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Amazon’s New Competitive Advantage: Putting Its Own Products First

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Re: Amazon’s New Competitive Advantage: Putting Its Own Products First

#31

Post by throwaway_USD »

saltedonion wrote: post #13

I don’t see what’s wrong with this. Many retailers reserve some of their best shelves paces for their private label products, both as a form of differentiation and to extract higher margins. You could argue that Amazon is unique in that it is large and potentially has a monopoly over eCommerce, but it is hard to say that in the end, consumers are on the loosing end. Most amazon basic products are commodities, and pri…

Under Anti-trust law Company A and Company B can do the same exact thing, but 1 Company may violate Anti-trust laws while the other doesn't.

>You could argue that Amazon is unique in that it is large and potentially has a monopoly over eCommerce, but it is hard to say that in the end, consumers are on the loosing end.

It is not about a "monopoly", under Anti-trust you can't unfairly leverage your market position to force others out of competition. That is clearly being done, and the entire body of Anti-trust law would disagree with you and say Amazon unfairly using its market position to kill competition (even if Amazon has a lower cost) is a detriment to consumers. In the eyes of Anti-trust law unfairly forcing competitors out of the market limits consumer choice which is always a detriment to consumers.

Re: Amazon’s New Competitive Advantage: Putting Its Own Products First

#32

Post by pinfisher »

miguelmota wrote: post #26

Is Amazon an open market? I can't buy Google Home products on Amazon so it appears that it's not an open market. If not an open market, then isn't it the same as a dealership promoting their own brand of cars first?

>" can't buy Google home products on Amazon"

Yes you can

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=google+home&rh=p_89%3AGoogle&dc&q...

Re: Amazon’s New Competitive Advantage: Putting Its Own Products First

#33

Post by clairity »

ChrisLomont wrote: post #28
Dahoon wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but it is hard to say that in the end, consumers are on the loosing end It's quite easy. Amazon is abusing its position to drive others out of business. They collect a lot of data and when someone finds a great selling product they move in and take over a big chunk of the market. That can and will hurt the customer. It should be illegal, as it actually is in some markets.

Amazon's share of the US retail market is too small to call them a monopoly there, and they hold around half of online retailing, again too small to be a monopoly, since there are ample places to get goods elsewhere. Until they're a legal monopoly in some suitable category, they are welcome to do this. One effect may drive amazon competitors to cater to all the sellers. And at any rate, to be the top spot Amazon has…

it's a mistake to only consider (perceived) market share (100%, 51%, or otherwise) as the primary metric of monopoly. it is, in fact, only one metric of many by which monopoly is judged.

being a platform business that competes directly with its business customers can be a significant (but not necessarily sufficient) indicator as well.

Re: Amazon’s New Competitive Advantage: Putting Its Own Products First

#34

Post by nullandvoid »

mikepurvis wrote: post #25
saltedonion wrote: post #13

I don’t see what’s wrong with this. Many retailers reserve some of their best shelves paces for their private label products, both as a form of differentiation and to extract higher margins. You could argue that Amazon is unique in that it is large and potentially has a monopoly over eCommerce, but it is hard to say that in the end, consumers are on the loosing end. Most amazon basic products are commodities, and pri…

I've found the "basics" products to be a little hit and miss, at least as far as electronics— USB cables, network hubs, and the like. However, one thing I really do like about them is the minimal packaging. So much other e-commerce stuff still arrives in retail-style blister packages, which is absurd.

