In last week’s article, we mentioned the incident of competitors pranking sellers, which triggered many sellers to denounce some of their peers.

In the cross-border e-commerce circle, similar situations are not uncommon, but in addition to domestic counterparts, sellers also face an invisible opponent, that is, Amazon's own operation.

Recently, Amazon's own operations have once again appeared in the sellers' sight, sparking heated discussions. Why is that?

Amazon's self-operated business has frequent problems

As we all know, Amazon has made considerable profits from its own brands by leveraging its platform advantages and pushing suppliers to lower prices.

But even with its unique advantages and conditions, Amazon's own products are not perfect. Instead, problems frequently occur, causing dissatisfaction among many buyers.

Not long ago, Amazon's product "Amazon Basics" had a serious spontaneous combustion problem. Several National Party senators jointly requested that Amazon remove these dangerous products from the shelves, but Amazon only removed a few products involved without explaining the reasons for the removal. After the incident was exposed, Amazon Basics still occupied the best position in the platform's search display, reflecting the suspected monopoly problem of the Amazon platform.

In addition to being criticized for product quality issues, Amazon's own operations also face infringement warnings from well-known brands.

On September 24, according to the US Business Insider website, US furniture giant Williams-Sonoma filed a lawsuit against Amazon.

Sonoma has accused Amazon's own furniture brand Rivet of plagiarizing the designs of three patented chairs of its subsidiary brand West Elm (hereinafter referred to as WSI). Sonoma said in the lawsuit that Amazon's own furniture brand Rivet sells counterfeits of WSI's popular series of furniture. Currently, Amazon has stopped selling the relevant products.

Amazon's own sales and third-party sellers

In addition to the above problems, Amazon's unfair competition against sellers also causes headaches for sellers.

In recent years, Amazon has not only expanded its own product categories, but has also been constantly "touching" third-party sellers and constantly copying their listings. Recently, a seller shared his experience on a forum about his Australian store being copied by Amazon's own sellers.

The seller said that the Australian site is very small, and if there is an order every few days, there will be hundreds of people in the major categories. Once there is a slight improvement, they will follow the sales. The most recent follower is Amazon US , which has no feedback column and buyers cannot leave feedback. There are many listings in its account, including all kinds of brands.

After discovering that his products were being copied, the seller closed the Amazon logistics export settings on the Australian site. However, a week has passed and there has been no change. The brand complaint case opened a week ago has also received no response.

In the comment section of the post, some sellers also said: Market competition has always been a case of the survival of the fittest, and Amazon's self-operated business is both a referee and a contestant.

In fact, the situation of Amazon's own operations following third-party sellers has existed for a long time, but third-party sellers cannot use the usual methods of following others to sell on Amazon's own operations.

As an official Amazon product, it has too many privileges and advantages that most small and medium-sized sellers cannot compete with. Therefore, when encountering Amazon's own copycat sales, sellers are often angry and helpless.

▲ The picture comes from the seller communication group

How can sellers deal with Amazon’s self-operated copycat sales?

According to a data, the number of listings of third-party sellers on Amazon exceeds 90%, but in fact, the GMV is mostly only around 60-70%. This shows that compared with Amazon's own brands, the revenue-generating ability of third-party sellers' listings is much worse.

In recent years, Amazon's own brands have shown a trend of sustained growth, which has also invisibly brought considerable competitive pressure to third-party sellers. However, Amazon's own brands are not unbeatable. When sellers encounter Amazon's own brand copycat sales or other unfair competition, the following suggestions can be used for reference.

In short, judging from the above problems, Amazon's platform rules still need to be improved. Its own-brand copy-selling behavior of third-party sellers not only harms the interests of sellers, but also goes against the market rules of fair competition. While sellers are waiting for the Amazon platform mechanism to be improved, they can also pay more attention, strengthen their own strength, and make good products and services.

The platform and sellers should be a community of interests. Only when both parties stand on a united front can they maximize their common interests and achieve a win-win situation.

Text✎ Yi Xin/

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