eBay is a great platform to sell products, but unauthorized sellers can have a negative impact on both product value and brand health. When these sellers are allowed to operate without restrictions, they can drive down the price of products and harm the reputation of the brand. This can be damaging for businesses that rely on strong brands to attract customers. In order to maintain a healthy retail landscape and protect brand equity, it is important to invest in a plan for authorized sellers and complete distribution channel management.
In this day and age, most brands have a Minimum Advertised Price policy and some type of e-commerce policy. The challenge is enforcing it when it is so easy for sellers to hide behind unknown seller IDs. eBay does not make it easy to find and report these rogue sellers. The eBay VeRO program is designed to help protect intellectual property, but it only works if the brand owner takes action and reports the infringing listings.
Investing in a comprehensive distribution channel management solution is the best way to protect your brand on eBay. These solutions will help you monitor unauthorized sellers and take action to remove them from the platform. In addition, they can also help you price your products competitively and optimize your listings to attract more customers.
Like most things, the first step to fixing the problem is admitting there is a problem that needs to be fixed. Once that is done, it's important to understand where your brand is on the journey to marketplace health. If you need help with this step, here is a link to a Brand Assessment on counterdiversion.com. https://www.counterdiversion.com/assessment-quiz
If you've read any of our other posts, you'll know, the first step to addressing your Grey Market issues is partnering with a tracking company. After that, you must develop a plan to make the data that you get from the tracking company actionable. What are you going to do with this new information? Who is going to do it? What do you want the outcome from this investment to be?
If you don't have the internal resources to dedicate to this problem, there are companies that can help. Counter Diversion is one such company. We specialize in the marketplace, including eBay Grey Market enforcement and we have a team of eBay experts who can help you develop and implement a plan to take back control of your eBay channel.
If you're not sure if you have a problem with unauthorized sellers on eBay, or if you need help addressing the issue, contact us today for a free consultation. We'll be happy to answer any questions you have and provide some recommendations on how to get started. Visit our website at counterdiversion.com or email info@counterdiversion.com. We look forward to hearing from you!
If you enjoyed this blog post, be sure to check out our other blog posts on the Grey Market and protecting Product Values and Brand Equity.
Counter Diversion is a boutique SaaS company - we don't have marketing and we don't use high-pressure sales tactics. Our goal is to have solid, honest conversations about the issues at hand and then either recommend our service or another one that is a better fit for your needs. If you'd like to engage in that type of discussion or have general questions about this issue, please schedule a free consultation.
