1. How to follow the seller safely
How to participate in follow-selling has been discussed in the previous article, so I will not repeat it here. However, safe follow-selling is very important. How can you follow the seller legally?
(1) Research before following the seller. Amazon allows follow-selling, but also pays attention to brand protection. So how can sellers follow the seller legally? Before selling, you should carefully check the product details page, including product pictures, logo details and text descriptions. You should also carefully check the trademark registration and filing status of the seller being followed. Sellers can check on Google or the US Trademark Network to prevent infringement. If you find that the other party does not have a registered brand, you can follow the seller. If you do not have authorization for the products of world-renowned brands, do not follow the seller.
In addition, before following the seller, you must carefully study the other party’s product description and attributes, and strictly compare your own products to see if they are exactly the same. Do not simply take a look at a product that sells well and think it is similar to your own product, and then blindly follow the seller.
(2) Sellers must ensure that there is sufficient supply of the products to follow and that the quality of the products can be guaranteed. Do not follow the seller just for the sake of following the seller. If you cannot guarantee the quality and quantity of your products, then following others is not a wise choice.
(3) During the following sale period, you must frequently check the products being followed to see if there have been any changes or updates that would cause them to be inconsistent with your own products, leading to complaints from buyers for sending the wrong products.
In addition, you must also pay attention to the price changes of other following sellers and adjust the prices of the following products in a timely manner. However, the prices should not be set too low to ensure that there is room for profit.
2. How to prevent following others
(1) Put anti-counterfeiting marks on products or packaging
If there is no brand protection, sellers can combine different products and sell them together. Sellers can also print LoB on products or packaging to prevent other sellers from following others.
(2) Report the following seller to Amazon
If a seller has brand agency rights or trademark rights but encounters following others, he can communicate with the following seller as soon as possible, tell the other party that his product is protected by the brand, and ask him to remove the following sale. If the other party takes the initiative to remove the product, then no further investigation will be conducted. However, if the other party does not listen to the dissuasion, the seller who is being followed can send a warning letter to the other party. If multiple warnings are ineffective, the seller can directly file a complaint with Amazon about the seller who is following the seller. (3) Register trademarks and apply for brand registration to protect your own interests
Sellers can apply to register local trademarks, and then apply for brand registration on the Amazon platform to prevent being sold by others by building their own brands. At the same time, to prevent problems before they happen, sellers can apply for patent protection during product research and development.
Following is indeed an effective way to increase sales and attract traffic, but if new sellers want to develop long-term on Amazon and become bigger and stronger, they still need to create their own products, build their own products and brands, and do what they should do in a down-to-earth manner.