Amazon Test Buys for Brand Protection – Remove Unauthorized Online Sellers on Amazon
Brand managers need to know about test buys and their significance when you’re trying to remove unauthorized sellers on Amazon.
A test buy is simply when you purchase an alleged infringing sample product. If you believe an Amazon seller is delivering a counterfeit product, you often need to buy a sample of that product to show Amazon that you purchased it, and more importantly, that the product was delivered.
The way you do this is simply by placing an order on Amazon.com. You can use your Amazon buyer’s account. You can use a company account. What you want to do is make sure that for every infringing seller, you are ordering one unit of your product. When you place the order, you’re going to receive an order number. The order number alone is generally insufficient to show Amazon that you actually evaluated the product. You’re going to need more.
When the product is delivered, Amazon is going to send you an email confirming the delivery of the product. That is what you need to show Amazon. You need to show Amazon that you actually received the product. With your actual receipt of the product, you can then evaluate the product you received, identify where your trademark rights have been violated, that the product is counterfeit, or what you received from that third party seller is lacking somehow in the product. Once you have all of those pieces to the puzzle, then you can make a valid complaint on Amazon, if it’s actually necessary.
If you’d like to learn more about how we do brand protection the right way, how we build things into your warranty, into your product, how we suggest packaging ideas to you all with the same goal… protect your brand’s reputation, protect consumers from receiving inauthentic or counterfeit products, and make sure that every sale for every consumer is coming to the right source, to the brand or to your authorized sellers.
For more information on brand protection, please contact us for a free consultation.
Before our meeting, we will have reviewed your product, identified the unauthorized sellers, and have suggestions for you on how to better protect the sale of your products on Amazon.
