Amazon's AI Tool Listed Products from Small Businesses Without Their Knowledge (msn.com) 40
Bloomberg reports on Amazon listings "automatically generated by an experimental AI tool" for stores that don't sell on Amazon.
Bloomberg notes that the listings "didn't always correspond to the correct product", leaving the stores to handle the complaints from angry customers: Between the Christmas and New Year holidays, small shop owners and artisans who had found their products listed on Amazon took to social media to compare notes and warn their peers... In interviews, six small shop owners said they found themselves unwittingly selling their products on Amazon's digital marketplace. Some, especially those who deliberately avoided Amazon, said they should have been asked for their consent. Others said it was ironic that Amazon was scouring the web for products with AI tools despite suing Perplexity AI Inc.for using similar technology to buy products on Amazon... Some retailers say the listings displayed the wrong product image or mistakenly showed wholesale pricing. Users of Shopify Inc.'s e-commerce tools said the system flagged Amazon's automated purchases as potentially fraudulent...
In a statement, Amazon spokesperson Maxine Tagay said sellers are free to opt out. Two Amazon initiatives — Shop Direct, which links out to make purchases on other retailers' sites, and Buy For Me, which duplicates listings and handles purchases without leaving Amazon — "are programs we're testing that help customers discover brands and products not currently sold in Amazon's store, while helping businessesâreach new customers and drive incremental sales," she said in an emailed statement. "We have received positive feedback on these programs." Tagay didn't say why the sellers were enrolled without notifying them. She added that the Buy For Me selection features more than 500,000 items, up from about 65,000 at launch in April.
The article includes quotes from the owners of affected businesses.
Bloomberg notes that the listings "didn't always correspond to the correct product", leaving the stores to handle the complaints from angry customers: Between the Christmas and New Year holidays, small shop owners and artisans who had found their products listed on Amazon took to social media to compare notes and warn their peers... In interviews, six small shop owners said they found themselves unwittingly selling their products on Amazon's digital marketplace. Some, especially those who deliberately avoided Amazon, said they should have been asked for their consent. Others said it was ironic that Amazon was scouring the web for products with AI tools despite suing Perplexity AI Inc.for using similar technology to buy products on Amazon... Some retailers say the listings displayed the wrong product image or mistakenly showed wholesale pricing. Users of Shopify Inc.'s e-commerce tools said the system flagged Amazon's automated purchases as potentially fraudulent...
In a statement, Amazon spokesperson Maxine Tagay said sellers are free to opt out. Two Amazon initiatives — Shop Direct, which links out to make purchases on other retailers' sites, and Buy For Me, which duplicates listings and handles purchases without leaving Amazon — "are programs we're testing that help customers discover brands and products not currently sold in Amazon's store, while helping businessesâreach new customers and drive incremental sales," she said in an emailed statement. "We have received positive feedback on these programs." Tagay didn't say why the sellers were enrolled without notifying them. She added that the Buy For Me selection features more than 500,000 items, up from about 65,000 at launch in April.
The article includes quotes from the owners of affected businesses.
- A one-person company complained that "If suddenly there were 100 orders, I couldn't necessarily manage. When someone takes your proprietary, copyrighted works, I should be asked about that. This is my business. It's not their business."
- One business owner said "I just don't want my products on there... It's like if Airbnb showed up and tried to put your house on the market without your permission."
- One business owner complained "When things started to go wrong, there was no system set up by Amazon to resolve it. It's just 'We set this up for you, you should be grateful, you fix it.'" One Amazon representative even suggested they try opening a $39-a-month Amazon seller account.
Opt out? (Score:3)
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Basically LLMs business model is forcing people to opt out.
...forcing people to opt out without telling them that they had been involuntarily opted in in the first place.
Then ignoring them...
yes, giving them no information or contacts or method to correct errors; that too.
No good deed goes unpunished. (Score:1)
Amazon gets them business they apparently never had, and then these ungratefuls complain?
WHAT IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?
for fuck's sake (Score:5, Informative)
try reading the summary. i know reading the article (let alone books) is too hard. but the summary states it. the prices are wrong, the photos are wrong, there's no way to do customer service through a platform the sellers don't have an account with. the sellers' platforms are not set up to handle a 100x increase in order volume. for example, maybe the seller manually updates inventory once a day, which works as long as you know you'll never sell through.
Don't you think these people would have signed up for Amazon if they wanted to sell through Amazon?
Anyhow, it's apparent the Jasshole has no more levers to pull to grow the business. Instead of maintaining quality and keeping the retail business as large and mature (while AWS continues to grow like gangbusters) he continues to squeeze every drop of blood with poor customer service and now poor service to vendors who aren't even on the platform. This will surely work out well and I expect Amazon to be in terrific shape 10 years from now.
Re: for fuck's sake (Score:2)
Guessing OP was sarcasm and if it wasn't.. Oof.
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What the fuck is wrong with you? Can't read?
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I hope you were being sarcastic (when being sarcastic on the internet, be sure to use an emoji - rolled eyes works well)
If not - you will be glad to know that I have sold 1 million signed photos of your face at $25 plus shipping and handling. The orders will arrive shortly. If I were you I would get started on signing, there will be approximately 200,000 signed in red ink, 400,000 in blue ink, and 400,000 in black ink. They are all exactly 10 x 10 inch full color photos at 300 ppi
amazon screwed up! (Score:5, Informative)
as a customer mistreated by amazon, i would never shop there again. i can understand why sellers would be f*cking furious if their products were listed on amazon without their consent, particularly if their product descriptions were incorrect and generated complaints! that is defamation and should be addressed appropriately.
can they go any lower?
