The top online marketplaces in the world, including Alibaba, Amazon, and eBay, sold $2.7 trillion in 2020, or 62% of global web sales that year. Despite the promise of unfettered access to customers, the reality is that most sellers struggle with unprecedented and unauthorized rogue resellers. These often anonymous, third-party individuals and firms may not provide the quality experiences aligned with customers’ expectations of a brand and often market their goods in competition with trusted partners. This requires a systematic battle plan to effectively protect the seller’s brand equity, service promise, and authorized distribution network. We describe the channel war that is at work and the forces fueling its development. We explain how rogue reseller activities drive down pricing, increase channel competition and conflict, impact the customer experience, and harm brand equity. We recommend revising product policies, procedures, and agreements to begin to differentiate products from those sold by unauthorized parties. We also recommend a legal strategy to complement these efforts. Critical steps include regular and active enforcement as well as implementing services, benefits, and quality controls for the brand’s products that cannot be replicated by unauthorized sellers and requiring authorized distributors and retailers to maintain those benefits and controls.

包括阿里巴巴、亚马逊和 eBay 在内的全球顶级在线市场在 2020 年的销售额为 2.7 万亿美元，占当年全球网络销售额的 62%。尽管承诺可以不受限制地接触客户，但现实情况是，大多数卖家都在与前所未有的未经授权的流氓经销商作斗争。这些通常是匿名的第三方个人和公司可能无法提供符合客户对品牌期望的优质体验，并且经常与可信赖的合作伙伴竞争销售他们的商品。这就需要一个系统的作战计划来有效保护卖家的品牌资产、服务承诺和授权的分销网络。我们描述了正在进行的渠道战以及推动其发展的力量。我们解释了流氓经销商活动如何压低价格，增加渠道竞争和冲突，影响客户体验，损害品牌资产。我们建议修改产品政策、程序和协议，以开始将产品与未经授权方销售的产品区分开来。我们还建议采用法律策略来补充这些努力。关键步骤包括定期和积极执行以及对未经授权的卖家无法复制的品牌产品实施服务、利益和质量控制，并要求授权分销商和零售商保持这些利益和控制。