Big Brand Stores In Amazon Are More Likely To Stop Counterfeit Rampage.

Two months ago, MCM, a luxury leather goods company, began selling products through Amazon (Amazon), which is unimaginable for most high-end fashion brands.

MCM handbags, full of brand names, are priced between 295 and 3700 dollars. They are usually purchased by Nord Saks, Nordstrom Fifth boutique (Saks Fifth Avenue), and MCM stores and official websites. But the brand is currently available on Amazon. Patrick Valeo, President of MCM, said that since last December, the company has sold about 30 products on Amazon, and the number will continue to increase.

"For us, the question we need to consider is," how can you not enter Amazon? "Valeo pointed out. "In 2020, we should take the initiative to find customers. We call ourselves new luxury goods, and the target customers of new luxury goods are the younger generation. They know the digital world very well and shop on Amazon.

The idea of Valeo is somewhat out of line with the mainstream ideas of luxury fashion circles. Many fashion brands in the circle are unwilling to cooperate with Amazon. According to information provided by Bloomberg Intelligence, Amazon accounts for more than 1/3 of online sales of clothing, footwear and accessories in the United States. But last year's Wall Street Journal survey showed that Amazon also sold "countless banned, unsafe or fraudulent labels" products. (Amazon spokesman said the company "strictly prohibited the sale of counterfeit goods, we also invest heavily in various funds, and invest a lot of time and effort to shape the spirit of enterprise to ensure that our policies are followed.")

The major brands are also worried that Amazon will collect its sales and customer data in the future, and use these data to publish copies. For example, last November, the outside world questioned the 206 Collective of Amazon's own brand, plagiarizing Allbirds's featured wool sports shoes. Amazon spokesman said: "like many other shopping malls, we also provide private brand products to enable customers to have more choices and buy better quality products at lower prices." The spokesman added: "we will not use any seller's data to determine which brand is to be released. Amazon uses seller data only if it provides support for sellers, protects consumer privacy, or improves consumer experience. "

But with the decline in the department store industry and the soaring cost of social media advertising, some brands are reconsidering whether to shop in Amazon even if they sell only a few products. Some brands have bought cheap jeans and other commodities on Amazon, while their own official website has retained more high-end products to better control the presentation and pricing of these products.

Valeo said the decision to hand Amason is based on data. Customers have searched MCM products through Amazon, indicating that demand has long existed. Moreover, there are 150 million Prime members on the platform.

"Amazon is a customer seeking organization - they are doing that right," says Matt Kaness, interim CEO of Lucky Brand jeans. The brand has been the seller of Amazon since 2009; in the past 6 months, it has achieved tremendous expansion on the platform. "We can really feel the opportunity that Amazon offers: compared with its own official website or retail partners such as Macys.com and Nordstrom.com, Amazon helps us to reach a niche market more efficiently."

Amazon is said to have been striving for luxury brands to enter its new high-end fashion platform. Speculates that strict control of counterfeit goods and cheap copies is also part of the move to attract these big names. Amazon is also preparing to build its website into a consumer's fashion destination, including the upcoming Amazon Prime show "Making the Cut" fashion designer competition, and spectators can buy the winning wear every week.

For many brands, Amazon will always be their "black friends". An employee of Nike told Reuters in an interview that the shoe brand had withdrawn from Amazon a few months later. To work with Amazon, a certain degree of strategy is needed, from advertising to deciding which products to sell, much more complex than other wholesale retailers.

"If you think Amazon is a training ground, you will be eaten alive," said Daniella Berkson, founder of jewelry brand Humble Chic, a company headquartered in New York, USA, which has been in Amazon since 2013. "Success or failure depends on yourself."

　 Using Amazon's strength

For small companies, Amazon's excellent logistics service is an irresistible advantage.

Signed the Fulfilled By Amazon brand, just send the goods to Amazon, then hand over to the platform management inventory, deal with the order logistics and provide after-sales service. This service is also an important reason for Jim Lambert's choice of Amazon; Lambert is the founder of Okaicos for men's swimsuit company and started shop here in May 2019.

Lambert said: "our team is very small, and it is very challenging to complete the order at the speed of today's consumers, and Amazon can promise to provide convenient logistics services."

Lambert pointed out that since joining the e-commerce platform, Okaicos's sales have increased by 40%.

For MCM, an agreement with Amazon said that the brand could deal with fake goods on the platform. After establishing a partnership, MCM can report the fake seller on the platform and ask for a freeze on its account.

"One advantage of entering Amazon is that they will try to strengthen the supervision of the third party sellers. If you are not there, they will not do so," Valeo said. "At the beginning, they felt constrained by them, but now we can control the MCM experience on this platform."

