In recent years, Amazon has faced mounting pressure to ensure that the products sold on its marketplaces are legitimate and provided by authentic manufacturers. High-profile cases involving dangerous or counterfeit items have heightened global concerns about product safety and authenticity.
The scope of the problem is significant. In 2020, Amazon removed and destroyed 2 million counterfeit products from its warehouses and blocked another 10 billion suspected counterfeit listings. The company has invested around $1.2 billion and employed 15,000 people to combat fraud. This has resulted in several legal actions around the world:
High-end jewelry maker Cartier and Amazon filed lawsuits against an influencer for selling counterfeit jewelry.
Amazon settled a lawsuit with two influencers allegedly selling fake luxury products.
BMW and Amazon won a civil lawsuit in Spain against counterfeiters selling fake car parts and accessories.
It should be no surprise that brands have been seeking better control over the marketplace to ensure their products are sold by authorized sellers and to protect their brand reputation. This dual motivation—Amazon's commitment to product safety and brands' desire for control—has driven a trend towards enabling and empowering brands to take charge of their presence on the platform.
While Amazon has its Counterfeit Crimes Unit to investigate and pursue legal action against counterfeiters, Amazon also launched the Amazon Transparency program in 2017 to empower brands to be proactive in preventing counterfeit and dangerous products from entering the marketplace. According to Amazon, 47,000 brands in 10 countries have enrolled in the program to date with more than 1.6 billion products registered.
Let’s take a closer look at what Amazon Transparency is and how brands can leverage it to ensure brand safety on the world’s largest marketplace.
What Is Amazon Transparency?
Amazon Transparency is an innovative program designed to combat counterfeit products and ensure the authenticity of items sold on Amazon's marketplace. The program enables manufacturers to place unique identifiers, called Transparency codes, on their product packaging. These codes serve as a digital fingerprint, allowing for seamless tracking and verification of products throughout the supply chain.
Each Transparency code can be built into the product's label, placed near the UPC barcode, or directly on the product itself. Alternatively, brands can connect their own existing serial codes to the Transparency program. When Amazon receives products at its fulfillment center, the Transparency code is scanned to confirm the product's authenticity. Only items that pass this verification are allowed to be listed and sold on Amazon, though this is only required for brands who have signed up for the Transparency program.
How Else Can Sellers Leverage Amazon Transparency?
Transparency's goal is to reduce counterfeits, but it also empowers brands to strengthen control over their distribution channels. With unique tracking codes on each product, brands can gain insights into the path their products take to reach Amazon. Often, brands are unaware of how some sellers on the platform obtained their products, as it could have passed through multiple layers of distribution. The Transparency code enables brands to gain greater clarity into the product's journey to Amazon, allowing them to identify and pursue channel control policies to remove unauthorized resellers and distributors. (For more information on channel control, visit our blog post How to Remove Unauthorized Resellers.)
The program not only enhances product safety and authenticity but also empowers brands to maintain greater control over their products and protect their reputation. By requiring manufacturers to label their products with unique identifiers, Amazon Transparency ensures that customers receive genuine and safe products every time they shop on Amazon.
How to Sign Up and Use Amazon Transparency
Signing up for and using Amazon Transparency involves a few straightforward steps:
Enroll Your Brand and Products:
If you meet all eligibility requirements, log in to the Transparency portal using the same credentials you use for the Brand Registry portal.
Enroll your brand in the Transparency program and add your products and users to your Transparency account.
If you need more information before enrolling, you can complete an inquiry form.
Choose How to Implement Transparency
There are three options for implementing Transparency:
Apply Amazon-issued Transparency codes to your units using standard or custom labels. You can print labels in-house or through a Transparency service provider.
Design Amazon-issued Transparency codes into your product packaging.
Connect Transparency to the existing serial codes on your units.
Add Transparency to Your Units:
If you're adding Amazon-issued Transparency codes to your units, use the Transparency portal to order and download codes. Then you can:
Print and apply labels in-house.
Send your download to a Transparency service provider, who can print and send labels to your manufacturing location.
Use your download to design codes into your packaging.
Using Amazon's API, you can also automate orders for Transparency codes or authorize a service provider to request codes on your behalf.
As you can see, participating in the Transparency program is fairly easy. While there is an extra expense if you request codes from Amazon, the cost is relatively negligible (about $.01 - $.05 per code per unit). There is no enrollment fee, minimums on code orders, and no cost for adding or removing products from the program. However, companies seeking to participate in the program should consider internal processing and labeling costs that will be required by the program.
Of course, protecting your products from counterfeiters is just one part of successfully selling on Amazon. Developing and growing the channel requires expert strategy and execution. That’s where Eneiba comes in! Contact our team of Amazon specialists can help you understand how to enter and optimize your presence on the world’s largest marketplace, all while protecting your brand from counterfeiters and unauthorized sellers.