Allied merchants coalition of America

Allied Merchants Coalition fights to ensure equal price rules for all merchants. We seek to level the playing field so that merchants can fairly compete based on their ability to win market share and not based on a corrupt system that allows a select handful of sellers to advertise below the manufacturer’s Minimum Advertised Price (MAP), while forcing other sellers to comply with the MAP rules or face significant consequences. We work with honest sellers to create a fair marketplace and hold manufacturers responsible for dishonest practices. Allied Merchants Coalition notifies merchants when it discovers that manufacturers are using backdoor deals to allow a select number of sellers to sell below the MAP and siphon off their sales without any consequences. Exposing these manufacturers and their discriminatory practices allows honest merchants to stop wasting resources on products they will never sell and to reinvest their time, resources, and money onto other brands and products where they will receive greater and fair return for their efforts.

Sellers are accustomed to dealing with strict Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) rules from manufacturers. However, in recent years there has been a troubling development. Many dishonest sellers are flagrantly violating these rules and manufacturers are doing nothing. Even worse, some manufacturers even allow certain preferred sellers to engage in this behavior knowing the effects it will have on honest merchants trying to honor their MAP agreements. Honest merchants are losing sales and wasting time and money building marketing and advertising campaigns around products only to be undercut by sellers who are stealing sales by breaking MAP rules.

When honest merchants try to lower prices to compete they are threatened with losing their account while manufacturers let other sellers siphon off sales with Map violations that go unpunished. Some manufacturers even allow friends or preferred sellers to break MAP, knowing it hurts honest merchants.

We want to help honest merchants who are getting hurt both by the dishonest merchants who violate MAP rules and who are being unfairly singled out by manufacturers while other sellers are getting away with anticompetitive behavior.

You Honest merchants know better than anyone how much time and money you have to invest in selling a product or promoting a brand. You invest in marketing. You buy advertising. But, while you are faithfully following the MAP rues, some dishonest seller is allowed to blatantly violating those same rules.

A potential customer stumbles across one of your ads and is interested in buying the product. But, before just buying from you they do a quick web search for the lowest price.

The dishonest seller ends up getting the sale that you cultivated. They didn’t have to invest anything in marketing. They just ride your coattails and steal your sales by breaking MAP.

The biggest problem is until now, you would never know about the dishonest seller. You would be left putting more money into trying to sell a product while someone else siphoned off your sales.

Exposing the dishonest practices of certain sellers and manufacturers will:

• Save merchants from wasting money on products where most sales will go to MAP violators
• Result in many merchants refusing to sell products from manufacturer that allow MAP violations
• Merchants will stop or limit their marketing for brands of manufacturers that enable anticompetitive practices.
• Manufacturers will see sales fall and revenues drop
• Manufacturers will see less investment in their brand promotion by their former strategic partners
• Less marketing will mean MAP violators who rely on siphoning customers off of honest merchant marketing will also lose sales and have less incentive to sell below MAP
• Merchants will work with and promote honest manufacturers
• The voice of merchants will be heard loud and clear by manufacturers and dishonest sellers
• Large merchants will be compelled to follow suit and drop products from manufacturers that allow MAP violations.

The results of Allied Merchant Coalition actions and the actions of member merchants will be to send a strong message to manufacturers that dishonest and anticompetitive practices will not be tolerated.

The message will be sent not only with words and with evidence, but also with dollars. Manufacturers who fail to create an even playing field will see:

Sales of their products plummet
Fewer merchants willing to carry their products

The value of their brand erode
Decrease in sales volume across all of their product lines

Manufacturers will either have to be honest or they will put their entire business in jeopardy.

Allied Merchants Coalition will change the calculus of manufacturers. Allowing MAP violations to go unpunished will become a competitive liability.

As merchants stand up for themselves, manufacturers will fall in line, dishonest and poorly run stores will close, and honest merchants will see their profits increase.

Merchants invest significant amounts of time and money to sell and market products in accordance with the strict MAP rules that manufacturers have forced on them However, all these efforts and expenses are wasted when the same manufacturer turns around and allows other merchants to sell products below the MAP.

Honest merchants seeking to play by the rules lose market share and sales to the sellers that are unfairly advantaged by their ability to sell at lower prices. These honest merchants end up seeing all their investment in the product line wasted and their inventory remain unsold. The direct and indirect costs to honest merchants from these shady pricing tactics are huge, and it makes it difficult for merchants to even turn a profit. The dishonest merchants that are selling below the MAP with the knowledge of the manufacturer are actually directly profiting from the work and investment of honest merchants. Customers are made aware of products and enticed to buy them based on the marketing efforts of the honest merchants. Without the honest merchants there would be no sale in the first place. The customers end up searching for the lowest price and the dishonest sellers make all the profits because they are selling below MAP.

