Brand Registry, MAP & resellers
A gated brand on Amazon is one where a seller cannot simply create an offer: they have to be approved first, usually by supplying invoices from a legitimate source and sometimes a letter of authorization from the brand. From the brand's side, being gated is less a status you switch on than a set of consequences you then have to operate, because every would-be reseller now writes to you.
This article is about that operating job. Not how gating comes about, which Amazon brand gating covers, but what you do once sellers are asking your permission: who to approve, what to ask for, what a letter of authorization commits you to, and how to keep a list that means something six months later.
What the seller on the other end is trying to do
Understanding the request helps you answer it well.
A seller wanting to list your product is usually one of four types. An established online retailer with a real business that wants to add your line. A small arbitrage seller who found units cheap and wants to flip them. A distributor's customer who bought a pallet and assumed Amazon was fair game. Or someone testing whether you answer, with no inventory at all.
They need documentation: invoices showing genuine purchase from a legitimate supplier, recent, covering a reasonable quantity, and in some cases a letter from you. What they send you is an email asking to become an authorized reseller.
The first decision is whether you want any resellers on your ASIN at all, and for most Amazon-native brands the answer is no, because you already sell the product yourself. That makes almost every one of these requests a polite refusal, and having a standard reply saves hours.
The default answer, and when to vary it
The default for a brand that sells its own product on Amazon is: thank you, we handle Amazon ourselves, we would be glad to talk about your bricks-and-mortar locations or your own site.
That reply does three useful things. It closes the Amazon question without argument, it keeps the door open to real retail distribution, and it tells you something about the sender, because a genuine retailer with stores will happily continue the conversation and a flipper will disappear.
Vary it in three situations.
A retailer whose online presence is genuinely strategic. Some categories are sold by specialist online retailers with real authority, and their Amazon storefront is part of a business you want associated with the brand. Here the answer might be yes, on terms.
A market you cannot serve yourself. If you do not sell in a country and a local partner does it properly, an authorized seller is better than nothing or than a grey importer.
An existing wholesale customer asking openly. A customer who asks before listing is showing you the behaviour you want. Even if the answer is no, answer it as a commercial conversation rather than a refusal, because this is a customer you keep.
What to ask for before you approve anyone
If you are going to say yes, get the information that makes the relationship enforceable.
The legal entity name, the Amazon seller account name and storefront link, and the registered business details. Approving a name that does not match the storefront makes your list useless.
Where they buy. If they bought from a distributor, which one and on what terms. If the answer is vague, that is your answer.
What they will do on price. This is where your advertised price policy belongs, and minimum advertised price on Amazon sets out how to write one that is a unilateral policy rather than an agreement you negotiate.
Which ASINs and which marketplace. Approvals should be specific. A blanket authorization is a document you will regret when the brand grows.
An end date. Authorizations should expire and be renewed, for the simple reason that businesses change hands and a permanent letter outlives the relationship it was written for.
What a letter of authorization commits you to
Treat it as a contract, because it functions as one.
Write it narrow: named entity, named ASINs, named marketplace, a stated period, and a statement that it may be withdrawn. Say explicitly that it does not grant exclusivity, does not grant rights in the trademark beyond reselling the goods supplied, and does not permit the creation of new detail pages, variations or listings for your products.
That last clause is the one brands forget. A seller who creates their own detail page for your product fragments the catalogue, and cleaning that up later is slow work. Reserve listing creation to yourself.
Keep a copy of every letter issued in one place, with the dates. A year in, when a storefront you do not recognise claims to be authorized, the file is how you check.
Building a list you can defend
The list is the point. Without it, "authorized" is a word rather than a fact.
Keep it simple: entity name, storefront, ASINs, marketplace, effective dates, the letter reference, and where they buy. A spreadsheet is enough. What matters is that it is current and that one person owns it.
Tie it to your shipment records. If you serialize units, which the Transparency program explains, you can map code ranges to purchase orders and purchase orders to customers. Then a unit bought from an unfamiliar offer resolves to a name in minutes instead of a month of speculation.
Review it quarterly. Remove expired approvals. Check the storefronts still exist and still match. The half-life of a small online retailer is shorter than most brands assume.
When someone is selling without approval
The ladder is short and it starts with evidence, not with a complaint.
Buy a unit. Check the code, identify the run, match it to a shipment, and you have a customer name. Contact that customer, cite the channel terms, and ask them to identify the buyer and stop supplying them.
If the seller contacts you first asking for approval after they have already listed, you have a choice to make and a fact to notice: they have inventory, and refusing does not remove it. Sometimes the better outcome is a conversation about price and listing conduct rather than a stand-off you cannot win. Sometimes it is a firm no and a supply-side fix. The full sequence, including what to do when the trail leads to a liquidation lot, is in unauthorized sellers on Amazon.
What does not work is filing an intellectual property complaint against genuine goods. It fails, and it can expose you.
Keeping the gate from costing you real business
There is a failure mode worth naming. A brand gets serious about control, builds a strict approval process, and starts treating every inbound wholesale inquiry as a threat. Six months later the brand-protection system is excellent and the wholesale channel has not grown.
The gate exists to protect a channel, not to replace it. Most inquiries that arrive by email are the wrong accounts anyway, which is why answering wholesale inquiries is about triage rather than enthusiasm, and why outbound to well-matched accounts beats waiting for inbound.
If you want a better list to work from, paste your listing into WholesalePilot and the preview shows the distributors and retailers that plausibly stock products like yours. Approving the right two accounts is worth more than refusing forty of the wrong ones.
Questions brands ask
Do I have to respond to approval requests? No, and many brands do not. A short standard reply is still worth having, because silence loses you the occasional good account.
Does approving one seller mean I have to approve others? No. You choose who you supply and who you authorize, subject to the law where you operate. Keep the criteria consistent and written down.
Can I revoke an authorization? Yes, if the letter says so and you notify them properly. Write the withdrawal clause in from the start.
What if a seller has real invoices but I never sold to them? Then a customer of yours sold to them. That is a supply chain conversation with your customer, not an Amazon complaint.
Should I authorize a distributor to sell on Amazon? Rarely, and never by accident. A distributor selling on the same listing as you is a competitor with your own cost structure. If you do it, name the ASINs, set the price expectation and set an end date.