Has your Amazon listing been hijacked? We often get angry sellers asking for help because Amazon hijackers have taken over their listing.
Their sales suddenly start to slow down, and their products’ ranking and reviews take a hit.
This can be a real nightmare. You may have invested months of hard work and thousands of dollars launching the product.
The good news is that there are simple steps you can take to prevent your listing from being hijacked and limit the damage.
If you create a few barriers, this will deter people from targeting your listing and brand.
We will show you the best ways to protect your listing against Amazon hijackers and how to report an Amazon seller for a violation.
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Want to take a shortcut?
If you want a tool that automatically alerts you when there are Amazon hijackers on your listing, then we recommend ‘Helium 10 – Amazon Hijacker Alerts‘ You can start using it for free and there are other tools included.
What Is Amazon Hijacking?
This is when a competitor starts selling an identical or counterfeit product on your Amazon listing, normally undercutting your price.
Having your Amazon listing hijacked is also sometimes referred to as ‘piggybacking’ on Amazon.
Amazon Private Label sellers usually import a generic white label product made in China and then add their own branding.
A competitor can then easily get the same product manufactured. It might be identical and possibly even made in the same factory.
Their product could also be counterfeit and of a lesser quality, which can cause additional problems.
If another Amazon seller starts selling an identical product on their own new listing, this is a slightly different problem from hijacking. This often happens if your product is not patented or protected and starts being successful.
The rival Amazon seller is probably just going through the same process you did when you originally created your private label product. They may have used Jungle Scout to find a viable product and then simply started selling their own version.
“…danger the hijacker reports you to Amazon…”
In this case, you just have to make sure your marketing and customer service is better than your competition, so it doesn’t harm your sales.
What’s the Impact When Your Amazon Listing Is Hijacked?
If the hijacker’s price is similar to or lower than your price, they will start stealing orders from you. If the product is of inferior quality, then it could start getting bad reviews, which could permanently damage your listing and effectively kill off future sales.
There is also the danger that the hijacker reports you to Amazon for infringement, claiming they are the original genuine seller and rights holder.
5 Steps You Can Take to Stop Your Amazon Listing Being Hijacked
If you are serious about your brand, then it is important to get your brand registered with Amazon’s ‘Brand Registry Program‘ and then try to get the brand Gated.
The time you invest in protecting the listing and brand is well worth the effort. Lost sales could cost you a fortune and you could also lose the product completely if the listing is ruined.
✅ 1. Constantly Monitor Your Amazon Listings 🕵️♂️
✅ 2. Create A Website For Your Brand 🌍
✅ 3. Get Your Brand Registered With Amazon 🏪
✅ 4. Customize And Optimize Your Amazon Listing 🧪
✅ 5. Get Your Brand Gated By Amazon 🔐
STEP 1 – Constantly Monitor Your Amazon Listings
It is worth manually checking your listings every week to see if there are any other sellers. Also, keep a lookout if sales volume for a particular product starts to decrease as it may indicate another seller is taking those orders.
We use Helium 10’s ‘Hijacker Alert‘ tool to automate this process. The ‘Hijacker Alert’ tool will monitor your Amazon ASINS 24/7. You will get an alert if another seller jumps on your listing and you can then report the violation to Amazon. It is free to use and comes with a suite of other great Amazon selling tools.
You should sign up and add your first products to Hijacker Alerts today. 🚨
STEP 2 – Create A Website For Your Brand
One way to minimize the chance of being a victim of Amazon hijackers is to build a simple website that includes your brand name, address, and all your company details. The details need to match those on your Amazon seller account.
Ideally, the domain name will also match your brand name. If your seller account name is different from your brand name, then make sure the site name matches your brand. Then add your seller account address and contact details to the website.
So everything is as easy as possible for Amazon make sure your brand name is clearly showing on your home page.
You can simply create a one-page site that looks professional. You do not need a full-blown e-commerce site at this point.
Creating a website should help you get brand registered with Amazon and also help customers to find out about your products.
In the future, you could add a store to your website so customers can buy directly, therefore diversifying your business and saving on seller fees.
How To Set Up A Website For Your Amazon Brand
1. First, you need to buy a domain and site hosting. We use Siteground for all our sites as they offer great support and have always resolved any issues quickly. Visit Siteground to get started.
2. Then you need to install WordPress. Luckily on Siteground, this is incredibly simple and also free. You just click a button and fill in some information and it’s done.
3. WordPress comes with some pre-installed themes which look okay. For a more professional and customizable website, we like to install our own themes and plugins and we recommend MyThemeShop or the Astra theme.
4. You now just need to add a contact form, logo, and your company details to your WordPress site. You can then put the site live and you are done.
STEP 3 – Get Your Brand Registered With Amazon
Getting Brand Registered is a fairly straightforward process once you have taken the steps outlined above. Simply fill in the form on Amazon.
Amazon Brand Registry has the added advantage of making your listing more customizable. It is also an important step towards brand gating.
Trademarking Your Amazon Product
Amazon has recently made changes to the Brand Registry Program. To get Brand Registered, you now need a trademark in place.
Filing a Trademark application will also help you get your brand gated in the future and deter potential Amazon hijackers.
