Let us be among the first, if not the first to wish you a Happy Holiday Season. Since Black Friday is officially kicked off in many retailers, now is a good time to talk about what you as brand managers, pricing managers, heads of sales, legal teams, account directors and any other e-commerce professionals we missed are able to do to make the most of this crazy but festive time of year. As the year comes to a close, most of the audience reading this are laser-focused on driving sales, protecting margins, and delivering exceptional customer experiences. As a percentage of annual revenue, it’s the most critical quarter of the year, where every decision can significantly impact a brand’s bottom line. Amid the excitement of promotions and the rush of holiday orders, one element often gets overlooked: maintaining effective MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) compliance.
While many are starting to wrap up the year mentally, it’s easy to feel like you could ride a wave of egg nogg into 2025 without a second thought, but the stakes couldn’t be higher than during the holiday season. Consumers are shopping for big-ticket items they’ve been saving for, retailers are seeking every competitive edge possible, and unauthorized sellers are more active than ever. In this post, we’ll explore why holiday MAP compliance is crucial and how brands can navigate this high-pressure season with confidence.
The Holiday Season: A Perfect Storm for MAP Violations
The holiday shopping season is an incredibly dynamic period. The tools, auto accessories, and consumer electronics categories are particularly vulnerable, with seasonal demand skyrocketing for products like cordless drills, car organizers, or wireless headphones. While this presents massive opportunities for brands, it also creates fertile ground for MAP violations. Retailers looking to win the sale may skirt MAP policies, assuming the increased volume will essentially hide their activity. Meanwhile, unauthorized sellers often flood marketplaces like Amazon, Walmart, and TikTok, offering discounts that can seriously undermine brand value.
It’s also a time when brands may unknowingly and unintentionally relax their monitoring efforts. Internal teams are stretched thin with promotions and fulfillment, and MAP enforcement may not be top of mind. Unfortunately, this lull is exactly what savvy violators count on to gain an edge.
What E-Commerce Teams Should Focus On
Balancing Aggressive Discounts with Pricing Integrity
During the holiday season, striking the right balance between competitive promotions and MAP compliance is a top priority. While consumers are on the hunt for a sale, brands tend to offer retailers additional leeway or seasonal MAP holidays. This is to be expected, but focusing on protecting your key products’ perceived value is equally critical. During this time of year, it’s important to not sacrifice consistency for sales velocity or short team bumps in account values. Brands must ensure that promotions align with their long-term strategy, maintaining stability across channels to avoid confusing consumers or alienating retailers.
Monitoring High-Risk Products
Seasonal best-sellers and new releases are prime targets for MAP violations. For example, an ecom manager at a tool brand may see violations spike on high-demand items like combined power tool sets. Similarly, in consumer electronics, products like noise-canceling headphones and in-ear buds often experience unauthorized discounting as unauthorized sellers try to capitalize on demand. Teams should prioritize monitoring these high-risk products to maintain price consistency and consumer trust.
Managing Third-Party Marketplaces
E-commerce teams know that third-party marketplaces like Amazon and Walmart account for a significant portion of holiday sales. With over 60% of Amazon’s annual units sold by third-party sellers, this channel demands extra vigilance. Unauthorized sellers (and even some authorized) will be creating additional (often false) seller profiles in order to circumvent pricing boundaries and to throw brands off the trail. By paying extra-close attention to key products and sellers on marketplaces, brands can ensure that MAP compliance on these platforms remains intact. This not only protects pricing but also safeguards brand reputation and instills consumer confidence.
MAP Compliance Strategies for the Holiday Season
To stay ahead during this critical time, brands can make sure to implement a proactive and structured approach to MAP compliance. Here’s how to get started:
Identify Key Holiday Products for Enforcement
As we stated two weeks ago, not all products require MAP coverage. As such, not all violations should be treated equally. To maintain sanity in this chaotic period, focus on high-value, high-visibility items that are central to your brand’s reputation. These often include seasonal best-sellers, exclusives, and newly launched items. By narrowing your focus, you can maximize the effectiveness of your enforcement efforts.
If you’re looking at MAP providers for 2025, this is a good time to think about making sure your checklist includes product and category filters for evaluation criteria so that different teams can easily monitor different product sets. Pervasive Mind’s MAP platform allows teams to slice and dice their MAP catalog so that trends by category and product type are easily analyzed.
Use Data to Anticipate Violations
Past holiday seasons offer valuable insights into patterns of MAP violations. For instance, are certain retailers more likely to discount your products during Black Friday or Cyber Monday? Are there specific times that lend themselves to violations? Are unauthorized sellers more active during specific promotional windows? Leveraging these insights allows you to proactively monitor and address violations before they escalate. As many eCommerce professionals are noticing these days, the trend of Midnight Shopping is increasing among 25-34-year-olds.
Strengthen Communication with Retailers (and…Maaaybe Surprise Them)
Retail partners are also under immense pressure during the holidays, and some may unintentionally violate MAP policies in their quest to stay competitive. Clear communication is key. Equip your retail partners with MAP-compliant promotional guidelines and emphasize the shared benefits of maintaining pricing integrity. A best practice we have seen from savvy brands is the random check-in with retailers. If you have a retailer that is occasionally known for violating your pricing policy (either intentionally or unknowingly), try reaching out to them outside of your normal cadence to let them know your team is closely monitoring the holiday trends. It may be just what you need to let them know you’re on it.
Stay Equitable and Transparent
As you’ve heard us say time and again, retailers are more likely to comply when they know MAP enforcement is consistent and fair across the board. Nobody likes to be singled out, so treating your highest value retailer and your lowest value retailer equally makes for stronger relationships and instills a culture of fairness and openness among your team. Ensuring that all violations – regardless of the retailer or price delta – are addressed promptly builds trust among your network and reinforces the credibility of your policy.
The Risks of Letting MAP Slide
Saying that the consequences of lax MAP enforcement during the holidays are significant is an understatement. Too many violations can erode consumer trust, as buyers question the quality or legitimacy of your products. Over time, this devalues your brand and weakens retailer relationships. It also creates a slippery slope that will bleed into 2025 and start your year off on a sour note. Worse, unauthorized sellers may exploit the opportunity to dominate product listings with aggressive pricing, creating a poor customer experience and lasting damage to your reputation.
How Pervasive Mind Can Help
Holiday MAP compliance doesn’t have to be overwhelming. With Pervasive Mind’s AI-powered monitoring and enforcement solution, brands can respond faster and with greater confidence to violations knowing that they are seeing the entire picture, the data is reliable, and the team is available to help in the event that you’re just too busy. Our tools ensure you have the trusted data needed to act decisively, while consistent, equitable enforcement helps reinforce your MAP policy with retailers and resellers alike. By focusing on your most important products and leveraging Pervasive Mind’s deep expertise, you can protect your brand’s value even in the busiest shopping season of the year.
Final Thoughts
The holiday season is a time of immense opportunity – and equally immense risk – for brands. By prioritizing MAP compliance, e-commerce professionals can protect their pricing integrity, maintain strong retailer relationships, and ensure a positive customer experience. Remember, the foundation of successful MAP enforcement is trust: trust in your data, trust from your retailers, trust from your customers and having a trustworthy provider like Pervasive Mind.
If your team needs help navigating MAP compliance this holiday season, Pervasive Mind is here to guide you. Let’s make this your most successful – and protected – holiday season yet.
