5 ms·
Walmart and Target are actually much worse. Target is perhaps the worst of all, believe it or not. If a scammer creates a listing for a particular UPC, they own
by themagician 3y ago
Walmart and Target are actually much worse. Target is perhaps the worst of all, believe it or not. If a scammer creates a listing for a particular UPC, they own it within the Target system basically forever. Even if you approach Target as the legitimate brand and try to take control of the listing they refuse and then try to essentially extort you. They tell you that you can essentially “stop the bleeding” by signing up with a certain third party vendor that charges thousands a month so you can list on Target. And even if you do, that product listing still remains controlled by someone else. They wanted it to be a kind of “gold rush” where brands would run to sign up for fear of losing the ability to sell their products to third parties.
- saganus 3y agoThat sounds... weird? Not saying it doesn't happen, but if this is indeed the case, what is preventing the same scammer from essentially registering all still-unregistered UPC codes to do something akin to domain squatting? (I am not familiar with how Target online works so maybe I am missing something)
- themagician 3y agoNothing, really. But you have to actually sell the product. On Target only one person can sell an item. Only one listing for that item can exist. It goes to whoever lists first.
- saganus 3y agoThat seems ripe for (more) abuse. Not really sure who comes up with these schemes but... doesn't sound well thought out.
- themagician 3y agoThere is a CertAin large SaaS company that partners with retailers and sells them on this kind of bullshit. They don’t CAre. They ChArge the retailer and the seller thousands per month for their platform and technology.
- consp 3y agoWouldn't you just order one as the legitimate manufacturer, check if it's fake, and the sue the shit out of target and the seller for willfully selling counterfeit product after having been warned about it? I don't know about the US but in some places knowingly selling fakes is illegal.
- WendyTheWillow 3y agoThat’s not at all how Walmart works; what you get online is what you’d get in a store if Walmart is the retailer, often likely taken from the shelf.
- themagician 3y agoNot necessarily. Walmart also offer DSV, which is a bit of a nightmare.
- WendyTheWillow 3y agoHow is DSV a nightmare? Savings for the supplier, savings for Walmart, therefore savings for the customer.