If you are a merchant on Amazon, then we suggest you enforce your brand’s MAP policy at once. The MAP policy will help your brand to increase its retail value as well as its profits, along with creating a well-established brand name. So many sellers on Amazon are in an aggressive competition to sell the same product, and this can hurt your brand’s profit if one of them decides to sell your product at less than a set price. That is the reason enforcing MAP Pricing is crucial.
MAP or Minimum Authorized Price is the brand’s set price for its authorized sellers. The brand allows sellers to sell its products above its MAP but never less than that. For example, if a clothing brand sets its best-selling dress price at 100$, all its retailers on Amazon as well as in-stores are committed to selling it at 100$ or above. If any of the sellers sell the dress at a price of less than 100$, that means they have violated the brand’s set MAP guideline, and now the brand is permitted to take legal action against them.
Enforcing MAP Pricing on Amazon
Understanding how to enforce MAP pricing on Amazon is important if you want your brand’s profit margin to increase. Amazon is essentially a third-party eCommerce website. Its goal is to offer the lowest price on the internet. While this is a good objective for its customers, it can cause hurdles for brands. The competition between sellers on Amazon is high, and so is between Amazon and other eCommerce platforms. This will result in both Amazon and sellers selling your brand products at a price lower than the MAP. For example, if any other eCommerce platform is selling your brand product at a price 5% less than the MAP, then Amazon will further lower its price to reach its goal. That is why as a brand, you should take action to set your MAP.
Amazon does not like brands’ MAP policy. However, you can take a few actions to ensure that Amazon follows your policy:
- On Amazon, look up your seller’s credentials. You could do this by looking for your vendor on the internet with their name. You can also follow them by ordering products from their Amazon account, which will include the seller’s delivery information.
- Set your MAP and closely monitor your distributors to verify that no products are sold under the MAP.
- When your products aren’t performing well, and Amazon has enough supply, it can reduce the price to stimulate sales. If you don’t want it to happen, make sure the Amazon warehouse isn’t overstocked.
- Do not rely on Amazon to determine and enforce your minimum advertised price (MAP). If any of your vendors break the MAP pricing policy, speak with them and provide evidence. You can take a variety of actions against sellers that breach your guideline, including issuing warnings, deleting their authorizing status, and banning your supply.
- Among the Amazon brand protection options is the registration of your brand. If Amazon sellers modify the product descriptions, photos, or registered logos, this aids company in recognizing the change.
Monitoring The MAP
Amazon does not show its MAP pricing with products because it does not concern it. Amazon clearly denies taking responsibility or enforcing the MAP pricing on its sellers. However, there are ways by which brands can enforce them on Amazon.
MAP pricing is an agreement between the vendor/retailer/reseller and the brand. It is the brand’s obligation to make sure that no vendor is infringing the MAP agreement, and if they are doing so, it must immediately send a notification. Many efficient Amazon analytics tools can be utilized to oversee whether or not the sellers are complying with the MAP agreement.
Advantages of Enforcing MAP Pricing on Amazon
Many advantages have been noticed upon enforcing the MAP pricing on Amazon, a few of them are:
- The substantial advantage of implementing MAP pricing on Amazon is that it allows brands to control their product rate.
- With MAP pricing on Amazon, the brands can control their online reputation.
- Dealers are permitted to choose whatever rate they want to trade the product, and MAP pricing is used only for the marketed price.
- Enforcing MAP pricing can simplify the communication and negotiations between the brands and retailers.
- MAP pricing is also beneficial because it creates a standard price all over the market.
- It allows healthy competition between sellers while simultaneously providing a standard set minimum price.
Final Thoughts
Amazon provides a diverse platform for brands to market their products. However, it has its drawbacks. Due to high competition, the brand’s profits can suffer; this can be avoided by implementing MAP pricing. The above article has provided you with all the convictions you need to enforce MAP to increase your brand’s profitability.
