What Would Mandated Amazon Breakup Mean for Sellers?

by: lessthanthreerecords

I haven't sold on Amazon for many years, but in general terms, I think a breakup would cause panic and confusion in the short term, but would probably end up benefiting sellers in the long term.  The closer a company gets to a monopoly, the more the consumer is hurt.

by: Weirdbooks

Amazon can easily avoid this by simply giving the Buy Box to vendors who consistently meet their stated delivery times.  Amazon has at times given the Buy Box only to vendors who ship via FBA, even when the item is not even yet in a FBA warehouse (still in incoming transit or processing) and even when the FBM vendor has the same price and has a delivery timeframe that is sooner than the FBA delivery date.  

Amazon also regularly shows a 2-Day delivery window for FBA items in the item page and during the checkout process, only to change that to 1 week or longer at the final checkout window or in the order confirmation email.  I have been caught by that time after time.

Amazon also makes it difficult to cancel FBA orders, often claiming to be unable to cancel even when the cancellation is made only minutes after the order is initially placed.   I have had several instances where they claim the order has been sent to shipping/processing and cannot be cancelled, yet Amazon FBA does not even ship the order for over 24 hours after the attempted cancellation, and then ships via UPS Ground, despite the fact that it should have shipped via 2-Day given the Prime and 2-Day label on the item page.

All of these hurt consumers and the first two are blatantly anti-competitive against 3rd party sellers.

by: pace306

There are many other Amazon issues (such as gating and fake copyright claims - a tool Amazon uses to box out smaller sellers ala VERO) besides shipping issues.

ANY break up would be good - it would "take them down a notch" ... lets hope ones comming for eBay too.

by: COVID-19

It means AZ stocks tanking, homes! ¡Órale!

by: The End

Now lets get the FCC to break up Spectrum.

by: toolguy

@Covid 19

"It means AZ stocks tanking, homes! ¡Órale! "

When eBay broke up investors did the happy dance for years!

Both eBay & Paypal went off the charts after the breakup.

by: toolguy

@pace306

"lets hope ones comming for eBay too. "

How would you break up eBay? Foreign & domestic?

by: toolguy

My last Amazon purchase was 4 years ago, my last eBay purchase was 4 days ago.

So far in 2023 I have purchased 47 items on eBay, that's about 2 items a week.

by: Stone Cutter

*** Amazon forced me into “Prime” ***

Last month, I made an order with Amazon and they automatically signed me up with Amazon Prime. This really pissed me off…I felt deceived. Fortunately, I was able to cancel it.

Last week, CNBC reported that Amazon is being sued by the FTC for automatically enrolling customers into Prime, while some customers were having difficulty in canceling the service.

Sellers and Buyers…watch your back! Amazon says this recent spurt of inflation is causing grief for their profit margins and a company like Amazon will do anything for a buck.

These online companies and their sleaze factor, have gotten too big and it’s the the middle class who always gets hurt.  

by: GetAGrip

Really not going to happen. To many politicians living in Amazons back pocket. Same with greedbay.

by: Marie

I have a few items that are in the Buy Box when I have competition on the item.  But most items don't end up in the Buy Box, Especially if Amazon is selling the item too.

I do not use their FBA now will I be using it in the future.

What has be really annoyed with Amazon is that they practice forcing me to cut my prices on some things because they say it isn't matching with what they think it should, something to do with Marketplace pricing.

I only sell new items and sometimes they are trying to force me to sell my items for LESS than used items on the site.  Other times I have no competition for the item, yet they say I need to lower my pricing.  And they deactivate these listings until you comply.  This seems like Price Fixing to me.  IDK why they can get away with this.

by: comments

I think that anything and everything should be thrown at amazon. This is the end result of pushing around your customers with your "too big to fail" BS. Anti competitive and aggressive practices should always wake the FTC, that is what they are for. I certainly wouldn't trust any of these companies to hold my stock for fulfillment. Especially when you know they cut off communication the second they decide to ban you with or without cause.

