Who Is Selling Your Brands Online? At What Price?
The $5 trillion U.S. retail industry is undergoing a period of profound disruption, driven by the emergence of new online sellers and categories, and the online influence on the majority of offline sales. Categories that were previously considered “safe” for in-store sales are threatened by the emergence of competitors such as AmazonFresh for grocery, while players such as Warby Parker, Tuft & Needle and many others continue to challenge perceptions about what can and cannot be effectively sold online.
For brands, online sales represent huge opportunities for growth, but there are significant threats as well, and brands must take the right steps to protect their brand equity, minimize channel conflict, while also increasing their online market share. Online success starts with complete visibility of who is selling their brands online, where and for how much, especially in the age of marketplaces.
Brands can then take steps to identify and address unauthorized sellers, better support their authorized channels, and ultimately take appropriate measures to grow their share of the digital shelf relative to competitive brands.
How can brands do this? There are three primary steps to protecting and building brand value online.
Step 1: Understand who is selling your brands online. Do you really understand who is selling your brands online? Online marketplaces mean anyone can become a seller and it’s estimated that over a third of US e-commerce purchases now go through this untraditional channel. While brands need complete visibility of their online channel to be able to identify and address unauthorized sellers, many traditional monitoring tools provide no marketplace visibility.
Click here for an example of how brands gain visibility of who is selling their brands online, where and for how much, including marketplace resellers.
Step 2: Increase the performance and compliance of your authorized sellers. Brands know who their authorized sellers are and which products they carry, but typically lack visibility into how they are representing and supporting their brand online. Brands need a channel intelligence solution that highlights product coverage, availability, and pricing by retail partners on-demand and over time. This also gives the insight to ensure authorized sellers are compliant with negotiated terms including pricing (MAP or otherwise), products, and promotions.
Step 3: Increase your share of the digital shelf. The third step to online prosperity for brands is to understand, optimize, and de-risk the composition of your digital shelf over time, especially too much consolidation among a handful of retailers. As well, brands will need to gain insight into the online market penetration of competitive brands, so they can respond appropriately.
The measures outlined above aren’t exhaustive, but they represent an excellent place to start. And by following them, brands will take the right steps to protect their brand equity and increase their online market share.
For brands, online sales represent huge opportunities for growth, but there are significant threats as well, and brands must take the right steps to protect their brand equity, minimize channel conflict, while also increasing their online market share. Online success starts with complete visibility of who is selling their brands online, where and for how much, especially in the age of marketplaces.
Brands can then take steps to identify and address unauthorized sellers, better support their authorized channels, and ultimately take appropriate measures to grow their share of the digital shelf relative to competitive brands.
How can brands do this? There are three primary steps to protecting and building brand value online.
Step 1: Understand who is selling your brands online. Do you really understand who is selling your brands online? Online marketplaces mean anyone can become a seller and it’s estimated that over a third of US e-commerce purchases now go through this untraditional channel. While brands need complete visibility of their online channel to be able to identify and address unauthorized sellers, many traditional monitoring tools provide no marketplace visibility.
Click here for an example of how brands gain visibility of who is selling their brands online, where and for how much, including marketplace resellers.
Step 2: Increase the performance and compliance of your authorized sellers. Brands know who their authorized sellers are and which products they carry, but typically lack visibility into how they are representing and supporting their brand online. Brands need a channel intelligence solution that highlights product coverage, availability, and pricing by retail partners on-demand and over time. This also gives the insight to ensure authorized sellers are compliant with negotiated terms including pricing (MAP or otherwise), products, and promotions.
Step 3: Increase your share of the digital shelf. The third step to online prosperity for brands is to understand, optimize, and de-risk the composition of your digital shelf over time, especially too much consolidation among a handful of retailers. As well, brands will need to gain insight into the online market penetration of competitive brands, so they can respond appropriately.
The measures outlined above aren’t exhaustive, but they represent an excellent place to start. And by following them, brands will take the right steps to protect their brand equity and increase their online market share.