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Why Amazon.com associates can’t make money even when Amazon does

artymiak.com

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Re: Why Amazon.com associates can’t make money even when Amazon does

#21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to cut Amazon some slack there. They have to deal with all kinds of stupid regulations that demand different compensations to copyright collectives whether e.g. Amazon.de sends a memory card to a visitor from Germany or Austria (or elsewhere) and the fact that they have merchants listed in their marketplaces from other countries than the marketplace itself (so the greedy copyright collectives from that other…

VAT and sales tax is something that kills businesses. It is a tax specifically designed to be punitive and it is a major stumbling block in growing a business.

VAT exists only because greedy, inefficient governments could tax everyone (esp. lower incomes) easily with it. It seems most unfair to online retailers, because they usually only earn a fraction of the government's cut per sale (around here: typically 1/4th for electronics, i.e. 20% VAT, 5% merchants' margin).

Re: Why Amazon.com associates can’t make money even when Amazon does

#22
Amazon KDP Authors have trouble making the money they seem to be promised as well: even though my novel is available for sale through every Amazon.com website, and even though I'm supposed to receive a 70% (minus "delivery fees") royalty on sales in every market, I routinely have 15-20% of my sales in the US store get marked down to a 30% royalty. The explanation appears to be that these are sales from outside the US made on the Amazon.com website, but I fail to understand why that should affect my royalty rates. So Amazon's strange compartmentalization is at fault again. The net effect is that my actual royalty rate drops to about 64% of the sale price. This isn't a huge drop, but it certainly feels sneaky especially when apps sold through Apple net me the full 70% I'm promised every time.
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