How does an aggregator integrate your brand?

How Does An Aggregator Integrate Your Brand?

Larry Bowen, Director of Special Projects

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So, you’ve sold your FBA Business – what next? As you may have expected, there’s still quite a bit of work to move your brand to its new home. Read on to find out all you need to know about the integrations process, and some top tips to keep in mind as you pursue an exit.

Why do you need to think about the integrations process?

You want to be confident that the buyer of your brand has the experience to ensure continuity during handover. A huge amount of an FBA brand’s value is connected to its product reviews, sales rank and account remaining in good standing.
Integrations and timelines will vary depending on how the deal is structured, as well as the geography and channels you operate in. To get the best outcome, it’s essential that your buyer is comfortable with the complexity of your brand.
Integrations can be complicated. By understanding the process and preparing your brand for an easy handover, you can make your business much more attractive for an acquisition.

Key factors for a successful migration.

For a successful migration between Buyer and Seller, at Olsam, we believe the most important considerations are:

Ensuring Continuity: The number one priority in any migration is to minimize risk and preserve business continuity. The Buyer and Seller should have an open and honest conversation about the process before the migration begins.
Transparency with Timelines: While the most important steps of a migration happen in the first two weeks, an ongoing collaborative process between Buyer and Seller is the best way to ensure that the business continues to grow.
Clear Playbooks: There can often be a lot of moving parts when migrating a brand. We follow a clear structured playbook throughout the process to close out migrations quickly.

What happens during migration?

Kick-off: After the close of the deal, this is where the buyer will walk you through their integration process and introduce you to POCs for the main integration workstreams, usually Finance, Supply Chain, Brand Management, Creative and Advertising.
Account Handover: The most important stage of any migration is the handover of the Seller Central account and the management of compliance checks, known as KYC.
Operational migration: Finally, the buyer will need to integrate your brand into their business. This can include everything from supplier introductions to software integrations. This is typically the most time intensive component of a migration.

What is involved in the Amazon account handover process?

Typically, the purchase of your brand will be an Asset Purchase or a Share Purchase. Each have their benefits, with asset deals most common in the US and share deals more common in the UK. Understanding the distinction is important as it will impact the process of migrating your Seller Central account.

In the US, most deal structures are easy to accommodate as Amazon have quite straightforward compliance and verification requirements. In the UK and Europe, things get a little more complicated.

Share Purchases: Under a share deal, the acquirer will buy your legal entity as part of the purchase. This means that when dealing with Amazon, you only need to update the beneficial owners of the company, instead of changing the legal entity affiliated with Amazon itself. This KYC component requires precision, as if you cannot meet Amazon’s deadlines, they reserve the right to remove your selling privileges.
Key takeaway: Always ask your acquirer how they will navigate this process, whether they have done it before and what level of transparency they can give you through the process.
Asset Purchases: This deal structure is self-explanatory, in that the acquiring company is just buying the assets of a company (stock, IP etc.), instead of the company itself. These are simple to do in the US, however they are much more involved if part of your business is in the UK or Europe. This is because the acquirer will need to change the registered legal entity in Seller Central, which Amazon can make challenging and may result in the need for a ‘listing transfer’, where you need to create a new Seller Central Account entirely.
Key Takeaway: If you are doing an asset deal and part of your business is in the UK/EU, make sure your acquirer is comfortable with the structure and has a clear plan as to whether they will be undertaking an account transfer or a listing transfer.

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For any questions on the points mentioned, feel free to contact me at [email protected]