Amazon Quietly Removes Promo Spots That Gave Special Treatment To Its Own Products

As tech giants face growing scrutiny over their market power, Amazon has quietly removed some of the most aggressive promotional spots for so-called private label products on its website. CNBC reports: Private label products are created by Amazon or partners and are sold only on Amazon's website under an exclusive brand name. They benefit Amazon in many ways: They expand the selection of products on the site, offer better profit margins than selling third-party products, make supply-chain management easier and can help Amazon persuade big brands to cut prices to remain competitive on its site. Amazon has been ramping up the number of private label brands during the last three years, stoking fear and concern among some sellers and brands that sell competing products on the marketplace.

Amazon's promotions for these products, which started showing up at least a year ago, were exclusively reserved for Amazon's own private label products and appeared in highly visible areas of the site, like the top of search results or next to the "buy box" of a competitor's product page. Other companies spend billions buying Amazon ads that link to their product listings on the site, vaulting Amazon into the number three spot among U.S. digital advertising providers, behind Google and Facebook, according to eMarketer. However, in recent weeks, Amazon has significantly scaled down or relocated on-site promotions for its private label products, according to multiple Amazon sellers and consultants. The report goes on to cite Sen. Elizabeth Warren's call for breaking up big tech companies like Amazon and Google as a reason why Amazon is scaling back its promo spots. "Amazon's practice of exclusively promoting its own private label products on the most prominent parts of its site has drawn the ire of many sellers and brands for being unfair and abusive," the report adds.

They'll be back

[alvinrod]

A company that does this once will do it again. They just need people to stop paying attention for a while and next time they'll be a little more crafty about it.

No big deal.

[Anonymous Coward]

Every large store does this. Grocery stores. Best Buy. Auto part stores. Etc. What makes Amazon so different that they should not be able to sell and prioritize their own product?

I never thought it was a big deal

[imidan]

I never had a problem with it. If I search for something and Amazon suggests an Amazon Basics item at the top of the results, it is not mentally or physically taxing to move the scroll wheel a little bit and see the rest of the results. Is this complaint based upon the idea that consumers simply buy the very first thing they see, regardless of whether it's what they want?

I guess, for certain items that people don't care who made it or where it came from, the first item in the list may be purchased more often. So who is Amazon supposed to put at the top of the list? Anyone can complain that search results are biased because the thing at the top of the list isn't the thing they wish was at the top. But, then, if you're selling such a common commodity item that Amazon is undercutting you with their own generic version, maybe you should be selling something else.

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[93 Escort Wagon]

I guess it's not surprising to find that, like most large tech companies, Amazon has its apologists too...

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[imidan]

I'm hardly making an impassioned defense of Amazon. I just don't care. It's Amazon's web site, and they can run it how they want. If that pisses people off so much, they should shop somewhere else. As a thinking human being, I'm not particularly confused by listings that say "Sponsored" at the top of them. I find it's not that difficult to scroll past them.

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[serviscope_minor]

It's Amazon's web site, and they can run it how they want.

Actually no they can't: there are a lot of laws about what businesses can and can't do. funnily enough very very few people who advocate for fewer controls restricting behaviour also advocate for removal of limitd liability protection.

If that pisses people off so much, they should shop somewhere else.

But that's the roblem with monopoly abuse. I shop somewhere else. Enough people don't that Amaon can do a good deal of harm to the companies whose pr

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[imidan]

Actually no they can't: there are a lot of laws about what businesses can and can't do. funnily enough very very few people who advocate for fewer controls restricting behaviour also advocate for removal of limitd liability protection.

Sure there are. But so far, Amazon isn't accused of breaking any laws with their promotion practices. If they are, it's up to their lawyers to decide whether they want to risk prosecution or change their behavior. I have no idea whether Amazon's promotion of Amazon Basics ite

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[Colin Castro]

I'm for forcing companies especially large/interstate ones to form charters and of those charters have liable parties, or at least make the board of directors and top execs personally liable. I'm also for letting cigarette companies advertise on tv and such.

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[cascadingstylesheet]

I guess it's not surprising to find that, like most large tech companies, Amazon has its apologists too...

Do you have a problem with stores having store brands?

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[Colin Castro]

Amazon basics usually lets me know what the lowest quality item is and to avoid ones that look like it, because you know it's the same distributor under a different name.

Re:I never thought it was a big deal

[dj245]

But, then, if you're selling such a common commodity item that Amazon is undercutting you with their own generic version, maybe you should be selling something else.

Not just undercutting with price, but actually delivering a reasonable expectation of quality. Fake reviews are overwhelming in certain products, like phone charging cables. [reviewmeta.com] From the linked article:

I simply typed in “iPhone Charger” to Amazon. Out of the 22 results on the first page, here’s the breakdown:
10 products with hundreds or thousands of fake reviews.
6 sponsored listings
3 products with low or no rating and possibly thousands of deleted reviews
2 Amazon-brand products
1 possible genuine product (but also reportedly a counterfeit)

For stuff like this, if you've been burned once or twice you're going to go straight for the AmazonBasics product. A cynical person might even wonder if Amazon allows the fake review garbage just to make their own stuff look better.

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[imidan]

Yeah, the fake reviews and counterfeits at Amazon are getting bad. There are a fair number of things I wouldn't really consider buying there anymore: USB keys > 2 GB, phone chargers, batteries, certain kinds of cables. I have a particular book in my cart, but so many reviewers are complaining that they got a low-quality counterfeit printing of the book that I'm just going to order it from the publisher. Board games are iffy.

Maybe some of that low-quality crap benefits Amazon Basics by comparison, but the

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[fropenn]

Exactly! Nike stores only sell Nike stuff, North Face stores only sell North Face stuff, car dealers only sell cars from their particular brand...If Amazon wants to sell their stuff, how is that illegal?

I can't walk into an Apple store and demand that they give equal space and promotion to a Dell.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[AmiMoJo]

Amazon Basics is fine, it's the secret brands that Amazon owns but doesn't publicize that are the problem. You think they are real companies but they are just Amazon rebadging OEM stuff.

They do it to create the illusion of choice and make people think they are getting something better than the Amazon Basics model.

If they were honest it would be fine, it's the deception that is the problem.

Not Evil

[Anonymous Coward]

This appears to result in lower prices, so why would anyone be against it, except for competitors who want to charge higher prices?

"so-called" private label

[Anonymous Coward]

There nothing "so-called" about it. A manufacturer produces a product, but sticks someone else's label on it. You'll see a lot of no-name small supplies do this with stuff on AliExpress and such. You can do things like order a WiFi adapters with custom logos/names (drivers aren't a problem since they're usually just Realtek).

This setup is fine for a retail company that doesn't own manufacturing facilities. They order a large bulk of goods at discount rate and sell cheaper than larger name-brands. As lo

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[serviscope_minor]

There nothing "so-called" about it. A manufacturer produces a product, but sticks someone else's label on it.

[...]

This setup is fine for a retail company that doesn't own manufacturing facilities. They order a large bulk of goods at discount rate and sell cheaper than larger name-brands. As long as the products are fairly generic, there isn't a problem.

Even for quite specific stuff it isn't necessarily a problem. Some companies basically do that and do some rofessional sourcing and QA, the end result is you

"quietly"

[cascadingstylesheet]

In a completely noticeable way that we did in fact notice and are reporting as news, a company "quietly" did something.