Things are made even worse when merchants try and price match the competition that is selling below the MAP. Manufacturers threaten these merchants, force them to stop the price matching, and sometimes seek to punish these merchants in the future—all while favoring an elite number of sellers and allowing them to sell below the MAP without any consequences.

Sometimes merchants are not even aware that they are being drastically undercut through shady backroom deals between manufacturers and their favorite sellers.

These unfair practices hurt merchants. They drive honest merchants out of business by making it almost impossible to compete and stay profitable.

The strangest thing about unequal enforcement of MAP rules by manufacturers is that the manufacturers do not receive any benefit. The dishonest sellers are harming the manufacturer’s brand, and are not investing in the success of the manufacturer the same way honest retailers are.

These dishonest sellers often just move on to another hot, trending product when the easy money dries up and starts the MAP violation cycle all over again.

For more information about how MAP violations hurt manufacturers and how manufacturers could easily stop these practices.

A manufacturer earns the same from every sale. It doesn’t matter if the money comes from a MAP violator or from an honest merchant. There is really no incentive for a manufacturer to allow some sellers to violate MAP.

If a manufacturer cares about its brand, future sales, and the relationship with consumers it is actually hurt by MAP violations.

When a seller violates MAP they may end up getting the lion’s share of the product sales. But, when all merchants follow MAP, the sales will not be equally distributed. Instead if everyone is competing on equal ground when it comes to price the stores with the best marketing and service will make the most sales.

When a manufacturer allows MAP violators to go unpunished, they are ensuring that most of their products are sold by stores that are making no investment in brand building, are not creating lasting relationships of trust with customers, and offer inferior service.

All of these things actually work against the long-term interests of the manufacturer.

When customers receive bad service they will associate that with the product and the manufacturer. The next time the brand has a new product; they may lose sales based on a consumer’s poor experience with a seller who violated MAP.

Honest merchants are working to promote not just the product, but the manufacturer’s brand as well. They want to keep selling successful products from the manufacturer.

Bottom-quality stores are not investing in the future; they are just trying to make a quick buck. This harms manufacturers over the long-term.

Manufacturers can easily stop MAP violations. By taking these three steps.

• Make sure MAP policies are reasonable and fair
• Actively search for MAP violators
• Make sure punishments fit the crime. Issue a warning on the first instance and a suspending sellers upon a second violation

If manufacturers partnered with honest merchants to eliminate MAP violators it would not only improve their relationship with their strategic partners, but it would boost their own bottom lines and improve their brand image.

Merhchants are being taken advantage of by unscrupulous sellers who seek fast profits by violating MAP rules and siphoning off customers from merchants who have heavily invested in promoting a product.

But, help is here.

If you discover that someone is violating MAP all you need to do in contact us and we will handle the rest.

• We will procure evidence of the MAP violation. This includes real-time reports of all products being sold below MAP, the price difference as a percentage, the dollar amount differential, and screenshots of every violation.
• This information is then sent to all merchants selling the product, or any other products produced by the same brand. We will also send notice of the violations to the representatives and executives of the product manufacturer.
• The work of the Allied Merchants Coalition allows you to take our reports and use them to try and renegotiate the MAP agreement with your supplier or the manufacturer.
• You can use our information to make the business decision to not sell products from the manufacturer that refuses to stop blatant MAP violations. Allied Merchants Coalition gives you strength in numbers because you can band with other honest merchants to stop carrying products from companies that encourage corruption.

Information is power. We help you by not only providing you with the key information about MAP violations, but by also making sure dishonest sellers and manufacturers are put on notice that MAP violations are being exposed and that merchants are taking a stand against doing business with brands that do not play fair.

Allied Merchants thinks it is time for honest merchants to stand up and fight for fair pricing policies. We carefully monitor MAP rules. We send out notices to all merchants when they are selling a product and are being undercut because of unfair agreements between manufacturers and other sellers. We work with online sellers, distributors, resellers, and brick and mortar stores to create an even playing field for everyone. This allows merchants to make informed decisions about their inventory and marketing efforts.

They can stop wasting time and money selling and marketing products they will never see a profit on. Merchants can also choose not to do business in the future with companies that engage in these unfair practices. When enough merchants refuse to work with certain manufacturers they will be forced by economic circumstances to change their policies and practices and to deal honestly and fairly with all merchants.