Amazon Sellers’ News 12/4/19 with CJ Rosenbaum: Business Verification, New TOS for Sellers & Developing a SIX FIGURE Private Label Brand
Related account suspensions continue to increase.
Every day for the last week or so, we are getting more phone calls for business verifications and related accounts. When it comes to business verifications, it’s not just new sellers. In fact, new seller business verifications are on the decline from what we’re seeing. It is business verifications for sellers selling gated brands and business verifications for experienced sellers selling other companies’ brands.
You need to know how to defend yourself. You need to show your products are authentic. You need to send in your distribution agreements.
How to build a six to seven-figure business.
First you need to develop a business structure and I suggest as you get into the private label game via two different entities. One, to own your Amazon account, which you already have, and another one, to own your IP rights with an IP holding company. Also, I want to make sure that you have set up corporate bank accounts and corporate insurance policies as required under the new TOS, so that you have contracts to back up building your entity. You can have your lease, your utility bill, your employment, all of these contracts help you develop assets.
Now other assets, intellectual property is the modern goodwill. Used to sell goodwill, now what you are selling or what you are getting investors into your Amazon based business, is your IP rights and that means your private label brand, your trademark, your logo, your designs. Now also what I’d like you to do to protect yourself against Amazon is to try and have as many aspects of your business match each other. You want your domain name to match your Amazon store if at all possible. You want your corporation name, your corporate entity, whether it’s an LLC, a corporation, or a limited partnership, to also match your Amazon account as much as possible.
These are samples of logos. There are word marks, and there are fanciful marks. The word is simply the word, Crate&Barrel, SHARP, FedEx, your private label name. On the other side of the screen, you’re seeing Facebook’s drawing, Chase Bank’s logo, the apple for Apple Computers. Those are fanciful marks.
Now basic copyright law, you don’t need to file anything. As long as you have captured your image or your verbiage in some kind of medium, you have an interest in it and you own it.
Also as an Amazon seller, you need to diversify where you’re sourcing your products from. You can’t just buy everything from China. It’s really bad in light of the trade war. You’ll also need to manage your inventory well. Nothing hurts sellers more these days than too many canceled orders because you simply don’t have enough inventory. You also want to diversify your revenue stream. You need to protect yourself from Amazon, then get on eBay.
Even though it’s still Amazon, get on Amazon’s international platforms. Diversify your revenue. I also strongly recommend you use Amazon’s IP Accelerator program. It gets your brand registry faster than any other system out there.
If you’ve been suspended on Amazon, contact us for a free consultation: 1-877-9-SELLER.
Thank you for watching Amazon Sellers’ News 12/4/19