Amazon Facing Anger Over Fees Hike For Third Party Traders

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Amazon Facing Anger Over Fees Hike For Third Party Traders

engine

6:47 pm on Mar 28, 2013 (gmt 0)

Oh, that's quite a hike in the rates.

Amazon is facing a revolt from small traders as the internet retailer that describes itself as "Earth's most customer-centric" company plans to impose a wave of fee hikes on third parties that use its network to sell consumer electronics, automotive parts and other goods in the UK and across Europe.

Trader fees on millions of electronic accessories listed on Amazon – including popular items such as memory cards, headphones and printer cartridges – will jump from 7% to 12% for the busiest traders in the UK and four other major European markets from 4 April, just after the Easter weekend.Amazon Facing Anger Over Fees Hike For Third Party Traders [guardian.co.uk]

HuskyPup

9:30 pm on Mar 28, 2013 (gmt 0)

Yet another US behemoth behaving like a petulant child simply because someone, somewhere, has demanded a "better bottom line" no matter what.

Gawd I feel sorry for these minions, I bet they actually believe they're in the real world:-)

oliondor

9:36 pm on Mar 28, 2013 (gmt 0)

I still wonder why these people like to depend on websites as Amazon or Ebay ?

Don't you do this business to be free ?

ChanandlerBong

10:13 pm on Mar 28, 2013 (gmt 0)

I can see the day approaching when they just get rid of the associates program too, that will cause ruptures.

They'll probably drop it to a flat 3% first.

ah, memories of when it was 15%!

skibum

4:01 am on Mar 29, 2013 (gmt 0)

They probably figure they'll make more money from the sellers by raising rates and if the sellers leave, Amazon has the sales data for top selling 3rd party products and will make more money selling them direct. Either way Amazon wins.

bwnbwn

9:37 am on Mar 29, 2013 (gmt 0)

Amazon has the sales data for top selling 3rd party products and will make more money selling them direct.

Not really top sellers go poof overnight and a new one takes its place. In this industry they need these small guys to do the burden of the work and provide the data Amazon needs to under sell when a top item moves in or out. Amazon provided a service to lure in the masses it worked and now what do they do pay up or get out, and leave all those man hours you invested to build this business. Either way it really sucks for these people.

nonstop

12:29 pm on Mar 29, 2013 (gmt 0)

Amazon are probably doing this so they can raise their own prices and make more profit. Probably because they know that they won't be able to get away with tax dodging for much longer! Also why would you shop at a tax dodging company?

dpd1

6:36 pm on Mar 29, 2013 (gmt 0)

Are you kidding? Dodging taxes is the American way. How do you think they got to be so big? lol

BaseballGuy

7:44 pm on Mar 29, 2013 (gmt 0)

I stopped using Amazon to sell clothing based items. Amazon has certain "rules" for images as well as things you cannot do when listing an item.

ALL (not a typo, I meant to say "ALL") of the big brands and other "big" Amazon 3rd party sellers were breaking the rules right and left. They never got a warning.

For the small guy, break one rule and they cancel your account.

As far as customer service is concerned, you get "Ackbar from India" who is obviously reading from an Amaazon approved script. It's so inefficient, it's not even funny.

Horrible to sell on Amazon as a 3rd party. Do not recommend at all to anyone.

ssgumby

8:56 pm on Mar 29, 2013 (gmt 0)

Ive been selling on amazon and have the complete opposite views. I break rules (unintentionally) and they simply warn me. Ive contacted their support and am always very impressed at how quick and efficient they are. Ive found issues with their product pages where another 3rd party has incorrectly listed, they research and make the change within 24 hours.

I dont depend on them, I use them as a marketing avenue. I try to drive business to my site and facebook page and have done very well with this. Using amazon as a marketing tool is the way to go, dont count on them as a source of orders simply use the orders to market yourself.

ecommerceprofit

1:53 pm on Apr 1, 2013 (gmt 0)

I try to drive business to my site and facebook page

ssgumby...you cannot do this...you will be kicked off eventually if you are ever audited by them...

ssgumby

3:03 pm on Apr 1, 2013 (gmt 0)

ssgumby...you cannot do this...you will be kicked off eventually if you are ever audited by them...

Actually this is not completely true. They have caught me once doing this (I suspect they audited me). We were putting flyers in the shipment offering a discount for coming directly to our site. I truly didn't know this was an issue until amazon contacted me. After working with Amazon, they were ok with me driving traffic to my site as long as I offered amazon checkout, which I implemented.

In addition, we get a lot of phone calls from amazon customers and our phone system drives people to our facebook page for discounts. Many customers who were calling just to inquire are happy to go to FB and get this discount.

ssgumby

4:55 pm on Apr 1, 2013 (gmt 0)

Let me clarify, they were not ok with me directing traffic to my site via flyers with discounts. They were ok with me having a packing slip in with my company name but only if I had amazon checkout.

ecommerceprofit

2:25 am on Apr 2, 2013 (gmt 0)

Interesting ssgumby...good info....but I still think you are playing with fire. Read the Amazon seller forums and dig around Google...there are a ton of horror stories. They shut down merchants without warning from what I have read...but if this is just icing on the cake for you...then you have nothing to lose.