One of the most alluring features of selling on Amazon is its accessibility. Anyone can become a seller and make money. Regardless of your location or prior experience, Amazon provides a trusted sales platform for you to showcase your products and reach a large customer base.

Additionally, the ease of setting up an account, listing products, and handling shipping and fulfillment simplifies the process and eliminates many of the barriers to entry that exist in traditional brick-and-mortar retail. As a result, Amazon has created a level playing field where anyone can succeed.

While the majority of sellers are willing to put in the work and do things the right way, there are some who strive to take shortcuts and capitalize on your success.

Amazon hijackers are a prime example. By “hijacking” or taking over an existing Amazon listing, these bad actors make changes to your product listing or price without your permission. Oftentimes, they even begin selling a counterfeit version of your private-label or branded product.

In this article, we’ll discuss how to deal with Amazon hijackers and what steps you can take to protect your products.

Being Hijacked on Amazon is Frustrating - and Costly

Having your listing hijacked on Amazon impacts virtually every part of your business, causing these consequences and more:

Loss of the Buy Box: If you own your own brand, sell a private-label product or have an exclusive reseller agreement with a certain brand or manufacturer, other sellers shouldn’t be showing up on your listing. Hijackers will, however, and they’ll typically undercut you on price which can cause you to lose the Buy Box.

Negative Reviews: Customers largely make buying decisions based on price, so many will blindly purchase not realizing that the product isn’t yours until a cheap counterfeit version shows up at their doorstep. Adding insult to injury, the negative reviews that follow will be displayed on your listing.

Poor Brand Reputation: When people begin associating your brand with poor-quality products, your product reviews and Best Sellers ranking will suffer. This can irreparably harm your brand’s reputation through no fault of your own.

Reduced Revenue: An Amazon FBA hijacker will steal your sale without having to do any of the hard work involved with listing your item. And with an influx of negative reviews, damage to your brand reputation, and fewer (or no) sales, your profits will rapidly plummet.

As your brand health declines, your selling account is at risk of suspension or closure. This threat to your livelihood may even feel personal as you undoubtedly spent a lot of time creating your brand and navigating the many requirements for selling private label.

Learn more: ASIN Piggybacking and Other Forms of Amazon Hijacking

7 Tips for Protecting Your Account from Amazon Hijackers

If you don’t stop the hijackers in their tracks, the cycle will only continue. Here are some top tips for how to deal with Amazon hijackers.

Get Amazon Hijacker and Buy Box Alerts

While all of the methods below are effective, the best way to keep Amazon hijackers at bay is to monitor your product listings on a daily basis.

One option is to manually go in and check for other sellers. However, if you sell a lot of items, this practice isn’t going to be feasible for long. Pretty soon, it’ll move further and further down your to-do list. You’ll likely forget about it altogether until something happens, and then it may already be too late.

Being proactive is what’s going to keep you out of trouble. That’s why many sellers prefer to outsource this task to third-party services that send you an alert when the number of sellers on your listing changes.

SellerPulse by eComEngine can alert you when the number of sellers on your listing has changed and when your listing content (title, main image, and brand name) has been modified.

If you receive an alert notifying you of an increase in the number of sellers on your listing, it may be a sign that a hijacker is trying to sell a counterfeit version of your product.

Take immediate action by doing the following:

Conduct a test purchase of the item from the other vendor to determine whether the goods are counterfeit.
Issue a cease and desist letter to caution the seller to refrain from using your intellectual property or trademark.
Report counterfeit products to Amazon.
Report any trademark infringement or copyright violation to Amazon.
Seek legal advice from your attorney regarding taking legal action.

Hijackers also have another trick up their sleeves when it comes to taking down your star performer - getting it labeled as an "adult" product on Amazon. This strategy can have a devastating impact on your sales, as the site actively seeks out and removes such products from its search experience. Fortunately, SellerPulse will keep you informed if this happens and provide advice for resolving this problem.

SellerPulse will also notify you when the number of sellers on your listing has decreased, which likely indicates that your work removing the hijacker was successful.

Set the alerts to your schedule and get valuable intel about the new offer, including:

Price
Product condition
Fulfillment channel
Buy Box ownership
Seller rating
Shipping information

Listing hijacking can be hard to come back from if you don’t act quickly. With SellerPulse’s hijacker detection and listing content change alerts, you’ll be well-informed and able to take action immediately.

