Is Amazon (Own Brand) Selling A Copycat Version Of My Product

Richard Morgan
December 5, 2018

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Larry joins but is incognito for this episode on Amazon (Own Brand) Selling a copycat version of his own product on his listing but of inferior packaging, quality and fulfilment turnaround

Amazon selling on Larry’s listing but the product being sold is not Larry’s even-though it’s an Amazon brand
In Oct the node changed on Larry’s listing
A couple of days later the Title changed and it had mis-spellings and had been shortened dramatically (Assuming the guys who supplied to Amazon did this)
Two days after that Larry lost the buy box and price dropped from $20 to $16 and it was being sold by Amazon – Amazon were selling a copycat version of Larry’s product
Dropped the price 1p below to re-gain the by box and has had the box 98% of the time since
Getting sales but not getting the same number or to the profit margins he’s had before

Advised by Amazon to Test Buy an Amazon Product!

The same day Larry opened a ticket
He told Amazon someone was selling on his brand and wanted them to separate the two sellers
They advised Larry to raise a test buy on the product of an Amazon sold product that is meant to be Larry’s own product!
No-one has this product except Larry – he doesn’t sell to anyone else
Larry did a test buy – marked as Prime – but took 4 days to supply – someone is selling a copycat of Larry’s product

Test Buy Arrives

It arrived, was not in an Amazon box and the label said it was from Lexington Kentucky
The product was not Larry’s it was a similar product
Has a slightly different footprint, the box was dusty and beat-up
The packaging had no warnings, etc and a bad representation of Larry’s brand
Had no bar-code, brand name, part number on it
Amazon were selling a copycat version of Larry’s product

Seller-Evaluation@amazon.com

He took photos and sent in to Amazon to show this was clearly not Larry’s product
After a few days of not hearing anything, someone in Amazon merged Larry’s case with his previous case that was closed that upset Larry
He called back in and got his calls opened back up and escalated
5 days later – email come from seller-evaluation@amazon.com
Thanked Larry for raising a ticket on products that do not match the listing page
No agreement to share the outcome of the investigation
Had a new internal case number attached to it

Investigating their UPC

Amazon dropped off the listing the next day
Remained off the listing for 5 days
Amazon jumped back on the listing again
Larry did another test-buy this time
Did some investigation UPCs and found a company in San-Diego listing that part number through their own website
Found the first tracking number and saw that it originated not from Lexington but from San-Diego (DBTC)

Amazon created a new ASIN

The second test order arrived
This one had the same 5 day delivery time and the tracking number came from San-Diego, so likely the same place
Took additional photos and sent in to Amazon
Duplicated with the previous case
After a few days Larry had seen no traction
Called Amazon again to ask them to ‘split’ this company off of his listing
Amazon decide to create a new ASIN for Larry’s product!!
There was 90 mins where Larry was not listed at all
Larry called back in and got it back on the listing straight away

Amazon Selling a CopyCat Product? – Next Step

Larry is currently still waiting for the 2nd case to be resolved
Look a little deeper into Larry’s direct competitors and saw Amazon was all over their listings too
Did test buys of their products
Received the 1st and it was the same product that Larry’s got for his fake product
The second test-buy came in a re-used Amazon box and inside was the product box which was an Amazon box
Both of those vendors had Amazon on their listing offering semi-identical products
All of the test-buy orders are identical products but packaged differently
A form of hi-jacking that appears to be all under the Amazon brand using the same product across the listings

Amazon Sold 2 increase stock by 1

5 days ago Amazon had the buy-box and had only 11 left in-stock
Decide to roll with it to see what happens if they sold-out
After 8 hours Larry dropped his price a penny and they had 5 left and Larry regained the buy-box
Odd was that the number available on this Amazon company selling his product – they would sell 2 increase by 1, sell 2 increase by 1…

Where now with Amazon

Decided to wait and see through black Friday
Didn’t want to rock the boat
Will probably go and explore an intellectual property claim with Amazon – in a way that avoids suspension
Larry’s key period for sales is in Jan/Feb
This will be Larry’s next big Gamble after Christmas