My girlfriend had nail varnish delivered in ana Amazon box 30x30cm it was ridiculous! So I wouldn't be singing too many praises on their packaging stance

Re: Amazon’s New Competitive Advantage: Putting Its Own Products First

#35

Post by saltking112 »

throwaway_USD wrote: post #31
saltedonion wrote: post #13

I don’t see what’s wrong with this. Many retailers reserve some of their best shelves paces for their private label products, both as a form of differentiation and to extract higher margins. You could argue that Amazon is unique in that it is large and potentially has a monopoly over eCommerce, but it is hard to say that in the end, consumers are on the loosing end. Most amazon basic products are commodities, and pri…

Under Anti-trust law Company A and Company B can do the same exact thing, but 1 Company may violate Anti-trust laws while the other doesn't. >You could argue that Amazon is unique in that it is large and potentially has a monopoly over eCommerce, but it is hard to say that in the end, consumers are on the loosing end. It is not about a "monopoly", under Anti-trust you can't unfairly leverage your market position to f…

but some industries clearly needs economies of scale in order to provide the consumer with cheaper and better products.

Can you truly argue just because a firm is large they are no longer allowed to offer the same product for cheaper simply because they have a strong foothold in distribution?

Re: Amazon’s New Competitive Advantage: Putting Its Own Products First

#36

Post by AnimalMuppet »

radiator wrote: post #4

Reading this, one gets the feeling that Amazon advertise their products on some sort of public place, and that this is perhaps not right. But in reality they simply own the whole thing and it is perfectly reasonable to do however they want.

I refer you to the Microsoft antitrust case. Microsoft owned the desktop OS, and was using that to give preference to IE. That... didn't fly. Using a monopoly in one area to gain market share in another area is in fact an antitrust violation.

Re: Amazon’s New Competitive Advantage: Putting Its Own Products First

#38

Post by jcheng »

dmoy wrote: post #14
Fauntleroy wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh definitely, if you ignore the whole monopoly aspect.

Doesn't Amazon have like less than 40% of US online retail, and less than 10% of US retail total? I guess rephrasing, what's the definition of monopoly here?

Monopoly is the wrong word but I think Elizabeth Warren made a good case for why similar regulation is needed for very large, powerful platforms today (regardless if you agree with her proposed solution).

https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/9/18257965/elizabeth-warren-...

Re: Amazon’s New Competitive Advantage: Putting Its Own Products First

#39

Post by JumpCrisscross »

saltking112 wrote: post #35
throwaway_USD wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Under Anti-trust law Company A and Company B can do the same exact thing, but 1 Company may violate Anti-trust laws while the other doesn't. >You could argue that Amazon is unique in that it is large and potentially has a monopoly over eCommerce, but it is hard to say that in the end, consumers are on the loosing end. It is not about a "monopoly", under Anti-trust you can't unfairly leverage your market position to f…

but some industries clearly needs economies of scale in order to provide the consumer with cheaper and better products. Can you truly argue just because a firm is large they are no longer allowed to offer the same product for cheaper simply because they have a strong foothold in distribution?

> some industries clearly needs economies of scale in order to provide the consumer with cheaper and better products

This isn't an economy of scale.

The component that has scale is distribution. A third-party seller selling through Amazon gets those advantages the same as Amazon. What's different is the sourcing and manufacturing of the product.

Amazon has an edge. But it's not one of economies of scale.

Re: Amazon’s New Competitive Advantage: Putting Its Own Products First

#40

Post by jdmichal »

saltking112 wrote: post #35
throwaway_USD wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Under Anti-trust law Company A and Company B can do the same exact thing, but 1 Company may violate Anti-trust laws while the other doesn't. >You could argue that Amazon is unique in that it is large and potentially has a monopoly over eCommerce, but it is hard to say that in the end, consumers are on the loosing end. It is not about a "monopoly", under Anti-trust you can't unfairly leverage your market position to f…

but some industries clearly needs economies of scale in order to provide the consumer with cheaper and better products. Can you truly argue just because a firm is large they are no longer allowed to offer the same product for cheaper simply because they have a strong foothold in distribution?

It's not about being scaled. It's about using your scale in one place to force scaling in another. If Amazon provides a marketplace, where people pay them to list and sell products, then using the strong position of that marketplace product to then leverage and scale up their own products is potentially troublesome.
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