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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

#71

Post by rootusrootus »

theturtletalks wrote: post #61
rootusrootus wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That may be exactly what happens on the back end. I only see it from a consumer point of view. I can't reliably best Amazon prices by going to eBay, I have to go somewhere like Walmart.

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

#72

Post by knd775 »

JohnFen wrote: post #56
knd775 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you read the full article? They aren't dropping other brands/sellers from the platform. They just aren't going to buying from them anymore. Currently, they buy from some high volume brands directly and then sell the products themselves. They are going to stop doing this with smaller brands, who will now need act as sellers on the platform.

Yes, I read and understood the full article. The thing is that I won't do business with Marketplace sellers -- that place is a snake pit full of badness. I only buy items from Amazon that are fulfilled by Amazon. If Amazon isn't holding the inventory and fulfilling the order themselves, then I'm not interested. I'll be going to eBay instead.

Third-party sellers still generally ship their items to Amazon warehouses to be sold. Orders for these items are still "Fulfilled by Amazon". Nothing in this article changes that.

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

#73

Post by awad »

cptaj wrote: post #25
Analemma_ wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many business don't have a choice. A lot of the time, the choice is "sell on Amazon" or "don't sell". That's what monopsony is, and it's why Amazon needs to be broken up.

This is completely true. We used to do some development work for a client in florida. They sold all kinds of batteries on amazon. One day, a single dispute brought their whole business down. They had a whole warehouse of employees and they all got fucked because some temp employee somewhere in the world half-read a dispute while hungover from the night before and clicked a button. No appeals, no recourse. Your entire…

Curious - are you able to share more details?

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

#74

Post by the_watcher »

_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.

Peter Thiel was never CEO of eBay. He was CEO of PayPal until eBay pruchased it, at which point he left the company to found Clarium Capital and Palantir.

EDIT: While the above statement is correct, I'm an idiot and totally forgot that a former eBay CEO ran for governor of California and remains active in politics.

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

#75

Post by rootusrootus »

JohnFen wrote: post #64
rootusrootus wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 th…

I'm definitely biased more in favor of convenience and shipping speed. But to take a recent example, I just bought something last week on eBay, and regular shipping was free, or I could upgrade to USPS Priority Mail for $9.99. For a $32 boxed set of DVDs, this triggers my rip-off sensor, even if it's not enough to really matter. And it wouldn't be two-day shipping, just priority mail. Good but not the same.

I like eBay well enough and I have my quibbles with Amazon (especially the marketplace) but they definitely have the one-click-and-you-have-it-tomorrow game nailed.

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

#77

Post by JohnFen »

SmellyGeekBoy wrote: post #42
_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.

I've had nothing but good experiences with ebay over the past few years, and I'm a very heavy user (buying and selling). I've been a member since 2002, FWIW.

Me too.

eBay has consistently handled disputes quickly and without hassles. Amazon has never managed that, even when they're the ones fulfilling the order.

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

#78

Post by JohnFen »

knd775 wrote: post #72
JohnFen wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I read and understood the full article. The thing is that I won't do business with Marketplace sellers -- that place is a snake pit full of badness. I only buy items from Amazon that are fulfilled by Amazon. If Amazon isn't holding the inventory and fulfilling the order themselves, then I'm not interested. I'll be going to eBay instead.

Third-party sellers still generally ship their items to Amazon warehouses to be sold. Orders for these items are still "Fulfilled by Amazon". Nothing in this article changes that.

Well, then I don't understand what the article says at all. Can you summarize it for me? What is the change being discussed? What does it affect?

To explain my confusion, here's a quote from the article:

> Amazon secures inventory two ways. The company buys products directly from wholesale vendors, reselling them like a traditional retail store, and it lets independent merchants post their own products on the site in a marketplace model similar to EBay Inc. or a consignment shop. About half of the goods sold on Amazon come from independent merchants, and the change will push the marketplace share of revenue even higher.

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

#79

Post by ineedasername »

theturtletalks wrote: post #46
JohnFen wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Important to note that this "purge" is only for wholesale suppliers, not for marketplace sellers like the title implies. Yes, but I avoid the marketplace sellers. I've been burned too often with those -- if I'm going to roll the dice on that sort of thing, I'm better off with eBay.

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.

Using a few fee calculators & testing with a $100 item, it looks like they're comparable if the seller isn't using FBA. But, assuming FBA, then yes you spend a few dollars more than Ebay for the same item. However, selling via FBA can also give you a boost in sales with customers more inclined to buy when it will fit in their Prime subscription, and that increase in sales may outpace the increased cost.

Also, at least based on my own buying habits, (I know hardly representative) I'm much more likely to feel "safe" buying something on Amazon. But either way,to hit the most audience and maximize global profit, you can simply sell in both venues. Given some of the sales management tools that let sellers manage inventory & pricing across platforms, it doesn't have to dramatically increase the overhead of a sales & fulfillment operation.

As for switching from selling wholesale to Amazon to Marketplace, it may actually result in a net increase in profits because it is probably likely that selling retail via FBA will get more money in the sellers' pockets than the wholesale cost.

It really would be nice if Amazon gave sellers more certainty in this process though. It sounds like details & timing have yet to be fully nailed down, and it's the type of change that a business should be given something like 6 months of advance notice.

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

#80

Post by criddell »

JohnFen wrote: post #43
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…

> Important to note that this "purge" is only for wholesale suppliers, not for marketplace sellers like the title implies. Yes, but I avoid the marketplace sellers. I've been burned too often with those -- if I'm going to roll the dice on that sort of thing, I'm better off with eBay.

I wish Amazon would let me set a flag to only return results for things sold by Amazon themselves.
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