Additionally, with the Buy Box being responsible for a staggering 82% of sales, it's crucial to protect your product from hijackers who swoop in and steal the Buy Box for your own product. SellerPulse's Buy Box alert is here to keep you informed and in control. Instantly receive notifications whenever there are changes to a Buy Box that you have an offer on, including when it's won, lost (to Amazon or another seller), or suppressed due to pricing disparities on other sites.

You can learn more about SellerPulse's product alerts in this short video:

Trademark Your Products

If you discover that one of your Amazon listings has been hijacked, you can take action by reporting it to Amazon and requesting the removal of the counterfeit item.

It's important to have your trademark information readily available as it can strengthen your case and increase your chances of Amazon taking your side and removing the hijacker from your product listings.

What is a trademark?

A trademark is used to identify and protect brand names and logos that market products or services. It can be a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination of all of the above.

Enroll in the Amazon Brand Registry

Enrolling in Amazon’s Brand Registry program is highly recommended as it affords you with a suite of tools designed to protect and build your brand, including:

Amazon Transparency: Add unique barcodes to your products and packaging using Amazon’s product serialization service that helps ensure only authentic units are shipped to customers.
Project Zero: Access a self-service reporting tool that allows you to flag and sometimes even remove counterfeit items on your listing.
IP Accelerator: Connect with one of Amazon’s trusted legal firms to expedite the process of obtaining intellectual property rights for your products.

Having an active registered trademark (or at least a pending trademark application) for your business and products is a main requirement for enrollment into Amazon’s Brand Registry program.

Did you know: Amazon’s counterfeit crimes unit has identified and removed more than 6 million counterfeit items from its marketplace and pursued more than 1,300 criminals through litigation and criminal referrals.

Prominently Display Your Branding

You want your branding to be distinct and prominently displayed for a couple of reasons. First, you worked hard to create your business, so show off your brand with pride!

Secondly, the more specific your branding is, the more recognizable it will be to customers. This helps create more brand awareness and makes it easier for customers to notice that another product has shown up in place of yours.

Here are a few tips:

Include your logo on the product and the packaging.
Keep your branding consistent across your products.
Website links should not be part of your branding as it’s against Amazon’s policy to lead shoppers away from Amazon.

Just remember, hijackers will have a much harder time replicating your products when they are branded clearly.

Create Your Own Website

Another way to deter Amazon hijackers is to create your own eCommerce website. Today’s shoppers do their due diligence before buying, and having a website outside of Amazon will help customers verify that your business is legit.

The more credible you are, the more trust customers will have. This is especially important if you’re selling a high-ticket item.

Thanks to a wide variety of website builders and other humans willing to do the job for you, it’s easier than ever to make your own website.

Having your own eCommerce website not only helps with deterring Amazon hijackers, but it also gives you a heightened sense of security. Now you can rest assured knowing that if your Amazon store were to suddenly disappear, you still have an additional sales channel available.

Keep Reading: Amazon Listing Hijacking: What It Is and What to Do About It

Fill Out and Fix Your Product Listings

Creating an Amazon listing is no easy feat. There are a lot of pieces to consider (how do I optimize my title? What product images should I include?), which causes many sellers to overlook or even skip some of the steps involved.

Keep in mind, however, that filling out all open fields -including those that aren’t required- eliminates the possibility of hijackers spamming your product listing with irrelevant information.

It’s also important to fix any weak points in your listings that hijackers may target. For example, if you only have a few basic product images, these could be very easy for hijackers to replicate. Try adding product images taken from different angles and incorporating unique lifestyle shots and infographics. (Remember to highlight your branding!)

Finally, focus on creating a distinct brand voice and listing content. Selling a unique product will significantly lower your risk of hijackers, but even if you sell something generic, you can make sure it’s distinguishable from similar items.

Create Product Bundles

To further dissuade hijackers, it can be helpful to bundle your products as they tend to target individual items. Bundling makes it more challenging for hijackers to copy your listings because they would need to have all the products included in the bundle to sell using your existing listing.

While it may not be needed for all your products, bundling can be a useful way to combat hijacking attacks on a specific item. Historically, bundling has been a smart way to get more sales as shoppers appreciate the convenience of purchasing complementary items.

RestockPro by eComEngine makes it quick and easy to build and break kits. You can create a kit with a unique SKU and specify the items and quantities included.

When you place an order for the kit, the purchase order will list all of the individual pieces. You can track your kits and their components, replenish inventory as needed, and even break them up if you decide to use the parts for other kits or sell those items separately.