We have a love-hate relationship with private labeling. On the one hand it has allowed many sellers launch their own brands, and thus move beyond reselling. But on the other hand private labeling done at scale is ruining Amazon's catalog.
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Over 21,000 scam sellers were detected in the last 12 months. Those sellers on Amazon.com collectively received close to one million negative reviews. Since not all customers leave a seller review - even if the experience was bad - the number of orders affected by this issue is undoubtedly even larger. Amazon has so far not taken any action, which is arguably disappointing.
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We found that out of the Top 100,000 Amazon.com sellers, just 283 have committed to the program. Meaning for majority of the products they offer Prime shipping, and the shipping is not done by FBA. Seller Fulfilled Prime (SFP) launched in 2015 allows marketplace sellers to offer Prime two-day shipping without using Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA).
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The estimated nearly $2 billion in unpaid 2016 state sales tax from FBA sellers was calculated through a study based on thousands of products being checked to determine for a given SKU by a given FBA seller, shipping to a specific state, whether or not that seller would charge sales tax to the customer.
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CB Insights wrote "When it comes to most industries, the question isn’t whether Amazon will enter or not; it’s how the internet giant will enter, and how big the impact will be." This is exciting for everyone benefitting from Amazon's success - sellers, vendors, and even customers. But for everyone else the challenge is how to grow given.. Amazon.
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Walmart reported 2017 Q2 results today. As many brick-and-mortar retailers are struggling to grow, or to even avoid bankruptcy, Walmart posted same-store sales growth for the 12th consecutive quarter. However this is only the third quarter Walmart reported US e-commerce growth. Since there is no history to compare these numbers against we have no idea how to take them.
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Many are still haven't heard of SoftBank. Their investment arm has recently become the largest e-commerce investor worldwide - their most recent tech fund called "Vision Fund" has $100 billion under management. Jeff Bezos has famously said "Your margin is my opportunity", which is only true because of the capital available. SoftBank will challenge this.
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For the first time since 2016 Q1, and only for the second time ever, Etsy has reported a profit in the second quarter. The marketplace for handmade, vintage, and supplies is cutting costs and reorganizing its priorities.
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MercadoLibre second-quarter financial report numbers were mixed - net income was down causing a drop in stock price, but other key metrics are all continuing to grow. Mobile share of GMV has grown to 43 percent, and the launch of MercadoCrédito financing for sellers are the highlights.
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Effective later in the year Amazon sellers fulfilling their own shipments will be forced to accept all returns - items they sell will be "automatically authorized" for return. As much as this change has caused an outburst of anger in seller forums there is going to be more of these in the future.
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