4 ms·

>Many sex toy and adult novelty manufacturers refuse to sell their products on Amazon, or even offer wholesale products to any vendors who have an Amazon or eBa

by ikeboy 7y ago

>Many sex toy and adult novelty manufacturers refuse to sell their products on Amazon, or even offer wholesale products to any vendors who have an Amazon or eBay presence3. Mostly this is due to the influx of potentially counterfeit products. This is incorrect and shows the author does not understand the topic. The primary reason people don't want to sell to Amazon sellers is that it leads to price erosion. Amazon sellers compete on price, which has negative effects for other channels; retail stores will see products selling cheaply on Amazon and won't be willing to pay your regular wholesale price. Obviously, selling wholesale to someone who sells on Amazon doesn't make the counterfeit issue any worse.

Retric 7y ago
Due to commingling counterfeiters don’t need to sell to customers as Amazon will simply substitute real products with fake ones. Effectively, any Amazon seller becomes a counterfeit channel and the counterfeiters get access to sell the real products to minimize returns and thus issues with credit cards etc. This is obviously a horrible deal for the legit producer who also gets saddled with a terrible reputation.
- ikeboy 7y ago
  This is easily addressed by requiring your Amazon sellers to not use commingling. I've even seen a handful of companies that require their sellers not to use FBA. >counterfeiters get access to sell the real products to minimize returns and thus issues with credit cards etc. Not following. Amazon knows which unit was sold by which seller, so they can attribute returns to the correct seller even if was actually sold by another.
  - beastcoast 7y ago
    Only if the seller pays more to keep their products separate via stickering. Otherwise the seller’s products are commingled with other sellers’ products and it’s impossible to know which seller’s physical inventory was used to fulfill the order.
    - ikeboy 7y ago
      This is false. Amazon keeps them separate and knows which seller originally shipped in each unit.
      - erik_seaberg 7y ago
        A quick search turned up https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/how-to-prevent-commingling/316711 https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/how-to-prevent-com... suggesting products actually have been commingled and you need to replace stock with a different SKU label to opt out in the future.
        ikeboy 7y ago
        Yes, once you have products in the program you can't recall those specific products - this should be obvious, because Amazon may have already shipped some or all of the actual products you sent in for someone else's sales. However, that does not mean Amazon hasn't been keeping track. They explicitly say that they keep track of which seller originally shipped each item. See https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/external/200141480?language=en-US&ref=mpbc_200243180_cont_200141480 https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/external/200141480?...
        bigtex 7y ago
        Too many instances of this happening for this to be the case. Plenty of reports on this site and others stating they bought from the proper Amazon seller and still getting counterfeit product. I bought a SpyderCo knife "Ship and Sold by Amazon" that was an obvious fake. I just think Amazon doesn't care, they shipped a free replacement that happened to be legitimate.
        ikeboy 7y ago
        >Plenty of reports on this site and others stating they bought from the proper Amazon seller and still getting counterfeit product. That's entirely consistent with them tracking it. If you report that, they'll know who actually shipped it in and will punish them.
  - Retric 7y ago
    Amazon may eventually catch on, but it’s a ticking clock until they get paid and disappear. Day A, they ship X fakes to Amazon. Day B, they sell at slightly below market rates to sell as quickly as possible. Importantly as they have the lowest price they should get the bulk of orders. Selling off a mix of real units from others and fake units from themselves. If they are a fairly low percentage of the market it could take a while for any significant number of their fakes to be shipped. Now it’s a race if they get paid by Amazon before Amazon catches on. Obviously this works best if the fakes are close to the real product so it takes a while before a significant number of people notice. Think functional but substandard USB cables etc.
    - ikeboy 7y ago
      It's not randomly chosen which units get shipped. It has to do with location, ownership, risk, and other things. If a brand new seller is selling they're likely not to commingle their high risk products until they've proven themselves. It's not nearly as easy as you think. Some categories have commingling turned off completely.
      - Retric 7y ago
        > It's not nearly as easy as you think. Sure, but it does not have to be successful to harm the reputation of a manufacturer. The issue is it’s a cat and mouse game with some actual winners which get others to try and do the same.
        ikeboy 7y ago
        That's not a reason to avoid selling any units on Amazon. The only brands this may be relevant to is very high end luxury brands, some of which avoid Amazon sales for that reason.
jessaustin 7y ago
The domain listed on your user page [0] contains both Amazon and eBay branding images. Are you affiliated with those firms? If you're affiliated with Amazon you should have mentioned that in this thread. [0] https://icanpriceit.com/ https://icanpriceit.com/
- ikeboy 7y ago
  I'm not affiliated with Amazon, and the domain has been dead for years, I never launched it properly. I have sold on Amazon to the tune of hundreds of thousands of units, and am very familiar with the system.

