Our version of Santa’s list is here! Learn the important points to detect naughty Internet commerce sellers through listings, sales, MAP Pricing and more!

Do you feel holiday merriment stirring in the air? We do, which means it’s officially the season to start checking your list to see who’s naughty and nice! Now it can get a little hairy deciding who’s getting coal in your family, but we have pretty cut and dry qualifiers for naughty eCommerce sellers. So for a little bit of fun we’ve created our version of Santa’s list. Of course we don’t want to forget to mention that not all 3P sellers mean to be bad! If you’re approaching a third-party seller we recommend extending a little grace in case they might fit the “Nice” bill. 😉🎁

Naughty List 💩

1. Violating MAP Pricing
   1. There’s nothing worse for your revenue, or killing the warm holiday fuzzies between you and your authorized retail partnerships, than a seller that is driving your products’ pricing down.
2. Stealing the Buybox
   1. Less than friendly competition goes against the spirit of the season, especially when it’s the eCommerce “Superbowl” of the year. These are the real Grinches of Internet Commerce Christmas, riding around stealing your marketing and sales efforts right from under your brand’s “tree”.
3. Hijacking Listings and Content
   1. Intentionally altering or stealing brand content and listing means these sellers get double lumps of coal from us.
4. Unresponsive to Requests
   1. Whether this means they don’t respond to communications or want to try and fight back, nobody wants to deal with this behavior any time of year and even less when in high selling season. In our book, these guys don’t even deserve coal but we’ll mail them exciting Cease and Desist letters to unwrap. 🎄

Nice List ✨

1. Responsive to Requests
   1. These individuals acknowledge enforcement/removal communications and are willing to comply or negotiate with the brand.
2. Willing to Sell Back Products
   1. Holiday time or not, it’s important that generosity goes both ways. Brands should understand that some sellers may have bought legitimate products and are unknowingly violating selling policies. If a third-party is willing to take down their competing products, brands should be willing to buy their inventory back.
3. Interested in Partnership
   1. We consider these guys Grinch at the end of the movie. They might have started off on the wrong side of Christmas but with a little change of heart and enlightenment they want to join in on the authorized fun.

That’s a “wrap”! We’d love to know what makes your Naughty and Nice Lists—share them with us on social media @brandguarde. If you’d like more holiday reading, check out our Holiday Strategy Blog Post.