Amazon’s New Competitive Advantage: Putting Its Own Products First • Hacker News Board

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

#121

Post by saltking112 » Mon, Jun 08, 2020, 9:37 PM UTC

Beached wrote: post #102

jdmichal wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I mean, Walmart is also mega huge, and also allows 3rd party sellers on their website. is it troublesome that Walmart also promotes their own items or the items where they make the most profit first?

Walmart eCommerce is relatively small, so not really comparable in terms of anti-trust concerns.

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

#122

Post by nojito » Mon, Jun 08, 2020, 9:37 PM UTC

dmoy wrote: post #10

nojito wrote: post #5

No different than when you go to the store and the store's brand products are at eye level and the name brands are lower on the shelf.

Me: nervously clutches the vast quantities of Kirkland house brand stuff at my place

One of the few exemptions. Costco takes the Kirkland brand very seriously because the most of their revenue comes from memberships.

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

#123

Post by nojito » Mon, Jun 08, 2020, 9:38 PM UTC

doener wrote: post #6

nojito wrote: post #5

No different than when you go to the store and the store's brand products are at eye level and the name brands are lower on the shelf.

Very different, because Amazon is mot one market, but THE market online in the Western World.

Source?

Amazon is barely holding on ~44% of the US eCommerce market.

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

#124

Post by d23 » Mon, Jun 08, 2020, 9:42 PM UTC

This becomes really problematic when you're searching for something, and Amazon place their brand item high in the listing despite not being what you're searching for. I've made a couple of mistaken purchases because I assumed the product had a feature it didn't have because it ranked near the top for a search for that exact feature. (Think "Disposable X," all of the non-amazon items are disposable, and Amazon's, despite being the first or second result).

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

#125

Post by airstrike » Mon, Jun 08, 2020, 9:42 PM UTC

ehh2heiddn wrote: post #49

nullandvoid wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Funny how people buy a single small item have it shipped to them then have the gall to complain about shipping waste.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGEAiUeiaKs

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

#126

Post by AnimalMuppet » Mon, Jun 08, 2020, 9:42 PM UTC

WalterBright wrote: post #87

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The antitrust case was about Microsoft giving away a free browser. Every operating system comes with a free browser. My phone comes with a free browser. My kindle comes with a free browser.

No. The antitrust case was about Microsoft using their control of the OS to push users to use Microsoft's browser.

The issue wasn't that Microsoft gave away IE for free. Netscape gave away Navigator for free, too. The issue was that Microsoft tried to "leverage" Windows to increase IE's market share.

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

#127

Post by dwighttk » Mon, Jun 08, 2020, 9:43 PM UTC

jchook wrote: post #75

Has anyone created a free and open source Amazon marketplace? It seems like something the world desperately needs.

huh... In my experience Amazon marketplace is like 10% "cool, that was a good product" and 90% "this is why I no longer trust Amazon"

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

#128

Post by snowwrestler » Mon, Jun 08, 2020, 9:45 PM UTC

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…

The difference between Amazon and traditional retailers with shelf space a la grocery stores is that grocery stores pay wholesale for the 3rd party products they put on their shelves. So when you see generic fexofenadine sitting next to name-brand Allegra in CVS, Sanofi already received payment for the name-brand bottles (or at least a commitment to pay, depending on net terms). The risk of selling them to consumers now falls on the store.

Amazon does not pay wholesale for items in its marketplace. In fact the marketplace was explicitly set up to be a logistics-only service and level playing field for anyone who joined. Now it's not, of course. Basically they pulled a bait-and-switch on their marketplace customers.

(Ironically, they also pulled a bait-and-switch on their first retail partners by signing exclusivity agreements, and then breaking them when they launched marketplace.)

This is also why Amazon struggles to fight counterfeit products. For most of the products you can buy on amazon.com, Amazon the company does not have buyers who can verify product quality and supply chain before placing a wholesale order. It's a logistical struggle made worse by a cultural struggle, i.e. they don't want to sell counterfeits but they also don't want to do any of the normal work that retailers do to prevent counterfeits.

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

#129

Post by sosuke » Mon, Jun 08, 2020, 9:48 PM UTC

miguelmota wrote: post #45

pinfisher wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>" 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...

I only see Google routers and cameras in that link. Can you provide a link to an actual Google Home or Google Nest Mini (Alexa competitor)?

Shrug, I see what you're saying but we can't be sure they are trying to list those items and are being told "no".

https://smile.amazon.com/stores/Google+Inc./page/080B7645-82...

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

#130

Post by saltking112 » Mon, Jun 08, 2020, 9:48 PM UTC

throwaway_USD wrote: post #114

saltking112 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So suppose Amazon shared sales/behavior data with other sellers/companies, such that everyone is competing on a even footing with regards to product research. Do you still think what Amazon is doing is anti-competative? In other words, if other well capitalized players had the same data, same ability to manufacture at the same scale, advertise etc... and Amazon's sole advantage is product placement, is it still probl…

>and Amazon's sole advantage is product placement, is it still problematic? Potentially, but stop focusing on the act and focus on the result. You brought up retailers and their shelf space. First no grocery store puts "Grocery Store O's" in a better placement than Cherrios...but fine lets assume they did. Does putting "Grocery Store O's" force Cherrios out of the market? No. However, seems to be no shortage of examp…

I agree that the results are important, but in the amazon vs third party vendor the difference between the two parties are large.

One is much better capitalized than the other and enjoy many cost advantages. On product and price alone, many consumers would choose Amazon, all else being equal, including product placement. In short, since we haven't seen Amazon crushing equally well capitalized and competent white-label players like Anker, Amazon is only out competing inefficient firms.

Similarly, Walmart's "Grocery Store O's" are competing against P&G, which is a equally well capitalized firm. That is, the Cereal market is efficient and competitive, and winners win through distribution and market positioning. This is why P&G O's aren't getting destroyed.

The results you are witnessing - smaller firms getting taken out, is just a phenomenon of competition. I suspect as consolidation takes place, many large firms like Anker will be able to offer competitive product at competitive prices vs. Amazon Basics.