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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

#221

Post by clairity »

Novukus wrote: post #133
clairity wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I don't know exactly what US anti-trust law says, but German anti-trust law also considers what kind of power you have over competitors and suppliers to decide whether you're behaving anti-competitively. We call it (roughly translated) "Law against constraint of competition". Amazon might qualify as abusing their position under our laws. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to get a case started if the relevant authori…

yes, we have similar kinds of rules, but i imagine the ones in germany have a little more tooth. we in the US just can't seem to punish corporations adequately for any antisocial behavior.

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

#222

Post by JeremyNT »

aeturnum wrote: post #52
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 think it's easy to describe why it's problematic without even referring to antitrust. Amazon's brand (as a store / marketplace) is that it helps you sort through many options to select the product they believe you will like the best. This is different from the service offered by traditional grocery stores which offer many different products, but are not arranging those products in relation to a particular request.…

> Amazon's brand (as a store / marketplace) is that it helps you sort through many options to select the product they believe you will like the best. This is different from the service offered by traditional grocery stores which offer many different products, but are not arranging those products in relation to a particular request.

Is that really true? Maybe once upon a time, but Amazon is the last place I turn to when trying to find a product that's suitable for purpose. As their marketplace has become a wasteland of cheap knock-offs and fake reviews, I find the only way to successfully use the site is to first find a product on an external review site (i.e. NYT's "Wirecutter") or search specifically only for brands I already know and limit the results to those sold directly from Amazon.

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

#223

Post by enos_feedler »

patd wrote: post #211
enos_feedler wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, Amazon helps me sort through many options to select the product that _I_ believe I will like best. I am not stupid. If I see an Amazon branded item I will obviously meet its placement with some kind of suspicion. In fact, I will dig a bit harder into the reviews. Do the batteries really last as long as some of the brand name ones? Let me see if it's worth the cheaper price. That sort of thing. Amazon can be t…

To your last point, to me, it feels that they try to hide their private labels. Some are named “Amazon XXX” but most are not: Solimo, Presto and countless clothing brands. I mostly realise that they are Amazon brands when I notice they are strongly pushed by Amazon’s algorithm.

That's interesting. Could the solution just be a requirement to disclose this more plainly?

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

#224

Post by nickm12 »

latortuga wrote: post #69
sevensor wrote: post #44

Amazon's own-brand goods are generally servicible from what I've seen. It puts them at a competitive advantage that their own items are quite unlikely to be counterfeit, while all other brands are subject to suspicion.

That's some pretty serious doublespeak. A huge portion of the problem of counterfeits is a result of Amazon's decision to comingle inventory.

Why do you believe that Amazon comingles inventory? Multiple sellers can sell under the same listing, but that is not the same thing as comingling inventory. Everything I've seen about Amazon fullfillment indicates that the product you are getting is the one provided by the seller you purchased from.

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

#225

Post by nullandvoid »

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.

Who said it was the only thing bought?

There was multiple items amazon decided not to bundle.

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

#226

Post by lenkite »

boardwaalk wrote: post #110
macspoofing wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I don’t see what’s wrong with this. I'm with you from an ideological perspective, but from a practical perspective living in the current world the way it is, they will get in trouble from either the American or European[1] regulatory bodies. And I'm surprised they don't get it. It's only a matter of time. It will take only one of their platform users or competitors to get fed-up and make a big stink (and there's alr…

I’m assuming they’ve done some sort of calculus. If you were cynical, you could say they’re pushing the bounds because they know they’ll get whacked for something eventually, even if just for owning a huge chunk of e-commerce (already the case). And if they are going to, why don’t they choose what that’ll be, and the thing that makes them hardly any money? I’m sure they’d be happy to pay basically nothing (what, use…

The EU competition law fine is capped at 10% of annual turnover of company. So I guess Amazon can hypothetically stand to loose 17 billion.

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

#227

Post by ghostpepper »

throwaway_USD wrote: post #219
ghostpepper wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why don't grocery stores get in trouble then? Do you need to be effective at forcing competitors out of the market or does simply the attempt make one guilty? Don't all businesses want to force their competitors out of the market? As an aside it does not surprise me at all when I learn that a law is not worded in a way that's congruent with the popular conception of the law.

>Why don't grocery stores get in trouble then? Because a grocery store selling white-label products isn't an unfair use of market position to force competitors out of the market. How many times has a grocery white-label cereal bankrupted a Cherrios or forced them out of the market? Alternatively, how many stores do you hear about vendors that launched a successful product (even a #1 selling product) only to have to c…

> No, complimentary and substitute products are healthy for the market place. Again go back to the grocery store, they don't want General Mills/Post going out of business, they want to fill their shelves with those products.

I don't think the grocery store and the cereal company are competitors in that case.

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

#228

Post by greyhair »

Live by the sword die by the sword.

A lot of small businesses got their start by leveraging the ubiquity of Amazon. Far cheaper than trying to roll your own services and also got a large set of eyes on their product.

Which is great until Amazon collects enough data to decide that it would be 'useful' to them to enter that same market.

So basically, you leverage Amazon to bootstrap your business, and Amazon uses your marketing experience and success to decide which markets to develop and enter.

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

#229

Post by greyhair »

greyhair wrote: post #228

Live by the sword die by the sword. A lot of small businesses got their start by leveraging the ubiquity of Amazon. Far cheaper than trying to roll your own services and also got a large set of eyes on their product. Which is great until Amazon collects enough data to decide that it would be 'useful' to them to enter that same market. So basically, you leverage Amazon to bootstrap your business, and Amazon uses your…

It makes me think of the small companies that completely outsource their hardware design and construction to Shenzhen, that are later shocked, shocked I tell you, to find the product on Alibaba for pennies on the dollar. Under about twelve different brand names.

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

#230

Post by greyhair »

Terretta wrote: post #218
jimnotgym wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Grocery stores (and all other brick-and-mortars) spend tons and tons of money and effort specifically arranging their stores And if I don't like Tesco I can go to Asda. If Tesco won't sell my product I can try and sell it to Sainsbury's or Waitrose. The equivalent with Amazon is "If I don't like Walmart, there is some guy with a market stall selling fish, another with apples, a store 5 miles away that has carrots...…

> you can’t be the marketplace and sell through that marketplace To be competitive, you can and you should. Amazon is a platform company. Platforms commoditize the complements. They didn’t have toys, so partner Toys’R’Us, didn’t have shoes, so partner Zappos, etc. As the platform, platforms observe transactions, such that through time, they can value complements and decide to co-exist, acquire, or compete. This is by…

Just as long as, being Zappos, if you sell through Amazon, expect Amazon branded shoes a couple months to years down the road.
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