sources: Number 1 – Introducing (SBA) sold by Amazon
Sold by Amazon was in an invite only testing phase earlier this year and has now become live for US sellers and no doubt the rest of the Amazon network very soon.
So what is SBA? SBA allows third party sellers who sell their products via FBA and are brand registered to allow Amazon control over pricing of their products
Amazon agrees a bottom line profit margin and then takes control over your pricing ensuring you are always winning the buy box.
According to Amazon brand health index, price competitiveness is Amazons number 1 standard that Amazon uses for performance of brands and sellers, the SBA service is aimed at allowing Amazon to always have the cheapest price on your products over companies such as Walmart or your own e commerce website
the concern from many is this is yet another way to get sellers hooked on Amazon and as we have seen so many times before the bigger you get on Amazon the more dependant you become on them, then they hit you with the bigger charges and by then its too late to pull your brand of the platform without taking a massive hit in sales.
Number 2 – Amazon sets its lawers on the Gurus
We have all seen their ads on youtube and facebook and many sellers would have been drawn into becoming an Amazon seller by the promises of “get rich quick with Amazon” and “in my course we reveal the top secret way to win on Amazon”
Unfortunately like any business selling on Amazon isnt a get rich quick scheme and these Gurus promise a lot, charge a lot for their courses and there are countless people who have been left with a big hole in their finances with little to show.
Well it seems Amazon has had enough! Or atleast enough of the gurus taking their name and abusing the Amazon platform.
Two Californian men are being taken to court for their scheme of fake reviews, dishonest marketing and infringing the Amazon trademark and logos.
In court papers served to the two gurus amazon said
“Defendants improperly exploit Amazon’s name, intellectual property, and reputation to sell their get-rich-quick scheme to unwitting entrepreneurs around the country,”
“These victims pay up to tens of thousands of dollars to Defendants based on Defendants’ false portrayal of an affiliation with Amazon, relying on these misrepresentations to start a business selling on Amazon.”
The two men are accused of charging upto $10,000 for courses on how to game the system when selling on Amazon
The two men run a review exchange system with their students which is something Amazon has a real problem with as of late as fake reviews are undermining the Amazon platform which leads us onto our next story....
Number 3 – Amazon reportedly failing to crack down on fake reviews
Which? A consumer action group has spoken out against Amazons lack of action on fake reviews this month.
Their investigation showed a number of products from unknown chinese brands with exceptionally high score for their products on Amazon.
A lot of these products had suspiciously repetitive phrases in their reviews and had higher ratings than those products from familiar brands in the same category.
When Which? Tested 8 of these products in the electrical catergory they all failed to meet even the basic performance tests
Number 4 – making a profit from self published blank books on amazon kindle
In a great article on Money.com link in the description along with sources for all of today's news. Its revealed how people are selling blank paged books such as notebooks and journals on under Amazons kindle direct publishing platform
Now some of these are print on demand books such as mazes or puzzle books and some of these are just downloadable but there does seem to be money to made in this very novel idea.
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