The problem is that they comingle authentic products from brands with fakes from 3ps. You never know which it is you are buying.
Comingling increases sales on their platform, but encourages fraud. They need to stop comingling but won't until they are shut down by regulators because it decreases their turnover.
I'd be fine with 3rd party sellers if I could simply ignore them. When I can't trust stuff "sold by Amazon" if third parties also sell it, though...
You express skepticism that this really is a significant problem. Okay. Which you back up with arguments that the problem is: longstanding (has been a "feature" since 3P mtk launched years ago with no sign of a solution), and it's potentially vast (3P mkt stocks "hundreds of millions of items"), and probably unsolvable ("3P sellers are a NECESSITY for Amazon".)
So I'll guess that the downvoting had something to do with your thesis sentence.
http://www.statista.com/graphic/1/266282/annual-net-revenue-...
If this was a serious problem wouldn't their be some noticeable effect? Possibilities:
• Anecdotal complaints aren't representative of overall customer experience
• Customers are willing to deal with the hassle of returning the occasional counterfeit item but it doesn't stop them from buying on Amazon
Their decision to turn a blind eye to fraud could easily have contributed to such a rapid growth rate. Of course their sales doubled; you have to buy two of everything in order to get one that works. Try buying car parts or batteries and you'll see what we're all bitching about.
The noticeable effect hasn't happened yet. Eventually consumers will catch on. People avoid the Dollar Store because the products, while brand-name and cheap, are noticeably subpar in quality. Amazon will develop a similar reputation if they keep this up.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-fastest-growing-re...
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/01/16/ulta-dollar-...
"I bought some unspecified item on Amazon and as far as I could tell, it wasn't a counterfeit" is just as much the anecdote you are hastily generalizing the other viewpoint of.
> Customers are willing to deal with the hassle of returning the occasional counterfeit item but it doesn't stop them from buying on Amazon
You keep saying that you're skeptical, but so far most of your points have been neutral or defending the existence of counterfeit products (not refuting their existence), defending Amazon selling them (not refuting Amazon sells them), but in all cases you claim to be skeptical but not really back up your skepticism with any actual skepticism or counter facts.
So what's replacing their tax "avoidance" ? Bezos is done cheating the government, and of course now he's cheating his customers.
(sorry but I have very little respect for a man who is known to steal the businesses of his customers [1], and of course there's how he's (attempting to) use his customers as a weapon against Google [2])
[1] https://www.inc.com/stacey-macnaught/amazon-is-stealing-your...
All over this thread? All over the web?
"Are people canceling Prime accounts?" Multiple people in this thread have said they had
"Are revenues down?" Is that the driving factor of whether a business practice is moral/legal ?
Why are these anecdotes worth so much when other all available evidence (revenues, etc.) is to the contrary.
The original discussion was about whether:
> [product counterfeiting] is a major problem for amazon
When someone shows you who they are, believe them.
I'm pretty sure that if someone were to sell a counterfeited copy of a best seller, his store would be shut down in a matter of hours and his account closed forever. But a small store selling stuff difficult to find? They are doing them a service, almost.
Like everything else, there are rules against counterfeiting, but the enforcement should strike a balance for the overall wellbeing of the marketplace...
Edit: huh, this got downvoted too... First rule of fight club is we do not talk about fight club?
FWIW, there are multiple points in the guidelines your comment crosses.
"Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation... Assume good faith."
"Eschew flamebait."
"Please don't post shallow dismissals"
"Please don't comment about the voting on comments."
If you want to upvote someone, upvote them. If you want to reply, add something of value to the discussion.
I hear this over and over but where's the evidence that this is true on a significant scale? Sellers have been counterfeiting and selling knock-off garbage on Amazon since the 3rd-party marketplaces launched.
3P sellers are a NECESSITY for Amazon. They source and stock the hundreds of millions of long tail items that Amazon themselves can't/won't. For Amazon the benefits of 3P sellers far outweigh the costs.
Edit: Who's downvoting this and why?