Valeo believes that the major brands in the Amazon shop, more likely to stop counterfeit rampant.

Valeo said: "in fact, your product has spread all over the Internet, whether through resale, second-hand market or third party website. Your product is there, so you might as well first contact consumers through Amazon and become the preferred online store for customers.

Amazon will take part of its sales as a platform Commission (the commission rate of clothing is usually between 15% and 35%). DTC, the luggage luggage brand Paravel, has been selling products from Amazon since July 2017, and its co founder, Indr Rockefeller, said that taking into account the rising cost of social media advertising, Amazon sellers are a better choice.

Rockefeller pointed out: "upgrading the flow of its official website needs a lot of purchases through advertising, but more and more consumers are starting to search products from Amazon instead of Google. As the environment changes, more DTC players are transforming now, and they realize that consumers are actually dependent on Amazon's life.

Although the business giant has provided special treatment for sellers, there are also drawbacks. In the future, brands will no longer have control over the way they are shown to potential consumers; more Amazon search results will be displayed in swimsuit or jeans and other product categories instead of specific brands, Amazon platform strategist James Thomson points out.

When we think of our products on Amazon, we will appear next to many other brands, and we decide to give up, "Melanie Travis, founder and chief executive of Andie swimwear," points out. Another reason for not choosing cooperation is that the platform has strict control over the data, and the seller has much less information in the Amazon shop than the consumer channel.

"We have great ambitions and invest in brand building, which means we will collect consumer information, and Amazon has customer relations," Travis said. "Amazon has made progress in building brand pages, but it is ultimately a place to collect brands, and we are a brand."

　　 Choose which products to sell, you need some strategy.

Deciding which products to sell by Amazon is as important as deciding whether to enter the platform or not.

In an interview with BoF, Untuckit, the men's clothing company, said that since 2018, Amazon has used Amazon as a clearance channel to deal with the over season inventory at a discount price.

The strategy of Lucky Brand is to push low price products on Amazon and sell more high-end products through its own official website and Nordstrom stores.

"In Amazon, competition is price and convenience. Therefore, our value classification is more likely to resonate with consumers, "said Kaness, Lucky Brand's interim chief executive.

Paravel has also adopted a similar strategy: the brand only sells and receives low-end packages in Amazon, leaving its fashion products to its own official website and luxury electric business Net-a-Porter.

"Consumers are searching for tourism solutions rather than luxury goods they dream of," Rockefeller said.

As the CEO of Envision Horizons, Amazon's strategy company, Laura Meyer's proposal is that sticking to the fashion brand that sells core products on Amazon can optimize the ranking of consumers' search. With the new season series, each brand will start from scratch every time.

Meyer pointed out: "design product details page, there is too much work to do. 4 months later, when the new product is released, you don't want to put your time and energy into doing it again. The best way is to stick to templates. "

　 Take tough measures

Selling products in Amazon means competing with more than 250 sellers on the platform, not to mention the 135 private brands owned by Amazon.

"No matter how big the scale of the company is, if you choose to operate in Amazon, no company has time to make mistakes," said Elaine Kwon, operator of the electricity supplier management company. "This is a dedicated business."

All brands should be ready to spend heavily on advertising in Amazon.

Thomson said, "you have to spend money to get in the way. Some brands don't make money in the 6 months after Amazon's opening, because they put all sales revenue into advertising.

Companies must also abide by the seller rules set by Amazon. Some brands are said to have been suspended due to seemingly minor violations; Berkson noted that the consultation industry to prevent business moratorium has also sprung up.

If the order is wrong, the Amazon seller is also expected to take responsibility.

Thomson said: "if consumers feel the product is problematic, Amazon will take care of it. They will not ask consumers questions, but they will refund them in full. They have set high standards: consumers are benefited, and brands are damaged.

Amazon experts say that early adopters can adopt basic strategies consistent with search keywords. MCM pays the top ranking of sponsors' search results: users can search for the "MCM belt", "Lady luxury belt" and "men's fashion belt" and other keywords when they reach the brand's Claus belt. Search for "MCM backpack", "Lady leather backpack" and "brand backpack" can go directly to the brand Stark backpack.

Meyer says that brands must become creative.

"Glossier does not sell products on Amazon, but many people will search for this brand," she said. Therefore, beauty companies should buy these keywords to advertise.

Kwon said that those brands who did not want to enter Amazon need to register at least on the Brand Registry system. The system was launched in May 2017 to provide a protective tool for brands that have registered trademarks.

"After registration, it will be difficult for other companies to sell your brand products through Amazon," Kwon continued. "Less investment can play a role in protecting the brand, and it is worth it."