At the end of the day I think amazon will rain money on the problem and it will quietly go away. Mr. Jassy and Hunter Biden are probably negotiating a deal for the "big guy" as we speak.

by: trader_chris

I don't really understand how an anti-trust case hasn't been brought against Amazon for competing against their own sellers for years. Don't they use internal sales data to find which items are selling best, they buy those same items in greater quantities and undercut their own sellers (or have the products made and sold as Amazon brand)? Seems like an unfair competitive advantage to me.

by: lisapar

I believe the larger issue is AMZ using their data to determine what items sell best, then sells it and competing with their own 3rd party seller base!  Blatant monopoly.  

Also, I get ticked off when AMZ restricts an item I'm selling for "low pricing", only for AMZ to be selling it AT THE SAME PRICE.

I would have left AMZ long ago, but 90% of consumers turn to AMZ for anything from soup to nuts.  So it's hard for me to turn off that faucet when shoppers are lined up around the corner. It's a difficult marketplace to manage, but in the end, there's revenue to be had.

by: bd greatbuys

amazon will never provide "a open clear cut" on it real steps to give anybody the  
Buy Box algorithm-so a a seller can not be real competitor  
it will  punish third-party sellers on anything from fba shipping to feedback rating takeoff and many other....  

by: LF_RTF

I think that the government should go after Amazon for using their policies to circumvent consumer protections, granted by the First Sale Doctrine, codified by 17 U.S.C. § 109.  It seems that Amazon is unfairly preventing sellers from listing their own used, legally purchased, merchandise to line the pockets of OEM's in more and more cases.   In doing so, they are also hurting consumers and monopolizing certain brands. In my opinion, they loosely use "trademark infringement" as a way to unethically thwart federal law by de-listing thus eliminating competition.

by: Jester

I realized a number of years ago that Amazon was looking for specific sellers and was punishing those that they didn't really want. I think Amazon saw this as a price they would exact from those unwanted sellers if they wanted to stay on Amazon and oddly enough many stayed.

In my opinion, Amazon doesn't want smaller sellers because they cause them more problems and time than those who are large and don't sweat small setbacks. As a smaller seller with about 5000 items on Amazon mostly FBA, I quit a number of years ago when they started nickel and dimeing me right and left which squeezed a lot of my profits out. And it was the best thing I have ever done as a reseller. Thank you, Amazon for showing me the door!

Now don't get me wrong I am still a customer of Amazon just not a seller. Because as a customer they take care of my interests.

by: ScottLBrown

Amazon has so many things that appear to clearly favor FBA sellers, while at the same time amazon does not hold themselves accountable for missed deadlines etc.

If your a prime seller, (a reseller) with a 99.9% compliance requirement, you are still not top of search (if your item is not unique and branded) as FBA will always list before you. People like to see the "Ships by Amazon" badge.

For me however, we do use FBA for 90% of our items and take great advantage of being brand owner of unique products, and the discounted Shipping Rates they pass on.  ( Us alone, do not meet the volume to get our rates that low. )

Breaking up Amazon in my opinion would hurt us for now, but I believe would ultimately level the playing field.

Personally I believe breaking up Amazon should first be done at the "Compliance" level (i.e. Seller Help).  Maybe then that department (or new company) would stand out like the sore thumb it is. . . and someone would smack it like nail.  Maybe the US authorities should grow a pair, like the EU did a few years back.

by: Marie

Just thought I'd share something I noticed this morning when doing my shipping.  Amazon is already charging the Media Mail Rate increase that doesn't start until the 9th.  Now this is something that I've found Amazon does almost every time there is a rate increase.

They start charging it a few days ahead of when they are suppose to.  Then in a couple weeks or so they will apologize for their oversight and tell us they will refund affected sellers.  In all my years on Amazon, I have never received a refund for their overcharges and there has been many of them.

So currently I will use a different service for my shipping labels until the increase is actually in effect.

by: Fruitylovesyou

FTC now that's a joke