How LifeSeasons Took Back 91% Control of the Buy Box
LifeSeasons suffered from price erosion and lost sales due to unauthorized Amazon sellers. With Pattern’s help, LifeSeasons turned the situation around by establishing brand control, removing unauthorized sellers, and winning the Buy Box. Read how they did it below.
LifeSeasons Set Up for Success on Amazon
LifeSeasons, the premium supplement brand, was running a successful Amazon business—just like any smart seller they took the time to optimize their listings, perfect their descriptions, and use their image stack to tell a story.
Over 60 Unauthorized Sellers Fight for the Buy Box
Unfortunately, LifeSeasons still had over 60 unauthorized sellers flood their Amazon listing, starting a tireless battle for the Buy Box. Because winning the Buy Box is the main avenue for sales on Amazon, losing this battle lets competing sellers steal customers, sales, and ultimately profits from LifeSeasons. Without true control of Amazon or the Buy Box, LifeSeasons was at the mercy of rogue sellers wanting to make a quick buck.
LifeSeasons Loses Brand Control and Sales
The unauthorized sellers stole brand control from LifeSeasons because they were driving more traffic and conversions to their listings. Without any brand control or legal compliance, the rogue sellers had free reign and misrepresented the product and the brand. As a result, LifeSeasons couldn’t properly portray their benefits, explain the science, or empower their customers.
But unauthorized sellers didn’t stop at just damaging the brand image on Amazon, they were also heating up price competition by lowering the listing price, taking the Buy Box, and stealing the brand’s sales. LifeSeasons’s Buy Box ownership fell to 56%, meaning they were losing almost half of their Amazon sales to outside sellers. But LifeSeasons wasn’t only losing sales, their product was also selling at or below wholesale price, damaging the brand value across all channels.
Technology & Experts Tackle Unauthorized Sellers
LifeSeasons had to do something to regain control, leading them to work with Pattern, an ecommerce accelerator who gives control back to brands, as their exclusive Amazon distributor. Both Pattern and LifeSeasons understood the need to identify and takedown the unauthorized sellers—without true control of the product listings, other Amazon optimizations would be useless.
Based on insights from Pattern’s ecommerce acceleration platform, LifeSeasons immediately started identifying and tracking unauthorized sellers. Then, using Pattern’s data in harmony with Vory’s eControl, a Pattern-trusted law firm, LifeSeasons created and began enforcing a MAP policy against the sellers. The end of the problem was in sight! To fully enforce the policy, Vory’s assisted in sending cease and desist orders to the seemingly endless list of violators, slowly taking down each rogue seller and returning LifeSeasons’ marketplace prices.
LifeSeasons Takes Back 91% Control of Their Buy Box
Rome wasn’t built in a day—but within 3 months of partnering with Pattern, LifeSeasons had removed the most aggressive violators from their Amazon listings, seeing sales return back to the brand’s authorized listings on Amazon. Within 4 months of this new control strategy, LifeSeason’s Buy Box percentage jumped to 91%, giving LifeSeasons 9 sales for every 1 sale an unauthorized seller took.
With unauthorized sellers under control, the premium supplement brand found new relief. Instead of spending each day fighting violators, together with Pattern, LifeSeasons could focus on Amazon strategy and optimizations, and regain control of their brand image. With control of the Buy Box, inventory flow and forecasting became much more predictable, accelerating their profitability.
Ultimately, LifeSeasons could dedicate resources to the core parts of their business, including their mission to help customers live life to its fullest.
Pattern Can Help You Take and Maintain Control
LifeSeasons didn’t just see a one-time spike in Buy Box ownership—with continued partnership, Predict data, and enforcement help, LifeSeasons maintained 88% Buy Box ownership year over year. If you’re facing similar issues, we want to help you get in control. Ready for expert help eliminating unauthorized sellers and taking back the Buy Box? Get in touch today.