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(Amazon seller/manufacturer here) What happens is that Amazon suppresses your listing from search so you don't get exposure. Think about it this way, Amazon i

(Amazon seller/manufacturer here) What happens is that Amazon suppresses your listing from search so you don't get exposure. Think about it this way, Amazon is customer-centric, so when it delivers search results it's implicitly saying "hey this is the relevant item at the best price per your search term". If it can't back that up then it'll often give a product substitute that is the best price. IIRC, they got in trouble for this earlier this year for outright suppressing listings and had to back down a bit from this - instead of suppressing the listing wholesale you just get low traffic instead.

theturtletalks 7y ago
Amazon was built on the backs of 3rd party sellers. Amazon used them and these sellers are finally migrating to their own backends like Shopify or Woocommerce to build their business, not help Amazon build theirs. It's atrocious how Amazon is punishing them for this.
- binarysolo 7y ago
  That was the whole game they played though, by design -- 3P sellers were partially meant as a prospecting tool for long tail product coverage in the marketplace, and when they found a product good enough now Amazon dips their toes in the pool and competes with them. Some of the unfairness lies in that with the same-ish offerings, Amazon's search will favor the Amazon offerings - FBA instead of 3P shipping, Amazon.com as seller vs third party when the price/shipping is same, etc., but otherwise I think a lot of other things people complain about (cloning products and approaching manufacturers to cut off middlemen) are reasonably OK features meant to benefit customers. As a manufacturer and 3P vendor I kinda made my peace with Amazon on that I guess...
  - theturtletalks 7y ago
    Yep, Amazon didn't do anything wrong, but when sellers catch on and want to own their actionable data and build their own operations, Amazon should let them. Locking them in further is not right. I was one of those sellers and now I'm working on an opensource solution to help sellers migrate and not be dependent on Amazon FBA alone.
    - jjeaff 7y ago
      Everyone just needs to beat Amazon at their own game and do what many people are doing as 3p sellers and setup their Amazon presence under and different name and possibly even a different LLC. If your 3p seller account is an "authorized distributor" of your product, then Amazon has no power to require that your website sell the product for the same or more money.
      - ikeboy 7y ago
        They're not requiring it. They just suppress the buybox if they see a cheaper offer, regardless of who's selling it.
  - Bombthecat 7y ago
    What is 3p?
    - zootm 7y ago
      “Third party”. In this case it just means “not Amazon”.
    - Corrado 7y ago
      3p == 3rd Party Seller.
- stale2002 7y ago
  Why do 3rd party sellers matter? They are just middlemen. It is a good thing that they are going away. It results in power prices for consumers.
  - themagician 7y ago
    It won’t result in lower prices. The middlemen are the ones who are responsible for the low prices.
    - theturtletalks 7y ago
      Exactly. Competition is what leads to lower prices. Getting rid of the middlemen and just having Amazon would lead to them having full control of what the price should be.
  - bballer 7y ago
    That's not a truism. If manufacturers only sell DTC (direct to consumer) and don't allow third party sellers to compete they do so for two reasons, price control and brand control. The lack of competition between third party sellers allows them to sell at any price the market will bare since they are the only ones you can buy the product from. When third party sellers can distribute/sell the product as well and there is no enforced MAP (minimum allowed price) it leads to a race to who is willing to accept the smallest margins on the sales, which in turn makes it purely a who can do the most volume with the best marketing. This actually results in the lowest prices for consumers.
    - stale2002 7y ago
      > allows them to sell at any price the market will bare since This doesn't make any sense though, as an argument. If I am selling to 3rd parties, it is also true that I can set whatever price I want. So, if I set the price to 5$, no 3rd party will be reselling my product below 5$. So I can still set the price...
      - wutbrodo 7y ago
- Bombthecat 7y ago
  Why is Google allowed to suppress sites, while amazon shouldn't? Or out sites on the third page where no one goes...

theturtletalks 7y ago

Amazon was built on the backs of 3rd party sellers. Amazon used them and these sellers are finally migrating to their own backends like Shopify or Woocommerce to build their business, not help Amazon build theirs. It's atrocious how Amazon is punishing them for this.

binarysolo 7y ago
That was the whole game they played though, by design -- 3P sellers were partially meant as a prospecting tool for long tail product coverage in the marketplace, and when they found a product good enough now Amazon dips their toes in the pool and competes with them. Some of the unfairness lies in that with the same-ish offerings, Amazon's search will favor the Amazon offerings - FBA instead of 3P shipping, Amazon.com as seller vs third party when the price/shipping is same, etc., but otherwise I think a lot of other things people complain about (cloning products and approaching manufacturers to cut off middlemen) are reasonably OK features meant to benefit customers. As a manufacturer and 3P vendor I kinda made my peace with Amazon on that I guess...
- theturtletalks 7y ago
  Yep, Amazon didn't do anything wrong, but when sellers catch on and want to own their actionable data and build their own operations, Amazon should let them. Locking them in further is not right. I was one of those sellers and now I'm working on an opensource solution to help sellers migrate and not be dependent on Amazon FBA alone.
  - jjeaff 7y ago
    Everyone just needs to beat Amazon at their own game and do what many people are doing as 3p sellers and setup their Amazon presence under and different name and possibly even a different LLC. If your 3p seller account is an "authorized distributor" of your product, then Amazon has no power to require that your website sell the product for the same or more money.
    - ikeboy 7y ago
      They're not requiring it. They just suppress the buybox if they see a cheaper offer, regardless of who's selling it.
- Bombthecat 7y ago
  What is 3p?
  - zootm 7y ago
    “Third party”. In this case it just means “not Amazon”.
  - Corrado 7y ago
    3p == 3rd Party Seller.
stale2002 7y ago
Why do 3rd party sellers matter? They are just middlemen. It is a good thing that they are going away. It results in power prices for consumers.
- themagician 7y ago
  It won’t result in lower prices. The middlemen are the ones who are responsible for the low prices.
  - theturtletalks 7y ago
    Exactly. Competition is what leads to lower prices. Getting rid of the middlemen and just having Amazon would lead to them having full control of what the price should be.
- bballer 7y ago
  That's not a truism. If manufacturers only sell DTC (direct to consumer) and don't allow third party sellers to compete they do so for two reasons, price control and brand control. The lack of competition between third party sellers allows them to sell at any price the market will bare since they are the only ones you can buy the product from. When third party sellers can distribute/sell the product as well and there is no enforced MAP (minimum allowed price) it leads to a race to who is willing to accept the smallest margins on the sales, which in turn makes it purely a who can do the most volume with the best marketing. This actually results in the lowest prices for consumers.
  - stale2002 7y ago
    > allows them to sell at any price the market will bare since This doesn't make any sense though, as an argument. If I am selling to 3rd parties, it is also true that I can set whatever price I want. So, if I set the price to 5$, no 3rd party will be reselling my product below 5$. So I can still set the price...
    - wutbrodo 7y ago
Bombthecat 7y ago
Why is Google allowed to suppress sites, while amazon shouldn't? Or out sites on the third page where no one goes...