Let’s say we are in CVS and CVS runs a deal on our product, the same product that’s on Amazon. Deal is on CVS’s website as well as in-store.
High Price Error - blah blah blah - Eff You Amazon!
The product gets pulled from search and completely suppressed on Amazon?
Asking for a friend. Not really, it’s for me.
Sorry, as the only seller of our listings, not a bridge we have crossed and I need to make sure.
Thanks a bunch
Steve
It should still appear for search just loss of buy box and lower ranking on search. I think
Yea, that’s what I was thinking. Not the rank piece though, just the lack of a price in search.
Our broker made sort of a big deal about this today. We’d rather have a pure Omni-Channel approach with this brand so it’s available everywhere, same size, same price, so no one complains and everyone makes their $, including us.
IDK how hard Amazon is enforcing this lately anyway. As I mentioned in another thread, our Walmart prices didn’t revert after CM and Amazon didn’t say squat about it. That went on for 48 hours.
Remember, this is part of the FTC case…
I think it might just be as @Pepper_Thine_Angus says, but not necessarily solely during the sale.
If you are concerned, there are other ways to deal with a price reduction at CVS including coupons for members of their rewards program. Soft money like I am prone to point to.
You are a pro, think back to when you were a bigger deal than you are today. 
When I was a pro, Amazon was non-consequential in our category. If I only knew then what I do now, I would be quite happy and wealthy…
When dealing with these retailers, they call the shots on how promos are run, you just support them…
ETA - Obviously the solution to all of this is to change the pack size so there’s no match. I’d rather not have to manage 3 sets of inventory though…
Perhaps you need to plant your idea in their heads and they can take ownership of it. But that requires human to human interaction and may reflect my old age.
I’m not going to fool myself into thinking we are somebody because we’re not, at least not yet.
This is a do as you say kind of thing for now.
Thankfully, I won’t be the one doing the talking. That’s what we are paying this team to do for us.
I’m still in denial that any of this will materialize. I’ll believe it when I see the PO’s.
Not even remotely excited about it. Been burned before. Can’t deal with any more disappointment at this stage of the game.
Can’t you just use a different UPC for your in store versions? That way Amazon can’t match it.
That’s actually not a bad idea. Duh… I’m sure that’s not 100% fool proof though.
The accounts we are targeting all require 12 count case packs vs. our current 24 so we need to redo all of those codes anyway.
I’m just wondering if GS1 will have an issue with the same consumer good having 2 different barcodes in commerce, and both being active.
I mean, I am sure they will have a problem with that but how would they ever know? Our Amazon products have the FNSKU barcode printed on the product label but do have the actual UPC code in the backend.
Most likely their competitive price bot just works off of GTIN if it’s available, and big retailers usually make that information readily available, if not by posting it on the page, there’ll be an image that has the barcode which the Amabots will scan.
Name matching is hugely error prone so if it can find the UPC to scan that should take priority as that’s generally not error prone.
It’s not the same though. It’s the version that’s authorized for sale on Amazon. Print in small print somewhere on the label “For sale on Amazon.com”
Bam, different product.
Eh… That’s kinda ghetto my friend. No real brand does that.
Omni-channel approach is to have an identical experience everywhere. With that said, the barcodes have to be different on Amazon…
Big brands have regionalized products in different countries, sometimes to provide a different experience, sometime to comply with different laws. Those have different labels and I’m assuming different GTINs.
Amazon US is bigger and more important than a lot of countries and the platform has different rules (fnsku label being one of them) to sell there. A “regionalized” product for Amazon is already being done in some ways. Some companies have a special FFP (frustration free package) version for Amazon. Often times those exclude the colorful display boxes that are meant to be shown at a retail store to lure customers in.
Fair enough…
I guess rainman wouldn’t be able to find your product on Amazon since he searches by GTIN, but nobody else in the world buys products that way.
Nope.
GS1 is just a product identifying standard
They’re not in the job of policing near identical products.
Heck you could just change the label design slightly.
It would be akin to variation products by color no? The only distinguisher being the color for the same product.
How is it within GS1’s purview to identify, assume and penetrate a companies product portfolio for nearly identical products? They’re not amazon.
Even amazon can’t really make a fuss for almost identical products if you make packaging changes and or make listing changes.
Customers may wonder/ask but guessing customers are making informed choices by dosage and they would still ask.
I’ve learned to be a “worst case scenario” kind of person over the years to see / find potential problems before they actually surface.
I do agree with everything you said here though.
Different UPC code with the following added to the label …
Walmart = Case Pack ( because it is a 12 pack case)
Amazon = Bulk Pack ( because it is a 24 pack case)
Yea, I think this is the answer.
Thanks @GGX for saying the obvious that I should have thought of myself. My brains broke…