Amazon expands product serialization outside U.S.
Amazon is combating counterfeit at scale in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, U.K., India, and Canada.
The e-tail giant is rolling out Transparency, its product serialization service used by more than 4,000 brands in the U.S., to brands selling on its platform in those seven countries. Transparency provides a unique code for every unit that is manufactured. Brands put these codes on its products and every time one of these products is ordered in Amazon’s stores, Amazon scans and verifies the code to ensure only authentic units reach customers.
Additionally, customers can use a mobile app to scan the code and verify authenticity regardless of where they purchased their units. Brands can also use Transparency to communicate unique unit-level information, including manufacturing date, manufacturing place, or other enhanced product information, such as ingredients.
Hundreds of U.S. brands continue to enroll into the service every month. Amazon first announced product serialization in February 2019 as part of a broader U.S. anti-counterfeiting program known as Project Zero. In addition to serialization, Project Zero also enables brands provide Amazon with their logos, trademarks and other key data, and Amazon scans over 5 billion product listing updates every day, looking for suspected counterfeits. A self-service counterfeit removal tool enabling brands to remove counterfeit listings themselves.
According to Amazon, U.S. brands have so far generated over 300 million unique codes, allowing it to proactively stop over 250,000 counterfeits of Transparency-enabled products from reaching customers. In 2019, for products fully on-boarded into the Transparency service, Amazon says there have been zero reports of counterfeit from brands or customers who purchased these products on Amazon.
“Counterfeiting is an industry-wide concern – both online and offline,” said Dharmesh Mehta, VP, Amazon customer trust and partner support. “We find the most effective solutions to prevent counterfeit are based on partnerships that combine Amazon’s technology innovation with the sophisticated knowledge and capabilities of brands. We created Transparency to provide brands with a simple, scalable solution that empowers brands and Amazon to authenticate products within the supply chain, stopping counterfeit before it reaches a customer.”
The e-tail giant is rolling out Transparency, its product serialization service used by more than 4,000 brands in the U.S., to brands selling on its platform in those seven countries. Transparency provides a unique code for every unit that is manufactured. Brands put these codes on its products and every time one of these products is ordered in Amazon’s stores, Amazon scans and verifies the code to ensure only authentic units reach customers.
Additionally, customers can use a mobile app to scan the code and verify authenticity regardless of where they purchased their units. Brands can also use Transparency to communicate unique unit-level information, including manufacturing date, manufacturing place, or other enhanced product information, such as ingredients.
Hundreds of U.S. brands continue to enroll into the service every month. Amazon first announced product serialization in February 2019 as part of a broader U.S. anti-counterfeiting program known as Project Zero. In addition to serialization, Project Zero also enables brands provide Amazon with their logos, trademarks and other key data, and Amazon scans over 5 billion product listing updates every day, looking for suspected counterfeits. A self-service counterfeit removal tool enabling brands to remove counterfeit listings themselves.
According to Amazon, U.S. brands have so far generated over 300 million unique codes, allowing it to proactively stop over 250,000 counterfeits of Transparency-enabled products from reaching customers. In 2019, for products fully on-boarded into the Transparency service, Amazon says there have been zero reports of counterfeit from brands or customers who purchased these products on Amazon.
“Counterfeiting is an industry-wide concern – both online and offline,” said Dharmesh Mehta, VP, Amazon customer trust and partner support. “We find the most effective solutions to prevent counterfeit are based on partnerships that combine Amazon’s technology innovation with the sophisticated knowledge and capabilities of brands. We created Transparency to provide brands with a simple, scalable solution that empowers brands and Amazon to authenticate products within the supply chain, stopping counterfeit before it reaches a customer.”