Lesson 6: The Importance of Dealer Badging

Let’s assume you have developed an Authorized Dealer Program, vetted retailers’ applications, and invited a handful of the most reputable sellers to join your retail network. The next question is: How can those retailers signal to consumers that they have an official relationship with your brand and that they have earned your trust to sell your products?

In the internet era, where shoppers often have difficulty distinguishing between a reputable retailer and a rogue seller, trust signals matter more than ever. This is why one of the most important components of your Authorized Dealer Program will be issuing digital dealer badges that help your retailers quickly communicate to customers that they are among your trusted sales partners.

In this lesson, we will review: 

• What digital dealer badges are

• What the research says about the value of dealer badging

• The benefits of issuing these trust icons to your authorized dealers

• A key component of digital badging that many manufacturers overlook

Recap: What Are Digital Dealer Badges?

As we pointed out in Lesson 2, dealer badging is the practice of creating digital trust icons, or badges, that display a message such as “Authorized Dealer” or Verified Official Dealer.” The manufacturer will issue these icons to its dealers, which they can present with ads or product pages on their own eCommerce sites.

Note: Amazon does not allow sellers to post dealer badges on product detail pages, and some other digital marketplaces may also prohibit this strategy. 

 Strategically speaking, the most effective place for the retailer to display this trust icon is near the “Add to Cart” or “Buy Now” button. The screenshot below, showing an example of TrackStreet’s Authorized e-Tailer Badging feature, illustrates what this looks like in practice. 

In the next section, we will review some of the research that underscores why these digital dealer badges can be so important for your brand, for your retail partners, and for your end-user consumers.

What the Research Says About the Value of Dealer Badging

According to 2019 research reported in Small Business Trends magazine, most online shoppers are looking for some form of trust signal when they view an eCommerce page, whether that is a retailer’s website, a sales listing on a marketplace like Amazon.com, or a digital advertisement.

Here are a few relevant stats from a study conducted by TrustPilot: 

• 77% of consumers are more likely to purchase a product from a retailer displaying an “Authorized Seller Badge” on its page.
• Of the 12 categories of social proof the study covers—which included positive star ratings, customer case studies, public figures’ endorsements, etc.—the Authorized dealer badge was the 4th most important to consumers.
• Authorized dealer badges will become more important with time, considering that the youngest generation—Generation Z—deems them the second most important trust signal. In fact, 83% of Gen Z shoppers say they are more likely to buy from a retailer after seeing an authorized seller badge. The only trust signal more effective with these shoppers is a positive star rating, at 84%.

 The Benefits of Issuing Authorized e-Tailer Badges

Creating digital seller badges as part of your Authorized Dealer Program benefits all parties involved: Your brand, your retailers, and consumers.

How it benefits your brand

Enabling your retail partners to display this simple trust icon helps protect your brand’s value in the sense that it will help your customers learn to distinguish your true retail partners, which are an important part of your brand experience—from unauthorized retailers that they should stay away from.

This is also an effective way to reduce the number of rogue retailers selling your products. Consumers will catch on that they need to see a dealer badge before buying your products, and this will make it less lucrative over time for unauthorized sellers to carry your products.

Finally, because these dealer badges will reduce the number of shoppers fooled by rogue retailers selling your products without your permission, they could also reduce the number of negative reviews that these rogue sellers’ lousy buying experience can lead to. That will also help protect your brand over time.

How it benefits your dealers

For your retailers, being able to post an “Authorized e-Tailer” badge on their listings of your products will help them boost credibility with their customers.

This will help your dealers earn more sales from your products. Remember, 77% of all shoppers, and 83% of Generation Z consumers, say they are more likely to purchase a product from a retail site that displays an authorized seller badge. 

Additionally, by displaying proof that they are part of your brand’s official, trusted sales network, the enhanced credibility they earn with consumers can also help your dealers boost sales of other products, and earn more customer loyalty over time.

Finally, if you create your dealer badges as live links as opposed to static icons (see the next section for details), you can further reward your authorized dealers by using the code embedded in those links to create sophisticated retargeting campaigns to drive consumers back to your authorized dealers’ sites. This will further boost their online traffic and sales.

How it benefits your customers 

With digital dealer badges accompanying the listings of all of your brand’s products online, your end-user customers will benefit in at least two ways.

First, seeing the Authorized e-Tailer badge on a retailer’s site will give shoppers the comfort of knowing they’re dealing with an authentic product from a legitimate seller. This matters not only in the sense that the consumer can trust the product is not a counterfeit, but also that the dealer is part of the manufacturer’s official sales channel, which means they can count on product support and that the item will qualify for the manufacturer’s return policies or other warranty programs.

Second, by helping to chase away many unauthorized resellers, these dealer badges can represent a real victory for end-user consumers, who will now be far more likely to buy one of your products from an honorable, quality retail partner you trust.

A Key Component of Digital Badging That Many Manufacturers Overlook

To get the most value from your dealer badging program, you’ll want to make the badge icon a live link allowing shoppers to verify that the seller is indeed part of your official network of retail partners.

The two steps depicted below, taken from the TrackStreet e-Tailer badging feature, illustrates the process.

 

An effective e-Tailer Badge should be a clickable link that displays real-time authorization data for shoppers, and contains the following elements:

• A clearly marked call-to-action button, with text such as “Check Verification” or “Click to Verify”, that indicates the shopper can see proof, in real-time, that the retailer has the endorsement of the manufacturer to sell its products.

 

• A popup window that will display a time-stamped verification that the retailer is currently a member of the brand’s resale network.

 

• Customizable text that allows the manufacturer to craft its own message to consumers about the significance of the badge and why the consumer can trust it.

 

• A pixel or other code embedded in the badge that will allow the manufacturer to create remarketing campaigns that send consumers to the retailer’s site.