Amazon is a hypocrite.
Amazon sets rules that sellers on its platform must follow.
Images must be a certain way. No contact info on your Amazon listing. And no influencing the reviews of your product.
The problem is that Amazon violates its own rules.
“Backgrounds must be pure white (RGB 255,255,255).”
Unless you’re AmazonBasics
amazon.com/AmazonBasics-W…
“The image must not contain additional text, graphics, or inset images.”
But it’s okay if you’re selling Fire Sticks.
amazon.com/Fire-TV-Stick-…
Alexa what does “The image must not contain gratuitous or confusing additional objects.” and “All other products should fill 85% or more of the image frame.” mean?
amazon.com/Echo-Dot-3rd-G…
“None of the following are allowed in product detail page titles, descriptions, bullet points, or images: Phone numbers, addresses, e-mail addresses, or website URLs.”
This one gets double points for the “prime, but shipping in 1-2 days” delivery date.
amazon.com/Amazon-Brand-S…
What happens if you leave a 1 star review on an Amazon owned product? You get contacted by an Amazon representative! Under normal circumstances this is good customer service except Amazon sellers are not allowed to do this and don’t have the contact info. h/t @liranhirschkorn
There are 10s of 1000s of other products just like this, sold by Amazon, made by Amazon, which violate Amazon’s own rules.
Why is that a problem?
It gives Amazon an unfair edge. At any time, Amazon can use the rules to take out a competitor or just capture more sales.
Two days ago, Amazon, without giving us any notification or warning, suppressed 27 of our products from Amazon search. We lost 2 days of sales for 27 products because we put our packaging tag in the main photo. How is that a ban-worthy offense when Amazon does it themselves?
When you’re a trillion dollar company, you need to hold yourself to higher standards than this. You shouldn’t be unfairly competing with small businesses when you’re already milking them for every dollar through high commission fees and sponsored ads.
And doing these pointless banning of products just harms customers who get less choice.
@Amazon needs to clean up its act. @danperlet @davehclark
Learn more about Amazon's practices here:
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