not achieved the expected results. The reason why brand registration is required before the brand name can be filled in is to prevent counterfeit products pretending to be well-known brands. Failure to register means that these counterfeit products cannot even be uploaded.

However, in actual operation, I found that even if the brand registered in the brand record is different from the real brand of the product, Amazon cannot recognize it! The following example is that a seller is selling an ASUS laptop, but the brand name is written as the brand name that he registered and registered.

Asus is the brand of the laptop, while Computer Upgrade King under the product title is the brand name registered by the seller. This also proves that Amazon cannot verify whether the product itself is related to the registered brand.

To summarize, after the new brand policy is updated, if you have not completed brand registration, you will not be able to upload products using any brand name. You can only fill in "N/A", which means no brand product.

Does it mean that if there is no record, it will become a brandless product? After carefully studying the relevant strategies in the background, I found a loophole in the implementation of the new policy. Perhaps there is still a chance for this matter to turn around.

Loopholes in the new policy

The Chinese version of the background is quite good this time. I don't want it to be as terrible as the last time. For the convenience of everyone to see the screenshots below, I will use the Chinese version. In the details of the new brand name policy, there are two conditions that explain what is a legal brand name.

1. If a series of products have the same name or other logo on themselves or on their packaging, they will be considered branded products and can be distinguished from other non-branded products. In short, if your product wants to become a branded product recognized by Amazon, it must have the brand name/logo printed on the packaging or body.

2. If the product itself and packaging do not have the unified markings mentioned in the previous item, then it must go through brand registration before it can be considered a brand product by Amazon and the product can be uploaded using the brand name.

From this perspective, condition 1 is the primary condition for Amazon to determine whether it is a branded product. If condition 1 (having a unified logo) is not met, condition 2 (registration) can also be met to upload the branded product.

This judgment is distorted in actual operation, because sellers cannot prove the product brand name by uploading product pictures when uploading products. Therefore, the Amazon algorithm automatically determines whether the product meets condition 2, and those sellers who have not registered will be stuck at this step.

The sellers in our group contacted the customer service and the customer service also confirmed this. The purpose of the new policy is to allow sellers with brands (regardless of whether they are registered or not) to fill in the brand name correctly. In fact, sellers who have brands but have not registered will also report errors and cannot upload products.

Currently, there is no solution to this problem. Only sellers who have passed the record can upload new products (but we have tested that if there is a TM mark and the GTIN exemption is passed, it can also be uploaded). This loophole still needs to be responded and fixed by Amazon . If the product has a unified brand mark but the seller has not yet registered, it is recommended to contact customer service directly to resolve it.

This change allows Amazon to take another step forward in adhering to the brand route. It will become increasingly difficult for non-brand sellers, such as many bulk sellers, because only these high-profit brand sellers are considered high-quality sellers in Amazon's eyes, with better services and higher profit margins to promote their products.

Therefore, Amazon even created a special brand advertisement (the original Headline advertisement) for this group of sellers. Branding will be an irreversible trend for Amazon in the future. I found a guide to brand advertisements for you. Please scan the QR code below to get it from me.

PS. Students who need to join our seller communication group can also scan and private message me to add you to the group