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~ Practicology ~

product at too. It continuously devalues products and pricing,’ asserts Vincent. ‘For example, when brands sell
brand names.’ MAP policies help brands to regulate this directly to Amazon, then Amazon sets the pricing to the
and prevent a downward spiral for price and brand image. end customer. Amazon’s algorithm is set to match the
cheapest price it can see the item on sale for from other
retailers and online sellers. In Europe, brands have no way
The European challenge to control this, unless they control who sells their products
Contrary to the situation in the United States, in Europe, in the first place,’ explains Vincent.
brands cannot dictate the prices that retailers and mar-
ketplace sellers choose to set. Brands can give a suggested For this reason, Pattern is now encouraging the brands
retail price, but they cannot force third-party sellers to fol- it works with in Europe to create Selective Distribution
low this. ‘What we see is that small start-up retailers, who systems, which allows it to set quality standards that retail-
do not have the large overheads that larger retailers have, ers and other sellers who want to supply its products must
can offer products up to 20% below the suggested product adhere to. This discourages sellers who are only interested
price. That leads to multiple problems,’ says Vincent. in making sales by deeply discounting the brand’s products.
How the brand creates a Selective Distribution system very
One of these is the downward price spiral, aided by the much depends on the products it sells and its market share
price scraping that Amazon and other marketplaces and within the EU, and brands will need to work with a law
retailers use to automatically ensure that they remain com- firm to determine what is appropriate for their business.
petitive on price. This is a technique used by large market-
places like Amazon. ‘This is most problematic when scrap- Pattern is always happy to adhere to Selective Distribution
ing is used in conjunction with automated or algorithmic policies, which can include standards for how the brand is

ONE BRAND’S

AMAZON GROWTH

STORY

Atrium Innovations is a US business with multiple brands framework to protect and control our online distribution
in the vitamins and supplements category that partnered and brand equity. As a result, Pure Encapsulations has
with Pattern to sell its products on Amazon.com, and is grown four times since 2016 and has become the number
now expanding the relationship to Europe, to grow brand four vitamins and supplements brand overall, as well as
awareness and sales across Amazon’s localised European the number one professional brand, on Amazon in the
sites. USA.
Pattern has been crucial to the growth of our business,
Adam Branfman, E-Business Director, Professional and we are now working with them to optimise our
Brands at Atrium Innovations explained how the Amazon presence in European markets, with the same
healthcare business has controlled its online sales channel, relentless focus on protecting brand integrity and driving
to protect brand integrity and prevent grey-market dis- growth through content, SEO, advertising, and customer
tribution and product diversion, by appointing Pattern as service excellence.”
its sole authorised Amazon distributor.
“In 2016, we granted Pattern Amazon channel exclusiv- If you are interested in Pattern and Practicology selling
ity as our single authorised Amazon distributor in the US your brand’s products in global marketplaces, please con-
for the Atrium Professional Brands; which include Pure tact us at [email protected]
Encapsulations, Douglas Laboratories and Genestra.
We also implemented and began enforcing a comprehen-
sive authorised reseller and Minimum Advertised Price

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