3 ms·

You're looking at the brighter side of the private label take over. What you should be noticing is that the majority of private label sellers are simply reselle

You're looking at the brighter side of the private label take over. What you should be noticing is that the majority of private label sellers are simply resellers of China-made crap. Things you can get for pennies on AliExpress/Alibaba costs $20-$30 on Amazon to cover storage, dropshipping, etc. The sales tactics are just as sleazy with brands being similar or products being sold to look like Amazon inventory. I've lost faith in Amazon's quality control and cannot trust what I am buying is the real deal.

zwkrt 8y ago
Are you thinking of "white label"? Private label means Amazon-branded. They could still have QC issues though.
- baybal2 8y ago
  >Are you thinking of "white label"? Private label means Amazon-branded. In later years, the line in between these two kinda began to disappear. Amazon may well fly their private label unit people to China, and actually pay companies there to stuff their marketplace with properly made and maintained listings from inventories of Chinese trade companies. In retail - the term for such things are "shelf filler": for as long as you don't have any "real deal" product for the category, you may well desire to just have some crappy goods put on shelves just so shelf space still makes at least some money, and investment analysts be happy with that.
baybal2 8y ago
> What you should be noticing is that the majority of private label sellers are simply resellers of China-made crap. Things you can get for pennies on AliExpress/Alibaba costs $20-$30 on Amazon to cover storage, dropshipping, etc. And on top of that Amazon themselves barely spend a penny developing their own private brands or run their operations. There are companies specialising in exactly that - "private brands as a service." You can outsource basically everything till the moment goods get to the shelves, an in case of e-Commerce, even that is irrelevant. Their logic - if we can't win against Aliexpress and Co., we will become Aliexpress and Co. This is them acknowledging that the entire business model they had had weakness at root - no matter how successful and sophisticated they are at selling stuff, the stuff they sell still comes from China.
- baxtr 8y ago
  That’s interesting. Can you name a few of those companies?
  - baybal2 8y ago
    Long time ago, I worked in one called Yameen in Singapore. Named after the owner. I'm sure that they are not around anymore as I been googling what has became of the company for last 10 years without any result. The second one I worked with was AMR International HK (aka AMR Global Sourcing). Just any other trade company would also do that - Marubeni, Sojitz, Itochu, Canada Export Centre - (the later should be really called Canada Import Centre) and others
    - baxtr 8y ago
      Thank you. I googled AMR. Would they do any kind of product or do they focus on commodities?
      - baybal2 8y ago
        Yes, they are "making a coherent product line from what is possible to customize or source as is" they will not pick a project developing a complex product from scratch.
- usrusr 8y ago
  You make it sound like "private brands as a service" was a bad thing. But unlike the numerous direct to customer nonames on aliexpress, amazon or ebay (the platform is irrelevant) who will never have a reputation to lose, a "private brands as a service" provider is dealing with long term customers. For them, quality issues will have consequences. Even if they both sell the same design, a "private brands as a service" manufacturer (or reseller) will have to balance price and quality, whereas a pop-up noname brand will only ever compete on price.
simias 8y ago
That's not my experience with "AmazonBasics" products, I almost always go with those when I look for cables or very basic electronic devices and they generally do the job just fine at a very reasonable price. I'm sure it's just rebranded "china-made crap" but as long as they have decent selection and quality control that's not necessarily an issue.
GarrisonPrime 8y ago
Still often cheaper and better quality than many other options on Amazon, at least in my experience.

zwkrt 8y ago

Are you thinking of "white label"? Private label means Amazon-branded. They could still have QC issues though.

baybal2 8y ago
>Are you thinking of "white label"? Private label means Amazon-branded. In later years, the line in between these two kinda began to disappear. Amazon may well fly their private label unit people to China, and actually pay companies there to stuff their marketplace with properly made and maintained listings from inventories of Chinese trade companies. In retail - the term for such things are "shelf filler": for as long as you don't have any "real deal" product for the category, you may well desire to just have some crappy goods put on shelves just so shelf space still makes at least some money, and investment analysts be happy with that.

baybal2 8y ago

> What you should be noticing is that the majority of private label sellers are simply resellers of China-made crap. Things you can get for pennies on AliExpress/Alibaba costs $20-$30 on Amazon to cover storage, dropshipping, etc. And on top of that Amazon themselves barely spend a penny developing their own private brands or run their operations. There are companies specialising in exactly that - "private brands as a service." You can outsource basically everything till the moment goods get to the shelves, an in case of e-Commerce, even that is irrelevant. Their logic - if we can't win against Aliexpress and Co., we will become Aliexpress and Co. This is them acknowledging that the entire business model they had had weakness at root - no matter how successful and sophisticated they are at selling stuff, the stuff they sell still comes from China.

baxtr 8y ago
That’s interesting. Can you name a few of those companies?
- baybal2 8y ago
  Long time ago, I worked in one called Yameen in Singapore. Named after the owner. I'm sure that they are not around anymore as I been googling what has became of the company for last 10 years without any result. The second one I worked with was AMR International HK (aka AMR Global Sourcing). Just any other trade company would also do that - Marubeni, Sojitz, Itochu, Canada Export Centre - (the later should be really called Canada Import Centre) and others
  - baxtr 8y ago
    Thank you. I googled AMR. Would they do any kind of product or do they focus on commodities?
    - baybal2 8y ago
      Yes, they are "making a coherent product line from what is possible to customize or source as is" they will not pick a project developing a complex product from scratch.
usrusr 8y ago
You make it sound like "private brands as a service" was a bad thing. But unlike the numerous direct to customer nonames on aliexpress, amazon or ebay (the platform is irrelevant) who will never have a reputation to lose, a "private brands as a service" provider is dealing with long term customers. For them, quality issues will have consequences. Even if they both sell the same design, a "private brands as a service" manufacturer (or reseller) will have to balance price and quality, whereas a pop-up noname brand will only ever compete on price.

simias 8y ago

That's not my experience with "AmazonBasics" products, I almost always go with those when I look for cables or very basic electronic devices and they generally do the job just fine at a very reasonable price. I'm sure it's just rebranded "china-made crap" but as long as they have decent selection and quality control that's not necessarily an issue.

GarrisonPrime 8y ago

Still often cheaper and better quality than many other options on Amazon, at least in my experience.