As a Manufacturer or Brand, you want to protect your brand value by enforcing MAP pricing policies in marketplaces like Amazon, Google Shopping, Walmart, Target, Best Buy & ecommerce stores. You want to maintain healthy relationship with your authorized resellers and proactively block unauthorized channels and resellers.
Minimum Advertised Price popularly referred as MAP is the minimum retail price the manufacturer sets for its product that resellers or retailers agree not to go below in advertisements.
Yes, under U.S. antitrust statutes, MAP is legal. It is not considered a form of vertical price fixation between retailers and manufactures because it allows selling below the set price.
Yes, the MAP policy only prohibits advertising below Minimum Advertise Price. We can sell below MAP price via discounts & promotions.
If a retailer has advertised their price below the Minimum Advertise Price set by Manufactures/ Brand in any online channel, then it is called MAP violation. The only way to detect is to consistently scan and monitor sellers advertise price across the platforms.
The process to enforce MAP is to detect all MAP violators across various marketplaces and advertising platforms, generate evidences, proclaim MAP enforcement policy and, if needed, ban non-compliant retailers from selling certain branded products.
We can detect issues in MAP on markpetplaces like Google Shopping, Amazon, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, eBay and others. We are also analyzing Ad channels like Google Shopping Ads and report at this level.
We can detect issues in MAP on direct ecommerce sites like Magento, BigCommerce, Shopify, Yahoo, Volusion, 3DCart and custom others. If you have a custom need to detect MAP violations in other sites, please let us know. Easy for us to extend our capabilities into new destinations as needed.
For brands we monitor, we can share when their products show up on channels they have not authorized. For example, many brands prevent retailers from selling at marketplaces like Amazon. We flag cases when the brand’s products appear on Amazon.
We can provide a screenshot of the retailer that has violated MAP. As a competing retailer, you can share this snapshot with the manufacturer to push your case that the violating retailer must be penalized. If you are a manufacturer, you can use this data to email the retailer.
You may be diligently following MAP guidelines set by the brand on your ecommerce store and marketplaces. However, if your competitors are not, then they are not creating a level playing field. Consumers may purchase from a non MAP compliant vendor and you lose the sale. This is unfair.
MAP compliance software allows you to detect when other retailers are not following MAP price. You can use this evidence to flag to the brand to police the non complying retailer. Additionally, you can share the information that you comply and others don’t to make a case for your brand to get favorable terms on inventory, payment, early access to new products and more.
