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A comment on Amazon Is Quietly Eliminating List Prices. Parent comment

Re:Amazon Is Quietly Eliminating List Prices by devit on Tuesday July 05, 2016 @08:33AM (#12035918)
Would it be too costly for Amazon to just employ people to review most or all of their products, and maybe even rebrand the best products under its own brand where the seller agrees?

It would dramatically increase the quality of their store and brand, and it benefits from economies of scale.

Assuming they pay $100 for an high quality review, then a $10 item would increase by only 1 cent if at least 10000 are sold, which seem reasonable conditions.

For categories with many very similar items, reviews should be cheaper since a standard review procedure could be designed and applied quickly, offsetting the lower sales per items.

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Re:Amazon Is Quietly Eliminating List Prices by corobo on Tuesday July 05, 2016 @11:28AM (#12037074)
They do. Sort of. Amazon Vine is the system you're looking for, I don't believe the reviewer gets paid directly but they do get the thing they've reviewed for free (presumably they could then go on to sell on Ebay or indeed Amazon itself). Amazon also points out it was a Vine review when you're scrolling through which is great as it means you can more easily ignore the biased reviews.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/vine/help

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Re:Amazon Is Quietly Eliminating List Prices by hexane360 on Tuesday July 05, 2016 @12:48PM (#12037746)
Oh, I always assumed those were funded by the seller. It's good to know they're a third party to the whole exchange. I'll pay attention to these next time.
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