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The crux of the article was that you lose winning the buy offer if you sell elsewhere cheaper. Okay - so who wins the buy box? Someone who is actually offering

The crux of the article was that you lose winning the buy offer if you sell elsewhere cheaper. Okay - so who wins the buy box? Someone who is actually offering a cheaper price, one that’s more enticing for me as the shopper? How is that hurtful for the consumer? You’re calling that “punishment”, but in fact as a shopper I just want to see the lowest price with the fastest shipping. The seller fee bit part isn’t relevant. Wal Mart and Target or any other site could well offer lower seller fees - in fact, they’d HAVE to undercut Amazon in order to catch up with Amazon. But that doesn’t mean Amazon has to bring their prices down. I don’t buy that. One other thing - as a shopper, no other shopping website comes close to Amazon’s customer service. There is quite a bit to this article that’s disingenuous, for example - > How do sellers handle these large fees from Amazon, and the inability to charge for shipping? Simple. They raise their prices on consumers. The resulting higher prices to consumers, paid to Amazon in fees by third party merchants, is why Amazon is able to offer ‘free shipping’ to Prime members. Prime, in other words, is basically a money laundering scheme. Amazon forces brands/sellers to bake the cost of Prime into their consumer price so it appears like Amazon offers free shipping when in reality the cost is incorporated into the consumer price. If pricing on Amazon is too high, consumers won’t buy those products at Amazon and get rid of their Prime memberships too. But this isn’t quite true. Using hyperbole like “money laundering” also doesn’t help the case. > Amazon also uses its bazooka of cash from Prime members paying high consumer prices, laundered through third party sellers, to distort industries across the economy. Again, hyperbole. The author merely brushes off the fact that these sellers don’t HAVE to sell on Amazon in the first place. Presumably, Amazon is growing because more and more sellers flock to their website. If it’s a bad deal for sellers, they can sell on other websites. The article makes a one line claim - representing it as a ground truth - that a new business HAS to sell on Amazon. So this is clearly stating that no business can survive if they only have their own store presence or sell on Amazons competitors. I don’t believe this is true (based on a very successful family business). Yes my data point is anecdotal, but if we’re saying no business can survive without the ability to sell on Amazon, then the entire article is moot - the simple reason for breaking up Amazon is that no small business can survive without Amazon. Again, I don’t think that’s true, and the author knows that - hence, the long wordy article to come at the issue from other angles while sprinkling in hyperbole.

avianlyric 5y ago
I don't understand how losing the buy box for offering your products cheaper elsewhere can be anything but punishment. You say yourself that picking the cheapest price plus shipping is what consumers want, so how a companies pricing elsewhere relevant to a consumer buying on Amazon? You're also making the assumption that the buy box always offers the lowest price, which isn't true if Amazon are factoring non-price variables like is the manufacture undercutting Amazon on their own site. So as a seller you could be offering the lowest price with the fastest shipping, but still lose the buy box because you had the audacity to offer a better price on your own site or at Walmart. This in turn creates a very strong incentive to sell your products everywhere for the same price, regardless of your actual costs. So your prices at Walmart and your own site go up. If pricing at other stores wasn't a factor in the buy box algorithm, then consumers could find lower prices else where if they wanted to. Thus allowing competitors to slowly loosen Amazon strangle hold on online retail, and reduce prices for consumers. > If pricing on Amazon is too high, consumers won’t buy those products at Amazon and get rid of their Prime memberships too. How can this ever happen if selling cheaper elsewhere loses you the buy box on the biggest online store? > If it’s a bad deal for sellers, they can sell on other websites. Again you're completely ignoring the size of Amazon market share here. Who is voluntarily going to give up 50%-60% of all online sales? It's a bit like US ISPs, if Comcast screws with fees stupid prices on your cable contract you can just go to a competitor right, we'll just ignore the fact the competitor is selling 2mb DSL.
- tracer4201 5y ago
  >You're also making the assumption that the buy box always offers the lowest price, which isn't true if Amazon are factoring non-price variables like is the manufacture undercutting Amazon on their own site. So as a seller you could be offering the lowest price with the fastest shipping, but still lose the buy box because you had the audacity to offer a better price on your own site or at Walmart. I'm on Amazon page right now. It tells me that I can get a product the fastest with the buy box offer, or I can get a cheaper price from other "offers". And when I click that link, it shows me higher and lower prices, but the lower prices have a delivery date (actually a range, between X and Y) more than a week out. Let me start just by saying that the offer is still shown. It's not immediately in the buy box, but as a shopper, I have access to the lower prices and can buy from a different seller. This information is not obfuscated from me or hidden through some dark pattern. >This in turn creates a very strong incentive to sell your products everywhere for the same price, regardless of your actual costs. So your prices at Walmart and your own site go up. >If pricing at other stores wasn't a factor in the buy box algorithm, then consumers could find lower prices else where if they wanted to. Thus allowing competitors to slowly loosen Amazon strangle hold on online retail, and reduce prices for consumers. The incentive goes away if you don't sell on Amazon, right? Any Amazon "strangle" (your word, not mine) only exists because people choose to sell on Amazon, right? >How can this ever happen if selling cheaper elsewhere loses you the buy box on the biggest online store? See my previous point. Don't sell on Amazon. >Again you're completely ignoring the size of Amazon market share here. Who is voluntarily going to give up 50%-60% of all online sales? It's a bit like US ISPs, if Comcast screws with fees stupid prices on your cable contract you can just go to a competitor right, we'll just ignore the fact the competitor is selling 2mb DSL. I don't agree with this. Companies like Comcast are deemed monopolies because their customers don't have a choice. Just as you stated, Comcast gives me high speed broadband. But my choice is limited to Comcast, and the only competitor (if there even is one in my neighborhood) will offer 2MB DSL. This is NOT the case with online shopping. I can purchase an iPad from Apple, Amazon, Best Buy, and a bunch of other websites. I can purchase my razor blades online from Target, Amazon, Gillette, etc. including several of the grocery stores in my city (who will ship them. Yes people shop at Amazon, but it's because they choose to. I have the option of not shopping with Amazon. As a matter of fact, I bought 10 "5 Star" brand notebooks on Amazon. I saw later that Wal-Mart had them for $3 instead of $7/notebook. I sent them back to Amazon and got them from Wal-Mart instead. With internet service, many people don't have a choice but to go with Comcast, Cox, or whichever single provider offers the service in their neighborhood.

