6 ms·

Not really ironic, selling products at a loss to drive others out of business then raising prices on consumers after you have driven your competitors out of bus

Not really ironic, selling products at a loss to drive others out of business then raising prices on consumers after you have driven your competitors out of business is the definition of anti-competitive behavior.

Apofis 7y ago
That's retail in a nutshell though.
- Alupis 7y ago
  Not in this case. It's FBA fees that are out of line with other 3PL providers - and Amazon's punishment for sellers that do not use FBA coupled together, that make for more expensive products as sellers have to increase price to stay profitable. That unfairly harms the consumer, which is the basis for this Anti-Trust argument. Effectively, Amazon has built the world's largest Marketplace by losing billions and billions for years and years, turned said Marketplace into an almost necessity to sell on, decided it will also sell on said Marketplace often at unfair prices below manufacturing cost of the goods, and now has made their own Logistics Network an effective requirement for selling on the very same Marketplace.
  - Dylan16807 7y ago
    Yeah, the FBA fees are ridiculous for small items, especially considering that Prime is supposed to be paying for the two-day shipping.
    - BeetleB 7y ago
      I used to sell FBA. I calculated that if the price is below about $8.50, then I will make no money - it'll all be eaten up by Amazon fees (some fees are fixed - not a percentage). If I sell at $10, I get about $1.25. Above that it's somewhat linear (e.g. sell at $20 and you pocket about $10, etc). In my case, this wasn't a problem. I chose to get into the market specifically to sell FBA. As such, I knew cheap items were not viable for FBA, so I didn't sell cheap items on it.
      - brianwawok 7y ago
        FYI Amazon has a program called small and light that is designed for this < $10 items if they are small.
        Alupis 7y ago
        The minimum commission fee of $1 still takes a large byte out of that though. (Commission fees being in addition to FBA fees) That minimum commission fee is the reason you don't see anything on Amazon for below $6 (unless there's some weird accounting going on for the seller). Above $6, the fee turns into a percentage and is easier to manage. That fee is also the reason you'll often see packs of 3 or some item when you only want 1... it's just not profitable to sell the 1 at a reasonable price anymore. As an aside, the SNL program doesn't get all the same benefits as FBA. In some cases you don't get the Prime badge, and in other cases you're an "Add-on Item" to get free shipping for the buyer.
        Dylan16807 7y ago
        $.80-$1.00 per order, plus $.75 per unit, plus $.11 per ounce. You can end up paying two dollars just to put one tiny item in a box. And that's separate from the commission, as mentioned by Alupis.
      - whamlastxmas 7y ago
        Also explains why it's impossible to find virtually anything with Prime under $9ish. I order almost entirely off Aliexpress these days because I'm rarely in a hurry for anything and it's typically less than half the Amazon price for the same junk.
indue 7y ago
Predatory pricing is a myth.

Apofis 7y ago

That's retail in a nutshell though.

Alupis 7y ago
Not in this case. It's FBA fees that are out of line with other 3PL providers - and Amazon's punishment for sellers that do not use FBA coupled together, that make for more expensive products as sellers have to increase price to stay profitable. That unfairly harms the consumer, which is the basis for this Anti-Trust argument. Effectively, Amazon has built the world's largest Marketplace by losing billions and billions for years and years, turned said Marketplace into an almost necessity to sell on, decided it will also sell on said Marketplace often at unfair prices below manufacturing cost of the goods, and now has made their own Logistics Network an effective requirement for selling on the very same Marketplace.
- Dylan16807 7y ago
  Yeah, the FBA fees are ridiculous for small items, especially considering that Prime is supposed to be paying for the two-day shipping.
  - BeetleB 7y ago
    I used to sell FBA. I calculated that if the price is below about $8.50, then I will make no money - it'll all be eaten up by Amazon fees (some fees are fixed - not a percentage). If I sell at $10, I get about $1.25. Above that it's somewhat linear (e.g. sell at $20 and you pocket about $10, etc). In my case, this wasn't a problem. I chose to get into the market specifically to sell FBA. As such, I knew cheap items were not viable for FBA, so I didn't sell cheap items on it.
    - brianwawok 7y ago
      FYI Amazon has a program called small and light that is designed for this < $10 items if they are small.
      - Alupis 7y ago
        The minimum commission fee of $1 still takes a large byte out of that though. (Commission fees being in addition to FBA fees) That minimum commission fee is the reason you don't see anything on Amazon for below $6 (unless there's some weird accounting going on for the seller). Above $6, the fee turns into a percentage and is easier to manage. That fee is also the reason you'll often see packs of 3 or some item when you only want 1... it's just not profitable to sell the 1 at a reasonable price anymore. As an aside, the SNL program doesn't get all the same benefits as FBA. In some cases you don't get the Prime badge, and in other cases you're an "Add-on Item" to get free shipping for the buyer.
      - Dylan16807 7y ago
        $.80-$1.00 per order, plus $.75 per unit, plus $.11 per ounce. You can end up paying two dollars just to put one tiny item in a box. And that's separate from the commission, as mentioned by Alupis.
    - whamlastxmas 7y ago
      Also explains why it's impossible to find virtually anything with Prime under $9ish. I order almost entirely off Aliexpress these days because I'm rarely in a hurry for anything and it's typically less than half the Amazon price for the same junk.

indue 7y ago

Predatory pricing is a myth.