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Amazon Is Poised to Unleash a Purge of Small Wholesale Suppliers

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Re: Amazon Is Poised to Unleash a Purge of Small Wholesale Suppliers

#61

Post by theturtletalks »

rootusrootus wrote: post #55
theturtletalks wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What most people don't realize is that Amazon fees are 15% and most suppliers do FBA which tacks on a more expensive shipping charge than you would have otherwise with USPS. eBay on the other hand charges 10% and sellers can ship items the cheapest way. Those same suppliers on Amazon list the their items on eBay for cheaper since they net the same after fees.

I find a lot of things these days are actually slightly more expensive on eBay. I also see a lot of duplicate listings by the same (or apparently the same) seller with wildly varying prices. I still buy stuff on eBay once in a while, but it's not the place to go anymore for the best deal. And after you're accustomed to 1-2 day shipping from Amazon, waiting a couple weeks for an eBay shipment is a non-starter.

I think what you are finding are eBay sellers dropshipping the items from Amazon directly. So those items will be more expensive since the sellers have to make up the 10% eBay fee. I'm talking about the Amazon sellers that use something like Channel Advisor and are listing the same products on eBay for less. But finding those sellers takes effort in some cases.

Re: Amazon Is Poised to Unleash a Purge of Small Wholesale Suppliers

#62

Post by mortenjorck »

_red wrote: post #39

No one ever talks about eBay anymore....but when are we going to collectively realize that they are the best of the "big tech" companies? They've stayed remarkable true to their mission, haven't entered politics (ironic given previous CEO), and continued to offer a good service. Since the commingling of inventory is now so prevalent at Amazon, I find myself using eBay more and more.

Amazon is a sprawling complex of market stalls masquerading as a single Costco, while Ebay is a sprawling complex of market stalls that makes no pretensions of being something else.

Re: Amazon Is Poised to Unleash a Purge of Small Wholesale Suppliers

#63

Post by save_ferris »

seem_2211 wrote: post #23
save_ferris wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's not surprising. The lack of surprise that a company's greed is boundless shouldn't be the standard to which we hold them accountable for their behavior. It's kinda hard to see how Amazon won't eventually collide with antitrust forces at some point. The rise of tech giants like Amazon has largely coincided with their development of entire markets that they control. There's so much money to be made establishin…

Right - this isn't new, basically everything you've said also applies to Walmart but twenty years ago.

I actually see those two as fairly different.

Walmart perfected large-scale logistics and built a network of one-stop-shops across America, taking out small mom-and-pop shops along the way.

Amazon set out to be the go-to online shopping platform largely by encouraging small mom-and-pop shops to sell through Amazon. Once the platform was big enough, it started making more sense for Amazon to cannibalize vendors instead of just continuing to let the market grow.

Sure, both companies are large behemoths that do their part to decimate local economies and avoid paying taxes, but their strategies were pretty different, IMO.

Re: Amazon Is Poised to Unleash a Purge of Small Wholesale Suppliers

#64

Post by JohnFen »

rootusrootus wrote: post #55
theturtletalks wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What most people don't realize is that Amazon fees are 15% and most suppliers do FBA which tacks on a more expensive shipping charge than you would have otherwise with USPS. eBay on the other hand charges 10% and sellers can ship items the cheapest way. Those same suppliers on Amazon list the their items on eBay for cheaper since they net the same after fees.

I find a lot of things these days are actually slightly more expensive on eBay. I also see a lot of duplicate listings by the same (or apparently the same) seller with wildly varying prices. I still buy stuff on eBay once in a while, but it's not the place to go anymore for the best deal. And after you're accustomed to 1-2 day shipping from Amazon, waiting a couple weeks for an eBay shipment is a non-starter.

I'm not particularly price-sensitive (that is, I'm not going to spend any time or energy finding the lowest possible price for something -- I'll just go with the first reasonable price I see). You may differ on this, and that's totally fair.

However, this:

> And after you're accustomed to 1-2 day shipping from Amazon, waiting a couple weeks for an eBay shipment is a non-starter.

Ignores the fact that (at least for the stuff I buy), you can usually get 2 day shipping from eBay sellers. The only time I have to wait more than a few days when ordering on eBay is if what I'm buying is rare enough that I have to buy from an out-of-country supplier -- and those things are rarely or never found on Amazon anyway.

Re: Amazon Is Poised to Unleash a Purge of Small Wholesale Suppliers

#65

Post by bredren »

_red wrote: post #39

No one ever talks about eBay anymore....but when are we going to collectively realize that they are the best of the "big tech" companies? They've stayed remarkable true to their mission, haven't entered politics (ironic given previous CEO), and continued to offer a good service. Since the commingling of inventory is now so prevalent at Amazon, I find myself using eBay more and more.

