What is Amazon Transparency and its benefits for Large International Companies and Small and Medium Companies
Amazon Transparency is a product serialization service that helps brands protect their customers from counterfeit products. It works by applying unique codes to each product unit, which Amazon then scans and authenticates before the product is shipped to customers.
Benefits for Large International Companies
- Protect brand reputation and customer trust: Amazon Transparency helps brands protect their reputation and customer trust by ensuring that only authentic products are sold on Amazon. This can lead to increased sales and customer loyalty.
- Reduce counterfeiting losses: Amazon Transparency can help brands reduce the losses they incur due to counterfeiting. It does this by making it more difficult for counterfeiters to sell their products on Amazon, and by helping Amazon to identify and remove counterfeit products from its platform.
- Increase brand awareness: Amazon Transparency can help brands increase their brand awareness by giving them a way to connect with their customers at the point of purchase. Brands can use the transparency codes to provide customers with information about their products, such as how to use them, how to care for them, and where to buy replacement parts.
Benefits for Small and Medium Companies
- Protect brand reputation and customer trust: Amazon Transparency is just as important for small and medium companies as it is for large international companies. It can help small and medium companies protect their brand reputation and customer trust, even if they only sell a small number of products on Amazon.
- Reduce counterfeiting losses: Counterfeiting can be a major problem for small and medium companies, as they often have fewer resources to combat it. Amazon Transparency can help small and medium companies reduce their losses due to counterfeiting by making it more difficult for counterfeiters to sell their products on Amazon.
- Level the playing field with larger competitors: Amazon Transparency can help small and medium companies level the playing field with larger competitors. By using Amazon Transparency, small and medium companies can ensure that their customers are receiving authentic products, just like the products sold by larger companies.
How to Implement Amazon Transparency
To implement Amazon Transparency, brands must first enroll in the program. Once enrolled, brands must apply unique codes to each product unit. These codes can be applied to the product itself, or to the product’s packaging.
Once the product codes are applied, brands must send their products to Amazon for authentication. Amazon will scan the codes and verify that the products are authentic. If a product is found to be counterfeit, Amazon will remove it from its platform.
Customers can use the Amazon Transparency app to authenticate products that have been enrolled in the program. To do this, customers simply scan the product code with the app. The app will then verify the code and let the customer know whether the product is authentic.
How do I get started with Transparency?
To be eligible, you must:
• Have the ability to apply unique Transparency codes to every unit you manufacture, regardless of where the units are sold.
See results with Transparency
improve customer engagement, and give brands valuable insights to help optimize supply chains.
- Verify product authenticity: Ensure that only authentic units are shipped to customers. Whether fulfilled by Amazon or shipped directly by selling partners, products cannot be listed on Amazon or shipped without valid Transparency codes.
- Engage with customers: Connect with customers post-purchase, no matter where they bought your product. The Amazon Shopping app and the Transparency app both allow customers to scan Transparency codes to confirm authenticity and access content you provide.
- Optimize your supply chain: Gain additional insights on your items at the batch or lot level, helping you identify supply chain or other issues, diagnose their root cause, implement solutions, and improve products with minimal disruption to your business.
Amazon Transparency latest innovations
In 2022, Amazon made significant progress in its brand protection efforts. Some of the key innovations include:
- Robust proactive controls: Amazon has improved its proactive controls by automating and scaling its intellectual property protection and counterfeit-detection systems. These systems operate continuously throughout every step of the process—from the moment someone tries to register a new selling account, create a listing, and update a product listing.
- Powerful tools for brands: Amazon continues to work with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to prevent fraud and abuse in the trademark system. Amazon also directly receives and acts upon information from the USPTO regarding registration status and parties that have been subject to USPTO sanctions. This information is used to remove false and otherwise abusive brands and share trends within Amazon’s store with the USPTO to support their investigation of potential fraud by their applicants and registrants.
- Holding bad actors accountable: Amazon has expanded its work with U.S. Customs and Border Protection to mutually exchange information. Amazon also provides leads to CBP about confirmed counterfeiters, and CBP provides information to Amazon that allows Amazon to stop counterfeit goods destined for its fulfillment network and remove infringing listings from its store.
The global impact of Amazon Transparency brand protection
Amazon Brand Registry, which launched in 2017, has expanded globally into 19 countries. In 2022, Amazon hit a number of milestones due in part to the over $1.2 billion invested and the over 15,000 Amazon employees that help protect its stores across the world.
Key results
In 2022, Amazon achieved the following results in its brand protection efforts:
- 35% reduction in valid notices of infringement submitted by brands in Brand Registry.
- Over 8 billion daily attempted changes to product detail pages were scanned by Amazon’s automated technology for signs of potential abuse.
- Over 800,000 bad actor attempts to create new selling accounts were stopped.
- Over 99% of blocked or removed listings were found by Amazon’s proactive controls, before a brand had to ever find and report it.
- Over 6 million counterfeit items were identified, seized, and appropriately disposed of, completely removing them from the supply chain.
- Over 1,300 criminals were pursued through litigation and criminal referrals.
Disrupting counterfeit networks across the globe
In addition to disrupting counterfeiters through civil suits, the Amazon Counterfeit Crimes Unit (CCU) works with law enforcement on joint enforcement and seizures across the globe, including taking action against bad actors, suppliers, logistics providers, social media influencers, fake invoice providers, and more. In 2022:
- Amazon shared information with several Public Security Bureaus in China that helped law enforcement raid counterfeiting operations across multiple provinces, seizing more than 240,000 counterfeit items and dismantling three major counterfeiting networks.
- German law enforcement acted on intelligence from Amazon against nine suspected members of a German-based counterfeit printer ink and toner ring that attempted to deceive customers by selling fake toner cartridges that were marketed as genuine products.
- Amazon supported anti-counterfeiting activities undertaken by the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) of the City of London Police. Amazon’s CCU joined the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) to provide detailed information to the City of London Police about a large-scale counterfeit CD operation. PIPCU’s actions, including raids at three different locations, led to the seizure of more than 32,000 counterfeit CDs.