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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

#161

Post by dalbasal »

liotier wrote: post #160
_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.

> [eBay] stayed remarkable true to their mission Having used eBay since its early days, I stopped when they lost their focus on auctions and became just another platform. Now I have to bother with market research to set a fixed price - much more hassle than auctioning at zero Euros and letting the market find the optimum price (only works in liquid categories though). I understand that the mass market finds auctions…

Auctioning the way eBay originally did it is usually sensible where items are unique. Used/vintage stuff, one-offs and rarities, opportunist-oriented bundles...

Selling toilet paper, or USB cables with that sort of bidding model doesn't work. I mean, prices don't need to fixed either. A dynamic bidding system of some sort (eg AdWords auctions) is definitely an interesting idea. But, to be the place where you ship for regular stuff it needs to be lower overhead for the buyer.

That's nothing against eBay's original mission. They did do (not anymore? I haven't tried in years) that job pretty well. I suspect it's still an awesome place to buy a proverbial broken radio.

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

#162

Post by yowlingcat »

_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.

Yeah, I've continued to use eBay to make some of the higher ticket purchases I used to make on Amazon. If you want to buy something quality used, it's hard to find an alternative, and frankly, buying something that's high quality and used is one of the best ways to make a purchase (IE instruments, clothing).

Ebay's been good to me for nigh on 20 years, and it's not because everything is perfect quality. It's rather that, unlike Amazon, they don't try to hide and commingle differing quality items. Counterfeiting is still a problem, but giving negative feedback is still possible and it seems still encouraged in cases where it's warranted, and that makes the marketplace dynamics actually even out at scale. This is in stark comparison to Amazon, and it makes me trust eBay aggregate feedback scores much more on the whole.

I'll use Amazon for low-risk purchases, but otherwise, I'll find another retailer these days. The risk of something going awry and receiving poor after purchase support is too high.

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

#163

Post by ineedasername »

leeoniya wrote: post #141
ineedasername wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 th…

Sure, provided you already have your own fulfillment operation set up for other sales channels that's an excellent way to get the best of both worlds.

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

#164

Post by sutterbomb »

JohnFen wrote: post #118
derefr wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's about whose balance sheet the stock is on. If Amazon buys an iPhone, and then lists it for sale on the Amazon store, that's Amazon's iPhone. If Amazon doesn't manage to sell it, Amazon has lost money. If Amazon does sell it, they capture the profit margin between the price they bought it at, and the price they sold it at. Apple, who sold Amazon the iPhone originally, has no further business relationship with the…

Thank you. I actually do understand how consignment works, but I truly appreciate your completeness and the time you put into explaining this to me. I guess what gets me confused is two things -- first, I thought that the only things that Amazon didn't sell on a consignment basis were things that actually carried Amazon branding. Second, the article seems to imply something a bit different than what you're explaining…

Nobody has full described what's going on, so let me try. There are four categories of things sold on Amazon:

- A) Amazon house brands

- B) Amazon retail

- C) 3rd party seller, fulfilled by Amazon (FBA)

- D) 3rd party seller, fulfilled by Merchant (FBM)

Amazon house brands are the things like Amazon Basics, or a host of other brands that are owned by them even though they're not explicitly labeled as such. Retail is the traditional retail model described by last user, Amazon buys inventory from other companies and then handles sales & fulfillment. FBA is sort of the consignment model, where Amazon doesn't own the inventory but they handle fulfillment. FBM is basically the Ebay model - Amazon is just facilitating the marketplace, taking customer payment etc, but the merchant is responsible for shipping/logistics.

They're going to scale back the number of companies they buy from for retail (B), and those companies will have to use C or D or stop selling on Amazon altogether.

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

#165

Post by derefr »

sutterbomb wrote: post #164
JohnFen wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you. I actually do understand how consignment works, but I truly appreciate your completeness and the time you put into explaining this to me. I guess what gets me confused is two things -- first, I thought that the only things that Amazon didn't sell on a consignment basis were things that actually carried Amazon branding. Second, the article seems to imply something a bit different than what you're explaining…

Nobody has full described what's going on, so let me try. There are four categories of things sold on Amazon: - A) Amazon house brands - B) Amazon retail - C) 3rd party seller, fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) - D) 3rd party seller, fulfilled by Merchant (FBM) Amazon house brands are the things like Amazon Basics, or a host of other brands that are owned by them even though they're not explicitly labeled as such. Retail is…

Interestingly, those companies could also switch to A: offer their services as a white-label manufacturer for Amazon to produce goods in that same vertical they were previously retailing in.

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

#166

Post by JohnFen »

dawnerd wrote: post #132
rootusrootus wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> I can't reliably best Amazon prices by going to eBay, I have to go somewhere like Walmart. reply A lot of eBay sellers actually source from Walmart. I have. I works pretty great... sometimes. Just gotta be quick about getting their clearance items or pricing mistakes.

I intentionally refuse to do business with Walmart. That I may be unintentionally helping them to make money bothers me.

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

#167

Post by notatoad »

odiroot wrote: post #105
notatoad wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

is ebay considered one of the "big tech" companies? maybe they were at one point, but their market cap is at least an order of magnitude smaller than any of the FAANG companies

Why do we put Netflix in there anyway? Seems eBay is actually a better fit with the crowd.

FAANG is a much better acronym than FAAG

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

#168

Post by dawnerd »

JohnFen wrote: post #166
dawnerd wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can't reliably best Amazon prices by going to eBay, I have to go somewhere like Walmart. reply A lot of eBay sellers actually source from Walmart. I have. I works pretty great... sometimes. Just gotta be quick about getting their clearance items or pricing mistakes.

I intentionally refuse to do business with Walmart. That I may be unintentionally helping them to make money bothers me.

Better watch out for third party sellers on Amazon then too. I know of a few people that source from Walmart specifically for FBA.
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