The best big tech company?

Maybe presently people have no major beefs with the organization.

But there have been more than enough negative actions by this company in the past including:

Suing craigslist (and losing) for breach of fiduciary duty because it wouldn't exploit its users enough. This was knowing that the shares were acquired in conflict with the ownership and mission of craigslist.

eBay tried to get inside information from Craigslist while it was secretly preparing release of Kijiji.[1]

eBay has been facilitating the sale of counterfeit items long before Amazon. Many sellers were upset by the requirement to use PayPal anded even acted to ban use of competing services.

So while the heat may be on Amazon, I would hold off on elevating eBay to some superior ethical position.

[1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB120959923436057759

Re: Amazon Is Poised to Unleash a Purge of Small Wholesale Suppliers

#66

Post by stcredzero »

mdorazio wrote: post #9

To bypass the pay/nag wall: https://outline.com/9mHK5d Important to note that this "purge" is only for wholesale suppliers, not for marketplace sellers like the title implies. Amazon is basically only going to purchase products for resale from large suppliers, and will shove the rest into the normal marketplace operations where they have to compete with everyone else on actually selling and shipping their products di…

Amazon is basically only going to purchase products for resale from large suppliers, and will shove the rest into the normal marketplace operations where they have to compete with everyone else on actually selling and shipping their products direct to consumers.

"Your margins are our opportunity." -- Jeff Bezos.

Re: Amazon Is Poised to Unleash a Purge of Small Wholesale Suppliers

#67

Post by stcredzero »

mortenjorck wrote: post #62
_red wrote: post #39

No one ever talks about eBay anymore....but when are we going to collectively realize that they are the best of the "big tech" companies? They've stayed remarkable true to their mission, haven't entered politics (ironic given previous CEO), and continued to offer a good service. Since the commingling of inventory is now so prevalent at Amazon, I find myself using eBay more and more.

Amazon is a sprawling complex of market stalls masquerading as a single Costco, while Ebay is a sprawling complex of market stalls that makes no pretensions of being something else.

The Faux Cathedral and the Bazaar?

Re: Amazon Is Poised to Unleash a Purge of Small Wholesale Suppliers

#68

Post by hello_friendos »

throwayEngineer wrote: post #22
JohnFen wrote: post #14

> Amazon’s aim is to cut costs and focus wholesale purchasing on major brands like Procter & Gamble, Sony and Lego, the people said. That will ensure the company has adequate supplies of must-have merchandise and help it compete with the likes of Walmart, Target and Best Buy. That would cut out most of my purchases from Amazon. It makes no sense to buy stuff from Amazon that I can get from my local big-box retailer,…

I've already stopped using Amazon. They are significantly more expensive than Walmart. Which is new, this was not true 4 years ago. They don't have the selection of stores like digikey. They lost their purpose completely. I only use Amazon for Email due to modern Email standards.

Also they've switched to the absolute worst, bottom-of-the-barrel delivery companies in many places.

When Canada Post couldn't deliver my package I only had to walk 5 minutes to pick it up.

Whoever their new delivery partner is. I'd have to drive to the edge of the city to pick up my package.

Re: Amazon Is Poised to Unleash a Purge of Small Wholesale Suppliers

#69

Post by munk-a »

I really hope this triggers some long needed anti-trust action against amazon - controlling the market place and using that control to execute actions like this is exactly what those laws are there for, this is the first step in a consolidation to force suppliers into less profitable agreements and individual bargaining.

Re: Amazon Is Poised to Unleash a Purge of Small Wholesale Suppliers

#70

Post by JohnFen »

bredren wrote: post #65
_red wrote: post #39

No one ever talks about eBay anymore....but when are we going to collectively realize that they are the best of the "big tech" companies? They've stayed remarkable true to their mission, haven't entered politics (ironic given previous CEO), and continued to offer a good service. Since the commingling of inventory is now so prevalent at Amazon, I find myself using eBay more and more.

The best big tech company? Maybe presently people have no major beefs with the organization. But there have been more than enough negative actions by this company in the past including: Suing craigslist (and losing) for breach of fiduciary duty because it wouldn't exploit its users enough. This was knowing that the shares were acquired in conflict with the ownership and mission of craigslist. eBay tried to get inside…

Yes, this. I don't consider eBay to be a "good guy". But they do increasingly appear to be the best of a bad bunch.
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