Getting started
Introduction to MapProtector
What MapProtector does, where each part of the work lives in the product, and what the product deliberately leaves to your team.
Last revised
MapProtector is a MAP monitoring, evidence and enforcement platform for brands that sell on Amazon. When Amazon connectivity is enabled for your workspace, it checks the offers on your listings on a schedule, measures each advertised price against the MAP policy you configured, records the seller information for every observed offer, and keeps a permanent record of what it saw. When a price falls below your policy, a person on your team decides what it means and what happens next.
Where the work lives
The product is organized around what your team does. The navigation and this documentation use the same words for each part.
| What you do | What it involves | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Monitor pricing | Scheduled checks record every offer on each listing you protect: price, seller, condition, fulfillment and Buy Box. | Products · Scans · Observations |
| Know your sellers | Every observed seller is compared with your Authorized Network, and your team records what its relationship with each one is. | Sellers · Authorized network |
| Review findings | A below-policy observation waits as a violation candidate. A person confirms or dismisses it; confirming opens a case. | Violations · Cases |
| Keep evidence | An evidence package records what was observed, under which policy, and who confirmed it. Sealing makes it permanent and verifiable. | Evidence |
| Communicate with sellers | A notice is prepared from your template and your evidence. A Brand Admin approves it and releases it from a sender you verified. | Enforcement · Settings › Enforcement |
| Track the outcome | A correction is confirmed from the advertised price, and a later drop is recorded on the same case as a recurrence. | Cases · Observations |
What the product decides, and what it does not
MapProtector measures and records. It applies the policy you configure, exactly as you configured it, and it says when it could not — an unreadable price, incomplete coverage, no policy in force. It does not decide that a seller has breached an agreement, it does not conclude that a seller is unauthorized, and it does not send anything to anyone on its own.
- Confirming a violation candidate is a person’s decision. The queue shows the measurement; a Compliance Manager or Brand Admin confirms or dismisses it, with a reason.
- Sealing evidence is a Brand Admin’s act, and it is permanent.
- Approving and sending a notice are two separate acts by a Brand Admin, each with a fresh second factor.
- Classifying a seller as authorized, unauthorized or exempt is your team’s statement about your relationship with that seller. Until you make it, an observed seller is unknown — never presumed unauthorized.
The words the product uses
A few terms mean something specific in MapProtector, and the documentation uses them the same way everywhere.
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Observation | One offer, seen once, by one scan: price, seller, condition, fulfillment, Buy Box, timestamp and how much of the listing the scan could see. |
| Violation candidate | A below-MAP observation that qualifies for review. It is waiting for a person. |
| Confirmed below policy | A candidate a person confirmed. This is the strongest thing the product records about a price; it is not called a violation in the legal sense. |
| Case | The persistent relationship between one seller and one product under a policy. |
| Period | One continuous stretch of non-compliance inside a case, from the first below-policy observation to its cure or closure. |
| Unknown seller | A seller you have observed but not yet classified. |
| Unauthorized seller | A seller your team has classified as not authorized. A classification, never an inference. |
Where to start
- Sign in from the invitation your Brand Admin sent you (or, if you are the Brand Admin, from the invitation MapProtector sent). Roles that can act need a second factor; see Two-factor authentication.
- Open Overview. The Get set up checklist lists the steps in the order they depend on each other.
- Follow the next five pages of this section: Amazon connectivity, Add products, Create a MAP policy, Add authorized sellers and Start monitoring.