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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

#141

Post by leeoniya »

ineedasername wrote: post #79
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.

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 leas…

> 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.

FBA is not a prerequisite for Prime eligibility. We sell on Amazon via Seller-Fulfilled Prime. They have pretty strict time tables for fulfillment to maintain eligibility, and you have to print your shipment labels through Seller Central, though you can link your own UPS account so not to pay extra fees.

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

#142

Post by mrfusion »

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.

How do you avoid them?

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

#143

Post by traek »

jdeibele wrote: post #138
Trilkhai wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USPS has increased its shipping prices quite a bit in the last several years, enough that I can (unfortunately) easily see it costing $9.99 or even more to send a box set of DVDs. Try checking the USPS shipping calculator, you might be surprised at the results.

You're generally right but DVDs (and books and CDs) can go media mail and that's very cheap. Like $3 for 3 pounds. I was selling off some old PC Magazines and Bytes from when I was a teenager and was surprised that magazines aren't supposed to be shipped via media mail since they've got advertisements in them.

> USPS Priority Mail for $9.99

Priority Mail != Media Mail

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

#144

Post by dralley »

dirkg wrote: post #82
knd775 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

FBA is very very different from being sold by Amazon. Its a cancerous scheme that charges ridiculously high 15% fees for the privilege of being listed on Amazon.

It's cancerous, but in the same way that Apple/Google/Valve charging (even higher) margins to allow software on their storefront is cancerous. We should fix this problem universally.

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

#145

Post by JumpCrisscross »

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…

> To bypass the pay/nag wall

Why Outline over the Internet Archive [1]? The Archive is a non-profit with a decent privacy policy and identifiable leadership. Outline is an anonymous entity of unknown organisation with unknown motives.

[1] https://archive.org

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

#146

Post by rileymat2 »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #145
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…

> To bypass the pay/nag wall Why Outline over the Internet Archive [1]? The Archive is a non-profit with a decent privacy policy and identifiable leadership. Outline is an anonymous entity of unknown organisation with unknown motives. [1] https://archive.org

Why use Internet Archive bandwidth when an alternative is there?

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

#147

Post by JumpCrisscross »

rileymat2 wrote: post #146
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To bypass the pay/nag wall Why Outline over the Internet Archive [1]? The Archive is a non-profit with a decent privacy policy and identifiable leadership. Outline is an anonymous entity of unknown organisation with unknown motives. [1] https://archive.org

Why use Internet Archive bandwidth when an alternative is there?

> Why use Internet Archive bandwidth when an alternative is there?

Outline looks sketchy. Its privacy policy allows for disclosure to analytics companies "or when Outline believes in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of Outline, third parties or the public at large" [1]. (TL; DR Whenever, too whomever.) It explicitly considers business transfers, implying for-profit motives.

We don't know where it's incorporated. We don't know what kind of entity it is, nor to whom its beholden. We don't even know who is in charge nor how they're incentivized.

The Archives is run by honest people. If you don't like using their resources without compensation, donate to them. (Or, better yet, pay for the journalism you value.)

Outline is a lousy attempt at infringement for unknown gain by unknown people, a passable MITM.

[1] https://www.outline.com/privacy.html

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

#148

Post by JumpCrisscross »

magduf wrote: post #109
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…

>It's kinda hard to see how Amazon won't eventually collide with antitrust forces at some point. Where did you get this idea? I don't see how Amazon, or anyone else for that matter, could ever run afoul of "antitrust forces" in the US, because there's simply no such thing in America any more. America hasn't enforced antitrust law in ages. They might have problems in other countries, but the US is by far their largest…

> America hasn't enforced antitrust law in ages

A lot of American antitrust enforcement is private. Witness, for instance, the recent Apple Inc. v. Pepper [1].

(We need more public enforcement. But claiming we have no antitrust enforcement is false.)

[1] https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/apple-v-pepper/

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

#149

Post by achow »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #145
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…

> To bypass the pay/nag wall Why Outline over the Internet Archive [1]? The Archive is a non-profit with a decent privacy policy and identifiable leadership. Outline is an anonymous entity of unknown organisation with unknown motives. [1] https://archive.org

On August 4, 2014, Topolsky (co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Verge) stepped down from The Verge and Vox Media to join Bloomberg "as the editor of a series of new online ventures it is introducing as part of a revamped journalism strategy". He left Bloomberg in July 2015 after clashes with Michael Bloomberg over the direction of its digital media strategy and started the digital news company The Outline.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Topolsky

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

#150

Post by JumpCrisscross »

achow wrote: post #149
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To bypass the pay/nag wall Why Outline over the Internet Archive [1]? The Archive is a non-profit with a decent privacy policy and identifiable leadership. Outline is an anonymous entity of unknown organisation with unknown motives. [1] https://archive.org

On August 4, 2014, Topolsky (co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Verge) stepped down from The Verge and Vox Media to join Bloomberg "as the editor of a series of new online ventures it is introducing as part of a revamped journalism strategy". He left Bloomberg in July 2015 after clashes with Michael Bloomberg over the direction of its digital media strategy and started the digital news company The Outline. https:/…

Thank you for the link. From the Wikipedia article on Outline:

“In March 27, 2019, it was announced that Bryan Goldberg and his company Bustle Digital Media had bought The Outline” [1].

So a VC-backed site got acquired by a publisher whose customers are advertisers. Meanwhile, Bloomberg’s “nag wall” is neutered with incognito mode. Outline remains, to me, to be a terrible trade-off.

[1] https://www.vox.com/2019/3/27/18284591/bustle-outline-bryan-...

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