5 ms·

Kind of surprised the article (or the Amazon spokesperson) didn't mention Transparency, which has been in development for some time: https://brandservices.amazo

Kind of surprised the article (or the Amazon spokesperson) didn't mention Transparency, which has been in development for some time: https://brandservices.amazon.com/transparency https://brandservices.amazon.com/transparency The basic idea: Vendor places unique 2D barcode on each unit of a branded product, only products with those barcodes get placed into Amazon warehouse inventory, consumers can scan the barcode themselves to verify it's legit.

gok 8y ago
And what happens when the FC does notice a fake? Do they actually promise to not ship it?
- cdjk 8y ago
  Once an asin is marked as being part of transparency they will reject it after a sell through period for any existing inventory.
cdjk 8y ago
Yes, and amazon gets to put a sticker on every item you sell (or at least the SKUs you enroll in transparency) no matter what channel you sell it in. I can’t imagine why vendors might not want to do that if they want to sell anyplace other than Amazon.
- crazygringo 8y ago
  Seems like you're being sarcastic? But I don't see why. It means all your customers would get the anti-counterfeiting benefit, not only the ones who purchase from Amazon, since non-Amazon customers can verify the code too. Seems like a win for everybody. (Also, you're putting the codes on your items yourself, Amazon's not doing it.)
  - cdjk 8y ago
    Yes, I am being sarcastic. There may be a benefit to customers but your products will have calls to action on them to download and install an Amazon app on your phone when you’re in a retailer like Target or Best Buy. I think that’s the real reason for the transparency program.
    - Godel_unicode 8y ago
      It's not at all clear to me that people will be able to tell what that T+code sticker is on their product they purchased at e.g. Best Buy. I think the purpose of the program is to fight counterfeits.
- londons_explore 8y ago
  It doesn't seem like a very good system. Counterfeiters will simply buy a real batch of products, and then copy each T-code onto their counterfeits 1000 times, then resell both the real and the counterfeit.
  - ac29 8y ago
    It says Amazon scans the code before shipping - presumably it would be a red flag if the scan says the product was already sold.
  - MaysonL 8y ago
    I assume that the barcode is encrypted using a private key, and decrypted by Amazon or the app using a public key.
crazygringo 8y ago
That seems like a really clever solution actually. Big brands can print unique barcodes on each unit, small brands can manually slap on stickers. And it looks like it can be used for all sales channels, not just Amazon. It will instantly stop counterfeiting in its tracks. It seems like companies would be all over this, but this is the first I've heard of it. What are the obstacles? Is Amazon charging too much for it? (Honestly it seems like it's better for them to subsidize it, if anything.) Is it not fully rolled out yet?
- sct202 8y ago
  There are probably some challenges with upgrading their manufacturing systems to generate and print the codes out. Currently standard UPCs for a lot of products are pre-printed at a vendor with all the rest of the packaging (like for bags of chips, all the UPCs are already printed on rolls of film that are stored at a factory before they're filled). They'd have to change it so that this newer 'UPC' would be printed during manufacturing like a code date would be. They'll probably start moving towards it; especially since it'll also give better control over getting feedback on product quality from consumers or communicating recalls. Right now, it's kind of cumbersome, because things that are coded with lots or manufacturing code dates aren't really that easy for consumers or retailers to use.
- cdjk 8y ago
  Putting individual stickers on items is more expensive than you’d think. And most box manufacturers are set up for printing lots of the identical box - changing those lines would be hard.
petilon 8y ago
What prevents a counterfeiter from copying the barcode?
- Godel_unicode 8y ago
  These are GUIDs, not SKUs. If two customers get the same ID, one is counterfeit.
  - craftyguy 8y ago
    That does nothing to prevent the first one from being counterfeit, allowing many counterfeits with 'valid' guids to be accepted if they arrive sooner.
    - Godel_unicode 8y ago
      "nothing" Is overstating it. While this doesn't guarantee that the legit item gets to the customer, I feel confident that the real seller will usually win that race. In order for the counterfeiter to win, the counterfeiter would have to get the fake item with the real number into an Amazon warehouse before the real item arrived. Add to this the fact that the vendor of the real item will be told their item was rejected as dupe, and there's nothing I can see in the program documentation requiring the tags to be sequential, and this raises the bar quite a bit.
- snaky 8y ago
  Counter for how many times the barcode had been checked.
  - londons_explore 8y ago
    Yes, but make 5 fakes with each real product barcode, then intermingle them, and there will still be no way to seperate the real ones from the fakes.
    - snaky 8y ago

gok 8y ago

And what happens when the FC does notice a fake? Do they actually promise to not ship it?

