I am getting ready for Amazon not being around in a few years
and here is my reasoning:-
1). I cannot list new items as I am not the brand owner. Fewer items on sales
2). Items are not described as they should be and are inaccurate and cannot be amended, as I am not the brand owner. Buyer confidence falls as they cannot trust what they order is what they receive.
3). It is harder to keep up with all the extra options Amazon asks for, to stop having my listings suppressed. Again fewer items on sale
4). More and more buyers are returning items, using incorrect reasoning so they can get free returns to which sellers claim back under Safe T claim, so cost on Amazon,
5). Buyers buy items but send back older/broken/used items, for full refund, claiming item is faulty when not and having used the item then get full refund, with free return postage and items cannot be resold.
6). Amazon suspends buyer accounts for abusing the above points, so fewer buyers to make purchases.
Every day that Passes I see these examples happening more and more and Amazon does nothing to stop them. When/if they do, they will then upset these buyers who will go elsewhere as they can no longer get free items. The authorities are also looking at Amazon practices and may fine them if found guilty as well. Amazon Staff are becoming unhappy and unions are springing up.
I give Amazon 5 years at the most, if they don’t change course.
I am getting ready for Amazon not being around in a few years
and here is my reasoning:-
1). I cannot list new items as I am not the brand owner. Fewer items on sales
2). Items are not described as they should be and are inaccurate and cannot be amended, as I am not the brand owner. Buyer confidence falls as they cannot trust what they order is what they receive.
3). It is harder to keep up with all the extra options Amazon asks for, to stop having my listings suppressed. Again fewer items on sale
4). More and more buyers are returning items, using incorrect reasoning so they can get free returns to which sellers claim back under Safe T claim, so cost on Amazon,
5). Buyers buy items but send back older/broken/used items, for full refund, claiming item is faulty when not and having used the item then get full refund, with free return postage and items cannot be resold.
6). Amazon suspends buyer accounts for abusing the above points, so fewer buyers to make purchases.
Every day that Passes I see these examples happening more and more and Amazon does nothing to stop them. When/if they do, they will then upset these buyers who will go elsewhere as they can no longer get free items. The authorities are also looking at Amazon practices and may fine them if found guilty as well. Amazon Staff are becoming unhappy and unions are springing up.
I give Amazon 5 years at the most, if they don’t change course.
20 replies
Seller_esvgLzKXw2YAl
I seriously doubt it.
A lot of those things that your saying are bad for Amazon, are actually why customers keep coming back.
It’s basically how they have built the market.
How do you know that Amazon does nothing to stop these things happening?
If they did nothing at all, there would never be buyer accounts suspended etc. And this does happen.
Also, as to the various different problems, I would be willing to be, that as a percentage of sales, it’s actually fairly small.
They are actually problems that are far from limited to Amazon. These things all crop up with online retail.
And you forget, Amazon retail, has only just become a money making company. So much of what Amazon is these days, is about data. And the major source of that data, is right here, on Amazon itself. It’s all those customers. That’s where they make the megabucks.
Seller_B4VbHpnDLDLAU
It’s an interesting theory.
The retail side of Amazon is not that profitable if any. But they continue.
I don’t think Amazon will disssapear, but if we think where we were 5 years ago to the mess that is the caatalogue, refunds, fraud on the platform now. It makes you wonder where we will be in another 5 years.
Seller_oCRW8O6a1vkLT
Amazon will always be around. the issue is 3rd party sellers like ourselves may not be around due to all the points you have mentioned. The A-Z policy of amazon is the worst against the seller. we get electronic items returned broken/smashed after the 30 day return policy and amazon automatically refund the customer.
Amazon do not care about the seller as most the items in the amazon catalogue are stocked by amazon themselves mostly at higher prices so they do not need us sellers like other platforms do.
Seller_Yjq4AEoa0h74s
I think that Amazon will still be around, but it will basically just be another site similar to Wish .com.
Seller_4lwmfpmJcG44K
- I’ve had all sorts of faults when I try, but I’ve been able to list branded items without being the owner.
- The numerous faults on listings, from randomly switching to another product or details having errors mistakes, broken browse nodes making the item impossible to search for by customers etc, all of these are a massive problem. Instead of trying to get SS to fix them, Ive started reporting them as not complying with Amazon’s listing policies and Im hoping this does better.
- It is hard to meet amazon’s requirements sometimes. Recently I had a product selling fine for around 15 quid suddenly get suppressed, now Amazon has a reference price of around 6.50 and expects me to match this… Oh yeah, the fees were 4.50 alone… so clearly I cant match that.
4+5) I dont think its just buyers abusing the returns policy, I hear stories of other sellers doing the same to replace their bad stock with good new stock. What makes it worse though, is how frequently a customer will complain and return based on the item being sent without packaging and being damaged, but then the FC put it as defective…
- I hope Amazon does suspend these buyers… Thats a good thing, but it does mean though, that they can just set up another… I know A2A sellers that have loads of accounts, so it cant be hard.
40% of amazons profits come from the platform with 60% being from their data services side of things, so I doubt Amazon is going anywhere, and so long as we remain savvy and profitable, we’re not jumping ship to Ebay and packing everything ourselves again.
Seller_tc3VxVXAlHXbN
- Why don’t you just get a letter from the Brand Owner?
The other points I don’t have a problem with?
I sell general household products probably average price about £5.50 though. I sell mainly white label products too. Probably very different to your product range I would guess
Seller_l78koE9kGCu59
Respectfully I think that anyone who thinks Amazon hurt in anyway from any of the points made here is deluded. They’re getting bigger and bigger with every passing nano second.
Seller_nKqNWKHfZWsny
I agree with the OP. Nothing is too big to fail, especially when the AI they have will eventually decide to close themselves down, if what they allow and decide now is anything to go by. They avoid (not evade) taxation and other practices which eventually be kicked into touch by the governments that want the money to survive.
Seller_SnNztJIII3ZP5
There are plenty of new sellers waiting to join Amazon having watched how to make a million bucks a month YouTube videos whilst sitting in the Bahamas sipping a glass of cool champagne.
