Adding Amazon Transparency Labels to Your Business
When working with Amazon, third-party sellers have several benefits, the most obvious of which is instant access to a wide range of consumers. However, there are inherently some downsides as well, including the threat of market rivals selling counterfeit goods on your listings. In 2020 alone, Amazon discovered more than 10 billion suspected counterfeit listings and blocked them all in an ongoing effort to block the stream of fake goods that threatens to enter their platform.
To help third-party sellers protect their products from counterfeiting operations, Amazon now offers a Transparency Program to the brand owners that use their platform. When sellers sign up for the program, they gain access to Amazon Transparency labels—precisely traceable data matrices that ensure product authenticity and provide sellers with extra opportunities to connect with their customers.
Here, we take a look at how Transparency Program participants can both obtain their labels and apply them to products in the most efficient way possible.
How To Obtain Your Amazon Transparency Labels
Once you are enrolled in the Amazon Transparency Program, you’ll gain access to the “Transparency Self-Service Portal” via email. In the email will be instructions on how to create a Transparency profile and password. After you complete your profile, you will be able to enter the portal, order Transparency codes, view Transparency reports, and perform other Transparency Program activities.
To order Transparency codes, enter the self-service portal and find the ‘Code Request’ tab. There, you pick the desired product and select the number of codes you would like to generate. At this point, you can add additional traceability information as well, including lot numbers and manufacturing location. This information will be presented to the customer when they scan the Transparency code.
After you’ve ordered the Transparency codes, you can obtain them in one of two ways:
- Via Email: Look for an email from the Transparency Program. In this email, you will find a hyperlink to the codes. Once you click on the hyperlink, you can download the codes straight to your desktop.
- Via the Previous Code Request Page: The Previous Code Request Page is accessible through the self-service portal. On this page, you will be able to download the codes you ordered as either CSV files or PDF files.
Now that you have the code files, you can print and apply them to products in a couple of different ways.
Amazon Transparency Label Creation: Transparency Service Provider vs. In-House Production
Once you have obtained your Amazon Transparency label files, you need to decide how to print them out. To do so, you have two options: partner with a Transparency Service Provider (TSP) or create them in-house.
TSP
TSPs are third-party companies that offer label-printing services to Transparency Program participants. Amazon has a long list of TSPs that are recommended based on their reliability and knowledge of Transparency Program guidelines. TSPs are located across the globe and can provide Transparency Program participants everywhere with pre-printed labels that are guaranteed to be machine-scannable.
Transparency Program participants often choose to partner with TSPs to avoid the time, capital investment, and effort required to print labels in-house. However, TSPs do have two notable drawbacks:
- The extra service costs involved in outsourcing label production
- Shipping times
If you are using the Amazon Transparency Program for a sparse amount of products, these drawbacks aren’t particularly negative. The money and time you’re saving by not investing in printing hardware can justify the extra shipping costs and time involved in working with a TSP. However, if you need to print a substantial amount of labels on a regular basis, it is well worth it to invest in label-printing equipment.
In-House
Although this may seem intimidating at first, today’s label-printing systems are intuitive and easy to integrate into one’s existing operations. Modern label creation software such as NiceLabel is both simple to learn and capable of streamlining the labeling process via network integration.
Print-and-apply label systems like those made by Evolabel® also enable line operators to fully automate their secondary and tertiary packaging processes as well as apply labels to primary packaging, albeit at a slower steady pace.
Want To Begin Printing Amazon Transparency Labels In-House? Contact InkJet, Inc. Today
The Amazon Transparency Program is a great asset for third-party Amazon sellers that want to protect themselves from the threat of counterfeit goods. Of course, the program only works if you are able to successfully print and apply the codes to your products. While TSP partnerships allow Transparency Program participants to do so, outsourcing is not a cost-effective method for sellers labeling moderate-to-large amounts of product.
If you are looking for a way to bring label production in-house, InkJet, Inc. is here to help. Offering print-and-apply label systems, label creation software, and decades of industry experience, our team is here to help you improve your labeling productivity. Contact us today to learn how.
To learn how to automate your Amazon Transparency label application process, contact us online today or call 1(800) 280-3245.