cdjk 8y ago
Once an asin is marked as being part of transparency they will reject it after a sell through period for any existing inventory.

cdjk 8y ago

Yes, and amazon gets to put a sticker on every item you sell (or at least the SKUs you enroll in transparency) no matter what channel you sell it in. I can’t imagine why vendors might not want to do that if they want to sell anyplace other than Amazon.

crazygringo 8y ago
Seems like you're being sarcastic? But I don't see why. It means all your customers would get the anti-counterfeiting benefit, not only the ones who purchase from Amazon, since non-Amazon customers can verify the code too. Seems like a win for everybody. (Also, you're putting the codes on your items yourself, Amazon's not doing it.)
- cdjk 8y ago
  Yes, I am being sarcastic. There may be a benefit to customers but your products will have calls to action on them to download and install an Amazon app on your phone when you’re in a retailer like Target or Best Buy. I think that’s the real reason for the transparency program.
  - Godel_unicode 8y ago
    It's not at all clear to me that people will be able to tell what that T+code sticker is on their product they purchased at e.g. Best Buy. I think the purpose of the program is to fight counterfeits.
londons_explore 8y ago
It doesn't seem like a very good system. Counterfeiters will simply buy a real batch of products, and then copy each T-code onto their counterfeits 1000 times, then resell both the real and the counterfeit.
- ac29 8y ago
  It says Amazon scans the code before shipping - presumably it would be a red flag if the scan says the product was already sold.
- MaysonL 8y ago
  I assume that the barcode is encrypted using a private key, and decrypted by Amazon or the app using a public key.

crazygringo 8y ago

That seems like a really clever solution actually. Big brands can print unique barcodes on each unit, small brands can manually slap on stickers. And it looks like it can be used for all sales channels, not just Amazon. It will instantly stop counterfeiting in its tracks. It seems like companies would be all over this, but this is the first I've heard of it. What are the obstacles? Is Amazon charging too much for it? (Honestly it seems like it's better for them to subsidize it, if anything.) Is it not fully rolled out yet?

sct202 8y ago
There are probably some challenges with upgrading their manufacturing systems to generate and print the codes out. Currently standard UPCs for a lot of products are pre-printed at a vendor with all the rest of the packaging (like for bags of chips, all the UPCs are already printed on rolls of film that are stored at a factory before they're filled). They'd have to change it so that this newer 'UPC' would be printed during manufacturing like a code date would be. They'll probably start moving towards it; especially since it'll also give better control over getting feedback on product quality from consumers or communicating recalls. Right now, it's kind of cumbersome, because things that are coded with lots or manufacturing code dates aren't really that easy for consumers or retailers to use.
cdjk 8y ago
Putting individual stickers on items is more expensive than you’d think. And most box manufacturers are set up for printing lots of the identical box - changing those lines would be hard.

petilon 8y ago

What prevents a counterfeiter from copying the barcode?

Godel_unicode 8y ago
These are GUIDs, not SKUs. If two customers get the same ID, one is counterfeit.
- craftyguy 8y ago
  That does nothing to prevent the first one from being counterfeit, allowing many counterfeits with 'valid' guids to be accepted if they arrive sooner.
  - Godel_unicode 8y ago
    "nothing" Is overstating it. While this doesn't guarantee that the legit item gets to the customer, I feel confident that the real seller will usually win that race. In order for the counterfeiter to win, the counterfeiter would have to get the fake item with the real number into an Amazon warehouse before the real item arrived. Add to this the fact that the vendor of the real item will be told their item was rejected as dupe, and there's nothing I can see in the program documentation requiring the tags to be sequential, and this raises the bar quite a bit.
snaky 8y ago
Counter for how many times the barcode had been checked.
- londons_explore 8y ago
  Yes, but make 5 fakes with each real product barcode, then intermingle them, and there will still be no way to seperate the real ones from the fakes.
  - snaky 8y ago