avianlyric 5y ago

I don't understand how losing the buy box for offering your products cheaper elsewhere can be anything but punishment. You say yourself that picking the cheapest price plus shipping is what consumers want, so how a companies pricing elsewhere relevant to a consumer buying on Amazon? You're also making the assumption that the buy box always offers the lowest price, which isn't true if Amazon are factoring non-price variables like is the manufacture undercutting Amazon on their own site. So as a seller you could be offering the lowest price with the fastest shipping, but still lose the buy box because you had the audacity to offer a better price on your own site or at Walmart. This in turn creates a very strong incentive to sell your products everywhere for the same price, regardless of your actual costs. So your prices at Walmart and your own site go up. If pricing at other stores wasn't a factor in the buy box algorithm, then consumers could find lower prices else where if they wanted to. Thus allowing competitors to slowly loosen Amazon strangle hold on online retail, and reduce prices for consumers. > If pricing on Amazon is too high, consumers won’t buy those products at Amazon and get rid of their Prime memberships too. How can this ever happen if selling cheaper elsewhere loses you the buy box on the biggest online store? > If it’s a bad deal for sellers, they can sell on other websites. Again you're completely ignoring the size of Amazon market share here. Who is voluntarily going to give up 50%-60% of all online sales? It's a bit like US ISPs, if Comcast screws with fees stupid prices on your cable contract you can just go to a competitor right, we'll just ignore the fact the competitor is selling 2mb DSL.

tracer4201 5y ago
>You're also making the assumption that the buy box always offers the lowest price, which isn't true if Amazon are factoring non-price variables like is the manufacture undercutting Amazon on their own site. So as a seller you could be offering the lowest price with the fastest shipping, but still lose the buy box because you had the audacity to offer a better price on your own site or at Walmart. I'm on Amazon page right now. It tells me that I can get a product the fastest with the buy box offer, or I can get a cheaper price from other "offers". And when I click that link, it shows me higher and lower prices, but the lower prices have a delivery date (actually a range, between X and Y) more than a week out. Let me start just by saying that the offer is still shown. It's not immediately in the buy box, but as a shopper, I have access to the lower prices and can buy from a different seller. This information is not obfuscated from me or hidden through some dark pattern. >This in turn creates a very strong incentive to sell your products everywhere for the same price, regardless of your actual costs. So your prices at Walmart and your own site go up. >If pricing at other stores wasn't a factor in the buy box algorithm, then consumers could find lower prices else where if they wanted to. Thus allowing competitors to slowly loosen Amazon strangle hold on online retail, and reduce prices for consumers. The incentive goes away if you don't sell on Amazon, right? Any Amazon "strangle" (your word, not mine) only exists because people choose to sell on Amazon, right? >How can this ever happen if selling cheaper elsewhere loses you the buy box on the biggest online store? See my previous point. Don't sell on Amazon. >Again you're completely ignoring the size of Amazon market share here. Who is voluntarily going to give up 50%-60% of all online sales? It's a bit like US ISPs, if Comcast screws with fees stupid prices on your cable contract you can just go to a competitor right, we'll just ignore the fact the competitor is selling 2mb DSL. I don't agree with this. Companies like Comcast are deemed monopolies because their customers don't have a choice. Just as you stated, Comcast gives me high speed broadband. But my choice is limited to Comcast, and the only competitor (if there even is one in my neighborhood) will offer 2MB DSL. This is NOT the case with online shopping. I can purchase an iPad from Apple, Amazon, Best Buy, and a bunch of other websites. I can purchase my razor blades online from Target, Amazon, Gillette, etc. including several of the grocery stores in my city (who will ship them. Yes people shop at Amazon, but it's because they choose to. I have the option of not shopping with Amazon. As a matter of fact, I bought 10 "5 Star" brand notebooks on Amazon. I saw later that Wal-Mart had them for $3 instead of $7/notebook. I sent them back to Amazon and got them from Wal-Mart instead. With internet service, many people don't have a choice but to go with Comcast, Cox, or whichever single provider offers the service in their neighborhood.