Amazon tests ‘top brand’ label for some fashion items
is designating products sold by certain companies as “top brands,” a test that if widely implemented could ease tension between the online retail giant and bigname companies used to favorable positioning at brick-and-mortar retailers.
The company appended a “top brand” label to products from Speedo, New Balance, Under Armour and Fruit of the Loom in some product search results, Marketplace Pulse, a New York e-commerce research firm, said Friday.
An Amazon spokeswoman confirmed the company is testing the label on fashion items, basing the designation on brands that are popular with customers. She said brands don’t pay for the label.
Amazon already labels certain products “best sellers” or “Amazon’s Choice,” designations that the company says takes into account factors like availability, customer reviews and pricing. Shoppers often see such markers as endorsements, analysts say.
The criteria Amazon signed to connote legitimacy. The label, if implemented, could have “substantial impact on how shoppers decide which products to buy,” or how brands compete against cheaper private label products, he said.
Amazon accounts for about 40% of online sales in the U.S., according to researcher EMarketer Inc. and fueled the growth of e-commerce. But the freefor-all of its digital shelves dented the cachet some consumers assign to big brand names. Research by Marketplace Pulse earlier this year showed that roughly 1 in 5 product searches on Amazon included a brand name; more often, customers were content to thumb through Amazon’s catalog.
Consumer goods makers have long complained that Amazon’s Marketplace, which lets independent sellers list their products on Amazon, opened the door to counterfeiting. Amazon has responded with programs designed to give brand owners more control over how their products appear on the site, including the ability to delete some suspect listings or report them to the company.