For US-based sellers, it can take between 6 and 12 months to get registered and will cost a minimum of $250. For UK sellers, it will take about 4 months and costs about £180.
STEP 4 – Customise and Optimize Your Amazon Listing
There are additional steps you can take on your product listing, which will help to deter Amazon hijackers.
✅ 1. Make sure the brand name is in the listing title and also repeated in the description.
✅ 2. You can even include a trademark or copyright symbol in the title next to your brand name.
✅ 3. Include a reference to the warranty only being valid if the product is purchased from your company. In theory, sellers are not allowed to list a product as new if they are selling it without a warranty.
This gives you another avenue to get Amazon to remove the hijacker from the listing, as they will technically be violating Amazon terms.
✅ 4. Some sellers will include a free eBook or bonus item and mention this clearly in the listing. Amazon hijackers will not be able to offer this to customers and so are effectively not offering the correct product as described.
Again, this gives you grounds to file a complaint and report the seller to Amazon.
✅ 5. Try to show a close-up photo of your branding and logo clearly in the product photos.
These steps will certainly help deter potential hijackers and protect your brand.
The steps are relatively easy to do and have the added benefit of building brand awareness and making your products look more valuable to potential customers.
STEP 5 – Get Your Brand Gated By Amazon
Brand Gating is no longer just for larger established brands. As a Private Label seller, you may be able to get your brand gated.
“…ultimate protection for your Amazon listings.”
It can be difficult and you must be Brand Registered before you can apply.
This will further reduce the risk of suffering from an Amazon hijacked listing.
Make sure you have created a distinct brand before applying, as outlined in Step Two.
If Amazon sees you have taken these steps and your brand looks more official, then they are more likely to let you be gated.
When contacting Amazon, point out the fact you have a pending trademark and also you have had issues with counterfeiters trying to sell your products.
What if Your Amazon Listing Has Already Been Hijacked?
Obviously, you need to take the steps above to get Registered and Gated if you have not already done this.
If your Amazon listing has just been hijacked, you need to take action immediately to limit the damage.
The first thing you should do is to contact the other seller directly by clicking on their seller name on the listing. Then send them a message like this:
Dear seller,
It has come to our attention that you are reselling ‘Insert brand name here’ products on the Amazon marketplace.We do not offer our products through wholesalers or distributors and are the only company authorized to sell ‘Insert brand name here’ products. We are the manufacturer and brand owner of ‘Insert brand name here’
Affected products: ‘insert name and asin here’
You have 24 hrs to remove your listing for this product. If you have not removed the listing we will report you to Amazon who will take action on our behalf. Amazon takes these issues seriously and can shut down your selling account permanently.
Please contact us to confirm that you have removed your listing.
Sincerely
‘insert name and brand name here’
How to Report a Seller to Amazon for a Violation
Emailing the seller should normally do the trick, as they will not want to risk losing their seller account.
If for some reason they do not comply, then you need to file an infringement complaint with Amazon.
You should purchase the product from the infringing seller to use as evidence. It might take days or weeks to arrive if they are a seller based in China.
When it arrives, you need to take photos. Then make a note of all the ways in which it is different from your product and the Amazon listing.
File a complaint based on the item being “not as described”.
Amazon should take action and suspend the hijackers listing. The more detailed evidence you supply the better, so it is worth taking your time with this.
PRO TIP: We have had reports of people filing a complaint based on “counterfeit product” which can, unfortunately, result in Amazon suspending your seller account while they investigate. This is why we recommend using “not as described” when you report the hijacker to Amazon.
Amazon Hijackers Summary
We hope you found this article helpful and are now confident to take the steps required to avoid Amazon Hijackers and report fake sellers to Amazon.
You are also very welcome to join our friendly and supportive Amazon FBA Facebook Group:
Amazon FBA Selling for Beginners & Pros – for people just starting their Amazon FBA journey, and pro sellers. 🤷♂️😎
Good luck & Happy Selling
James 🤠
Useful Resources
Use Helium 10’s free ‘Hijacker Alert’ software to protect your listings – take a look here: Helium 10 Amazon Hijacker Alerts.
Build a website for your Amazon brand with Siteground.
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James is an ecommerce entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience selling online. He has a wealth of knowledge in selling on Amazon FBA, eBay, and building ecommerce websites.
Despite running a successful business, James has decided to share his expertise with others by offering guidance through his website, “The Selling Guys,” "The Selling Guys Facebook Page," and his “Amazon Selling for Beginners” Facebook Group.
James now has three children, two dogs, and a cat. 👨
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Hey guys. I’ve been trying to post this to other sites.
We had a couple of jokers buying our items USED from the Amazon warehouse and selling it under our listing as NEW.
We tried almost everything from sending a c&d, trademark claims & scam sellers reporting. We were at this for more than 3 months. We were ignored by Amazon eventually after sending tickets for months.
But when we sent a ticket to FBA support and reported the two piggybackers as “violating Amazon’s TOS” they got delisted almost within 48 hours.
So I think if you frame your support ticket like Amazon is the one being “harmed” then they’ll act on it right away. it’s just Amazon looking out for number 1 as usual.