Walmart Brand Protection With eEnforce

The Walmart marketplace is undoubtedly a great choice for business owners looking to expand their reach. After all, Walmart accounts for 4.7% of all online retail sales in the United States. On top of that ownership amount, this online retail giant is expected to expand heavily into online Grocery sales, making it the nation’s largest grocer. With Walmart’s online grocery platform close to covering the entire market, management expects 80% of Americans to be able to order items online for curbside pickup by the end of 2020.

This news of expansion for Walmart brings with it more selling opportunities for business owners. And while that is great for your brand, it also means it casts a wider net of unauthorized or counterfeit sellers. In fact, a government report from the Government Accountability Office revealed that products purchased from third-party sellers on five major e-commerce sites could be counterfeit — and harmful to your health. One of those platforms that counterfeits were purchased from was Walmart. 

That doesn’t mean you should miss out on potential profits by avoiding listing your products on Walmart. But it does mean you need to keep your brand safe from unauthorized sellers and counterfeiters. At eEnforce, we can help your brand by offering Walmart brand protection.

How Brands are Being Affected by Walmart Unauthorized Sellers:

Walmart unauthorized sellers and counterfeiters are causing significant problems for brands all over the United States. Many brands are experiencing adverse impacts created by Walmart sellers that are:

1. Harming relationships with authorized retailers. Authorized sellers will avoid working with your brand if unauthorized sellers and counterfeiters are negatively impacting the market and their bottom line. 
2. Diluting your brand’s reputation. By selling low-quality products, counterfeit sellers tarnish your brand’s reputation. Customers buy what they think is your product, only to receive a low-quality and false representation of your brand. The unsatisfied customer will typically leave a negative review, shaping a negative image for future customers. This leads to an ugly cycle of losing sales. 
3. Harming your profit and sales margins. It’s difficult to turn a profit, much less make a sale, when customers consistently have the option of buying your products for prices below your MAP standards.
4. Selling counterfeit or knock-off products. Counterfeit or knock-off products are almost always made with cheap materials. Again, the result leads to unsatisfied customers and lost business. 
5. Causing difficulties in controlling MAP pricing. By unauthorized sellers on Walmart selling your brand’s products for a lower MAP pricing amount, this causes pricing mayhem. Your authorized sellers have no choice but to follow suit, creating yet another endless cycle of floundering profit margins and souring relationships with your trusted vendors.

One of the most alarming details about all of this? The above issues are not limited to brands selling on Walmart. These issues are also negatively impacting brands that have never even listed a product on the eCommerce site. Here’s how: Let’s say a customer finds a backpack they want to buy in a store. In order to see if they can get that backpack for a lower price, they go searching online. They end up finding what they think is that same brand’s backpack for much less money on Walmart’s marketplace, so they purchase it. However, the backpack they have bought is not from the brand they wanted, it is an imposter. Now, think of all the money that brand loses if this happens hundreds of times every day with potential customers. It paints a very depressing picture for that business owner.

The problem is not the MAP pricing of the brand. The real root of the issue is the unauthorized sellers and counterfeiters constantly trying to take advantage of hard working business owners. With Walmart brand protection from eEnforce, you can put a stop to losing customers to these unauthorized third-party sellers for good.

Does Walmart offer Walmart Brand Protection?

Like other eCommerce platforms, Walmart does not cover the loop-holes in their system when it comes to being a seller. They recommend that in order for brands to protect themselves that you work with Third-Party Retailers you know and trust. And to a degree, their logic makes sense – If you can trust that your TPRs and authorized distributors are not selling your products to unauthorized sellers, you’ll minimize holes and issues in your supply chain.

But this logic has a major issue – It is not always realistic for a business owner with several TPRs and limited staff to perform thorough due diligence on every single potential authorized distributor. Will businesses do their best to vet them? Of course. But you also are not a mind reader and cannot predict what every TPR will decide to do behind your back in order to profit off of your brand.

Walmart’s interest is in protecting the seller’s rights, legitimate or otherwise. While they do offer an Intellectual Property Complaint Form, Walmart states on its site, “Walmart does not mediate trademark disputes between third parties and trademark owners. Rather, Walmart will forward the trademark claim to the third party before taking any action, with the intent that the third party and trademark owner will resolve between themselves any dispute over ownership rights and infringement.”

For counterfeit claims, Walmart recommends filling out their IP Claim Form. 

This is where eEnforce comes in to help with your Walmart brand protection. With eEnforce, this game is put to its end. Once the culprits are found, they are dealt with for good using our patented technology and team of licensed professionals.

How eEnforce Can Help with Walmart Brand Protection

eEnforce has developed its Walmart Brand Protection program that removes sellers violating a brand’s reseller policies by both authorized and unauthorized sellers. Our Walmart Brand Protection Program is successful in:

1. Helping brands develop a comprehensive enforcement strategy. 
2. Identifying the real identities of unauthorized sellers and counterfeiters behind the store names on Walmart down to their social security and EIN levels. This includes Name, Address, Phone Number and email.
3. Sending out legal notifications in volume directly to the exposed seller at their home or business approved by the brand. 
4. Forcing the seller off the platform for federal trademark infringement your brand’s trademark. 
5. Ensuring they don’t return. 

Get Walmart Brand Protection with eEnforce

At eEnforce, we take action to make sure you have Walmart brand protection. That’s because we understand you need someone on your side when it comes to stopping Walmart unauthorized sellers and counterfeiters.

eEnforce has been helping companies ranging from startups to Fortune 100 companies find the real identities of imposter sellers for the last decade. We are the only online protection and enforcement firm that maintains the legal license and capabilities to identify unauthorized Walmart sellers. We can even locate them down to their EIN or social security number and take legal action against violators of a brand’s trademark. 

In a collaboration between intelligence-based technology and licensed investigators, your business is being protected 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with eEnforce. MAP pricing, product distribution, quality control, and your bottom line are safe from Walmart hijackers with our services. We uphold your reputation as a Walmart seller so that you can focus on what you do best: making your product and building your brand.

Not only is eEnforce one of the fastest-growing eCommerce protection services in the world, but we’re the only company that offers a 30-day risk-free trial. Let us help you keep your brand protected on Walmart.

Work with the best in Walmart Brand Protection. Start Your 30 Day Risk-Free Trial Today!