What is MAP violation? How & Why Should You Monitor and Enforce MAP Violations?

GrowByData
What is MAP violation? How & Why Should You Monitor and Enforce MAP Violations?
Malina Thokar |
|READ 8 MIN
Reduce manufacturer's Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) Policy Violations in the US and Canada in Amazon, Google Shopping, Walmart and other ecommerce sites

A MAP Policy is an important document created by the brand to define a minimum advertising price threshold for their products that their resellers will be selling. A manufacturer or brand builds this pricing policy to protect their brand image in the marketplace. Unfortunately, the policy does not always stop retailers from advertising or selling products below the MAP, as they may offer discount coupons or codes to customers. Minimum Advertised Price also specifies the scope of the policy on the Internet (IMAP), electronic (eMap), and physical stores.

Today, we will go through what a MAP violation is, why it is necessary to monitor MAP price and how you can enforce policy violations across ecommerce channels such as Google Shopping, Amazon, Walmart and direct sites in the US and Canada to reduce and stop MAP violations.

What is MAP Violation?

Map Violation happens when any reseller or retailer advertises or sells a product below the minimum advertised price set by a manufacturer as stated in the MAP Policy document.

A recent study done by the Harvard Business Review on manufacturers who use MAP policies found that unauthorized retailers had violated the policies 50% of the time. Similarly, authorized retailers had a 20% violation rate.

Why should you track MAP Violations across Google Shopping, Amazon, Walmart and other online channels in the US and Canada?

Numerous sellers are advertising and selling your products online. Some may be authorized, while some may not. Therefore, it is important for you as a manufacturer or brand to track MAP violations across all digital channels. This protects your brand image among customers from rogue resellers and saves your loyal authorized retailers’ profit margins. Monitoring MAP compliance and taking action against non-compliance stops unauthorized retailers and allows you to keep happy resellers while protecting your brand.

GrowByData helps you avoid costly MAP errors – read Top Mistakes Buyers Make When Purchasing MAP Monitoring Software“.

We know Amazon, Target, eBay, etc. are some of the biggest online channels where anyone can join as a retailer and sell your products. A recent study done by the Harvard Business Review on manufacturers who use MAP policies found that unauthorized retailers violated the policies 50% of the time. Similarly, authorized retailers had a 20% violation rate. From this study, we can determine that not tracking MAP violations across all channels can potentially destroy your brand image and undermine your authorized retailers.

Normal consumer behavior is shopping for products on multiple online channels, comparing prices, and searching for the best deal before making a purchase. If a consumer sees your product or brand advertised at a very low price, it won’t be a great representation of your brand value, as the shopper may think your product is counterfeit or from the “grey market”. This degrades and destroys of your brand value.

Today, Retailers are equipped with cross-channel intelligence. They constantly analyze product prices of their competitors and reduce their own prices to win sales, thereby triggering a price war among the resellers, and degrading your brand image in the process. Cross-channel MAP monitoring is key to prevent your brand from getting sold by resellers in their race to be the cheapest.

How to Track MAP Violations?

A manufacturer or brand or wholesaler should monitor the market prices of their product advertised by retailers on Google Shopping, Amazon and others to track if they are complying with the set MAP policy. This is the only way to track and take necessary actions against non-compliant retailers.

Enforcing MAP policy in eCommerce is crucial, for the huge audience. A powerful MAP monitoring software can help track retailers’ prices across multiple online channels. These tools can alert you about violations with visual evidence in PDF format to immediately report and take swift action against delinquent retailers to enforce the MAP policy.

GrowByData has prepared a MAP Violations Email Template for you to rightly reach out. We suggest you customize the content in the email as per your business and needs.

How to Enforce MAP Price Policy in the US and Canada?

powerful MAP Enforcement insights

Map enforcement is the process of detecting all MAP violators across various marketplaces and advertising platforms, proclaiming MAP policy, and if needed, banning non-compliant retailers from selling your branded products. The ultimate decision to ban the seller is left to the brand and the marketplace. This means brands must use the MAP compliance monitoring tool to find violators and produce accurate visual evidence to swiftly report MAP pricing violations in whichever digital platforms found.

Our GrowByData MAP Monitoring Software solves this retail industry problem of MAP issues on Google Shopping, Amazon, Walmart and others in the US and Canadian markets. Along with our powerful price intelligence for your repricing strategy, our price intelligence software provides these bonus feature of addressing these key challenges around MAP violations monitoring and enforcement –

  • Monitor violations across platforms
  • Gain accurate MAP violation visual evidence
  • Swiftly report MAP violations 

1. Monitor across digital platforms at Scale

Our marketplace intelligence solutions support platforms such as Google Shopping, Google Ads, Amazon, Walmart, eBay, Target, and direct e-commerce platforms such as Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce, Yahoo, Volusion, 3DCart, and others in US and Canada. Alongside these options, we can support monitoring at different frequencies and for different time zones and geographies. Today, we are monitoring MAP violations for different categories such as apparel, tools, industrial, health & beauty, electronics, and more.

2. Gain accurate Evidence

Our solution accurately matches your products at the variant level with other retailers across various platforms. We ensure this accuracy with a double-layer Data QA Process that incorporates both AI and human inspection.

3. Swiftly catch Map Violations

Our solution quickly alerts you with accurate MAP violation reports separately on Amazon, Google Shopping and Walmart. You can track violations in an SKU by different retailers across eCommerce sites and marketplaces. You have a visual snapshot of the violation that you can send directly to violating parties for MAP enforcement.

Conclusion

It is imperative to strictly enforce your MAP policies and build brand loyalty among your retailers and customers while maintaining your brand value. While selecting your vendor, you should ensure that you opt for a MAP solution provider that monitors your products across all digital channels like Amazon, Target, Google Shopping, etc. Also, you will want a MAP solution partner that can advise you on best practices to follow to help you significantly stop MAP violations without irritating your good sellers.

Want to get started with our cross-channel MAP monitoring service to stay competitive in your market and gain an edge against your competition? Email info@growbydata.com or talk to our experts today to learn more! We are here to help.