- What Is Amazon Listing Hijacking – An Introduction To The Crime
- What Are The Damages Of Amazon Listing Hijacking? – The Potential Harm You May Experience
- How To Find Out That Your Amazon Listing Is Hijacked – Red Alerts For The Seller
- How To Stop Amazon Listing Hijacking – A Solution For The Sellers
- How To Prevent Yourself From Amazon Listings Hijacks?
- FAQs
- The Final Word
Amazon is one of the biggest worldwide virtual shopping platforms. Every seller is now on Amazon to increase their business. Are you also on Amazon? Great, you are on the way to boost your business. Did you ever notice a bunch of negative reviews instantly hitting your product or a decrease in sales? This is something you need to worry about. You might be facing Amazon listing hijacking.
What Is Amazon Listing Hijacking – An Introduction To The Crime
Amazon listing hijacking is considered to be a virtual crime. According to this crime, a hijacker notices your top-rated product and copies it. They list it with the same details and pictures on an unauthorized account. Not only do they list, but they also make copies of your product in a cheaper quality to cut off the investment.
These scammers list the products in the Amazon marketplace at a lower cost, grabbing your customers and still bagging their profits due to less investment. They scam you and the customers by selling them low-quality products. The customers would not understand that they are buying from the wrong seller and will get the wrong image of your product.
What Are The Damages Of Amazon Listing Hijacking? – The Potential Harm You May Experience
Listing hijacking is a crime. It can cause multiple damages to your business. Here you go with a few of them, so you consider the hijacking red alerts seriously.
It Damages Brand’s Reputation
Amazon hijackers and scammers damage your brand reputation the most through fake listings. They bring cheap copies of your product to the market and sell them to the customers under your brand name. When the customer gets such products, they lose trust in your brand and leave a lower rating to your brand.
The Poor Ratings
Most of the Amazon sales depend upon the reviews and ratings. The better reviews and ratings grab more potential customers. If your product listing is hijacked, the customers will lose their trust in your product and leave negative reviews, not knowing they bought from the wrong seller. These negative reviews will stop the new customers, and you can also lose the product’s buy box.
The Stolen Revenue
The Amazon listings hijacked is a red alert to the total revenue of your brand. The hijackers will copy your listings and put them at a lower price. These listings will be a treat for the people who might be looking for a good deal. They will buy from the fake seller, and the revenue will be removed from your bag.
Increased Marketplace Competiton
The Amazon product hijacking will create competition for you in the market. These fake sellers will offer a low price due to the use of low-quality material and will create competition for you. You might need to lower your prices to meet the competition, which is almost impossible as an original brand seller.
How To Find Out That Your Amazon Listing Is Hijacked – Red Alerts For The Seller
As an Amazon seller, you must protect your listings and the brand. As soon as you see changes in the ratings or other symptoms of listing hijack, pointing them out and taking them off soon to save your brand is integral. Here you go with a few ways that you can use to spot the listing hijacking.
The Complaints And Negative Reviews – The First Red Alert
We have already discussed that if you have started to get reviews and complaints about one of your hot-selling products, this might be a sign that your Amazon listing is hijacked. Start looking if you are getting negative reviews and a drop in ratings. There might be a scammer who has hijacked your product listing.
Spotting the Unauthorized Sellers – The Second Red Alert
Whenever you buy a product on Amazon, there are two options available. One is to buy the product instantly, and the other is to look for the counter deals. This might be the best way to spot a hijacked listing. Search for your product on Amazon and look for the counter offers. Spot the unauthorised seller with your product and the same brand label. This might be a red alert for you.
This image shows the page with the offers for Amazon products. We can see a hijacked listing in the image at a lower price. Such listings will steal your revenue. Take steps to block them as soon as you notice them.
Losing The Amazon Seller Buy Box – The Third Red Alert
Amazon awards the products with a buy box with 80 percent of the sales in the niche and good ratings and reviews. Having the Amazon Buy Box gives a boost to your sales. If you suddenly notice that you have lost the Amazon Buy Box to another seller, this might be the red alert that your Amazon listing has been hijacked.