by ikeboy 7y ago

Retric 7y ago

Due to commingling counterfeiters don’t need to sell to customers as Amazon will simply substitute real products with fake ones. Effectively, any Amazon seller becomes a counterfeit channel and the counterfeiters get access to sell the real products to minimize returns and thus issues with credit cards etc. This is obviously a horrible deal for the legit producer who also gets saddled with a terrible reputation.

ikeboy 7y ago
This is easily addressed by requiring your Amazon sellers to not use commingling. I've even seen a handful of companies that require their sellers not to use FBA. >counterfeiters get access to sell the real products to minimize returns and thus issues with credit cards etc. Not following. Amazon knows which unit was sold by which seller, so they can attribute returns to the correct seller even if was actually sold by another.
- beastcoast 7y ago
  Only if the seller pays more to keep their products separate via stickering. Otherwise the seller’s products are commingled with other sellers’ products and it’s impossible to know which seller’s physical inventory was used to fulfill the order.
  - ikeboy 7y ago
    This is false. Amazon keeps them separate and knows which seller originally shipped in each unit.
    - erik_seaberg 7y ago
      A quick search turned up https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/how-to-prevent-commingling/316711 https://sellercentral.amazon.com/forums/t/how-to-prevent-com... suggesting products actually have been commingled and you need to replace stock with a different SKU label to opt out in the future.
      - ikeboy 7y ago
        Yes, once you have products in the program you can't recall those specific products - this should be obvious, because Amazon may have already shipped some or all of the actual products you sent in for someone else's sales. However, that does not mean Amazon hasn't been keeping track. They explicitly say that they keep track of which seller originally shipped each item. See https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/external/200141480?language=en-US&ref=mpbc_200243180_cont_200141480 https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/external/200141480?...
        bigtex 7y ago
        Too many instances of this happening for this to be the case. Plenty of reports on this site and others stating they bought from the proper Amazon seller and still getting counterfeit product. I bought a SpyderCo knife "Ship and Sold by Amazon" that was an obvious fake. I just think Amazon doesn't care, they shipped a free replacement that happened to be legitimate.
        ikeboy 7y ago
        >Plenty of reports on this site and others stating they bought from the proper Amazon seller and still getting counterfeit product. That's entirely consistent with them tracking it. If you report that, they'll know who actually shipped it in and will punish them.
- Retric 7y ago
  Amazon may eventually catch on, but it’s a ticking clock until they get paid and disappear. Day A, they ship X fakes to Amazon. Day B, they sell at slightly below market rates to sell as quickly as possible. Importantly as they have the lowest price they should get the bulk of orders. Selling off a mix of real units from others and fake units from themselves. If they are a fairly low percentage of the market it could take a while for any significant number of their fakes to be shipped. Now it’s a race if they get paid by Amazon before Amazon catches on. Obviously this works best if the fakes are close to the real product so it takes a while before a significant number of people notice. Think functional but substandard USB cables etc.
  - ikeboy 7y ago
    It's not randomly chosen which units get shipped. It has to do with location, ownership, risk, and other things. If a brand new seller is selling they're likely not to commingle their high risk products until they've proven themselves. It's not nearly as easy as you think. Some categories have commingling turned off completely.
    - Retric 7y ago
      > It's not nearly as easy as you think. Sure, but it does not have to be successful to harm the reputation of a manufacturer. The issue is it’s a cat and mouse game with some actual winners which get others to try and do the same.
      - ikeboy 7y ago
        That's not a reason to avoid selling any units on Amazon. The only brands this may be relevant to is very high end luxury brands, some of which avoid Amazon sales for that reason.

jessaustin 7y ago

The domain listed on your user page [0] contains both Amazon and eBay branding images. Are you affiliated with those firms? If you're affiliated with Amazon you should have mentioned that in this thread. [0] https://icanpriceit.com/ https://icanpriceit.com/

ikeboy 7y ago
I'm not affiliated with Amazon, and the domain has been dead for years, I never launched it properly. I have sold on Amazon to the tune of hundreds of thousands of units, and am very familiar with the system.