It is easier for sellers with hijacked listings to get the Buy Box as they offer the product at a very low price (mostly by offering a fake, low-quality product). The customers buy the products at the deal price, and this is how the product covers the major part of the sales. Consider it a red alert and report the listing as soon as possible.
Worst Case Scenario – Getting Your Amazon Account Suspended!
There are some cases when sellers even get their Amazon account suspended due to increased number of negative reviews and buyer reports due to listing hijacking.
In that case – you need to either write an appeal to seller support.
Or.. contact us and get a new Amazon seller account (we have many of them for sale).
It will be active and ready to sell.
How To Stop Amazon Listing Hijacking – A Solution For The Sellers
When you notice the Amazon Listing Hijacking, it is time to report them. Here we’ve covered a few effective methods that will help you remove the hijacked listing and block the seller’s fake seller account.
Purchase From The Hijack Listing
This may sound strange, but we recommend you purchase the product from the fake seller when you receive the product. Closely examine it and find out the defects in it. Compare it with the original product. Note all the points; this will help you strengthen the case and make an effective report.
Write A Cease Letter
Amazon Seller Support takes 3-4 days to respond to your issue. Once they respond, they take more time to investigate and respond to the case. We cannot wait this long, as the hijacked listing has been stealing your revenue. A quick way is to scare the fake seller with a cease letter. Ask your lawyer to write a cease letter for you or just find a template on the internet and copy it. Go to the review section of the seller and paste the letter. Give the seller some time to respond. Discuss with him, and if he does not respond. Move to the next step.
Contact The Seller Support
If you do not have any other option left, Amazon seller support will always be at your service. Go to Amazon Seller Support and fill out the report infringement form. Use all your findings and the product comparison in the report. Compile the complete case. Add all your findings. submit it to the Amazon support system. Amazon will investigate the case, and the hijacked listing will be blocked permanently in a few days.
You can also write them directly to [email protected].
Ask Us for Help!
Do not hesitate to contact us and ask for a quote.
We can help you remove your listing hijackers in no time!
How To Prevent Yourself From Amazon Listings Hijacks?
Once you remove the hijacked listings, the work is not done yet. You must take a few more preventive steps to avoid further problems. Here are a few more steps to help you be safe from the hijackers.
Trademark All Your Products
Adding the trademark to your products makes you the legal owner. You will have all the legal rights of the product. This process might take a little time but will save you any further listing hijackers.
Maintain Your Product Stock
Always maintain your stock. If the stock is always available for you, the scammers will get very little chance to take over the Buy Box of the product. The buyers will not move to the other sellers if you always provide them with the stock.
Sign Up To The Amazon Registry
People with the trademark are eligible for the Amazon registry program. Once you finish the trademark process, it is time to take over the product on the Amazon store. Apply for the registry program and let Amazon know what products belong to you,
Be A Part Of Project Zero
The Project Zero is a special service by Amazon. Be a part of this project, and Amazon will take over the privacy of your products. There will be a security that no other seller can serve your products to the customers.
Do A Strong Branding
Branding is the key to success in a business. Use the brand logo in the Amazon images. Add the brand logo on the package wrappings and other materials. This will strongly influence your brand, making it hard for the scammers to copy it.
Automatic Alert System
Scammers might always have an eye on your product. They will always find ways to copy your product and steal your revenue. You need to keep a keen eye on the product and the listings. As a company owner, it might be hard to check out the listings on every product. Managing manpower for the task might be very expensive. Multiple software available in the market can do the job for you. Choose a good software, connect your account to it and catch Amazon listings hijacked on time.
FAQs
The Final Word
Amazon listing hijacking is not only an unethical act but is also a crime. It steals your revenue and causes potential damage to your business. Protect your virtual store from modern thieves and scammers; work on protecting your brand to shine in the eyes of your customers.
We hope that by following our guide you found some helpful information on how to remove or prevent your own listing hijackings!
Although, if you need help in removing hijackers — don’t hesitate to contact us for a swift and effective solution.