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as a customer mistreated by amazon, i would never shop there again.
Oh I agree, Amazon is the worst. Here let me show you an example: If I go to Amazon's website and search charging banks, and then ... and then ... oh wow they are cheap ... and free shipping ... Okay one second let me finish this check-out process and then we'll go back to discussing why we never use Amazon again... after this time!
That's the thinking average consumer. The average consumer is insanely price conscious and will give corporations a shitton of leeway to abuse them.
Hell no!!! (Score:4, Interesting)
n a statement, Amazon spokesperson Maxine Tagay said sellers are free to opt out.
That's like saying that victims of vandalism are "free to opt out" after they've been vandalized.. If a seller has no prior relationship with Amazon, then Amazon has no right to list their products unless Amazon purchases the products, takes physical possession of them, and re-sells them.
The fact that Amazon won't face ruinous fines for this is appalling. This is just one of far too many examples of the government and its legal system having been bought and paid for by the upper echelons of the parasite class. It's way past time for torches, pitchforks, and tar and feathers. American Revolution Mark II is looong overdue...
Because I can. (Score:3)
This is how sociopaths think. They ask questions like "Would this benefit me?" and "Am I big enough to get away with it?"
Thoughts like "is it ethical?" or "does it harm others?" or even "is it illegal?" Don't even enter their minds.
They just make up their own rules. "You cannot bot-around through our site, but we can and will bot-around through yours, and we can and will advertise your stuff on our site (incorrectly) sending you problems and expecting you to be grateful for that, and if you don't like i
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This is how sociopaths think.
To get specific, that is how a society who wants sociopaths and psychopaths operating as CEOs, thinks.
They ask questions like "Would this benefit me?" and "Am I big enough to get away with it?"
Thoughts like "is it ethical?" or "does it harm others?" or even "is it illegal?" Don't even enter their minds.
The only reason a society welcomes that kind of shit behavior instead of sending it to fucking prison, is because Greed N. Corruption, CEO allows citizens to get in on the action by investing in it.
They just make up their own rules.
Yes, sans morals and ethics too. Sure would be nice if a society remembered what it’s like to play by at least some rules. Without it, you get mega-corps who are now all Too Big To Fail, along with a sto
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Can we steal oil from Venezuela, can we grab Greenland, can we subjugate Cuba?
When will someone you know get killed or disappeared by ICE?
Re: Hell no!!! (Score:2)
It's also completely tone deaf that a rep suggested opening an account. Uhm, no?
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If a seller has no prior relationship with Amazon, then Amazon has no right to list their products unless Amazon purchases the products, takes physical possession of them, and re-sells them.
Well your theory invalidates the entire concept of drop-shipping relied upon by the a world full of small businesses. Since the early days of the internet there's a lot of businesses which very much do not take physical possession of any products. Resellers that act more like purchasing agents and sometimes do so without direct relationships.
Re: Hell no!!! (Score:3)
Oh no, what would the world be like without dropshipping?
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It would temporarily collapse. Most construction related materials and assemblies are drop shipped. Your roofer doesn't keep stacks of shingles in a warehouse. Your window installers don't make their windows. Landscapers don't manage dirt inventory. Etc...
In terms of 'standard' business, unemployment would spike. People turn to drop shipping when they need extra money or have trouble finding a job. They often find success. Those people would all suddenly find themselves without income. You'll tell
Re: Hell no!!! (Score:2)
And where do I buy your get rich quick with dropshipping book?
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Everything more expensive? Is that what you want right now? Isn't AI fucking things up enough already without you piling that on us too?
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There's a difference between "no retail presence" and "no prior relationship" -- at least for those of us paying attention. If someone claims to sell product X but relies on drop shipping without the consent of either the original seller or the end purchaser, that's a form of trademark infringement or even fraud: it's enriching the middleman by misrepresenting the source of the goods they sell.
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That's not trademark infringement nor fraud. Drop shippers (DRers) are selling the name-band item so customers are getting what they ordered. It's only misrepresenting if they claim they're manufacturing the item which almost none are stupid enough to say. They are selling the items as provable by the fact that you sent them money and the product eventually arrives at your door. Apparently Amazon is stupid enough to lie about the products, but they were already lying about products they inventory, so th
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or the end purchaser
Err how do you ship something to someone without their consent?
that's a form of trademark infringement or even fraud
Err no it's not, they are getting the actual product they want, in its original form, as you have advertised you can get to them.
I have an unopened SSD here, do you want to buy it from me? It's in its original packing. Does the fact I have no relationship with Samsung make this fraudulent? If you think about it the entire concept is protected by first sale doctrine. You are paying someone for something who in turn buys it from someone else. Ther
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Thanks. Now that you mention it I have a vague recollection of that kind of activity, but it wasn't really on my radar. Any thoughts then on how to curb Amazon without hurting smaller businesses providing this valuable service?
My first idea was "if a company is above a certain size it can't sell in this manner". But apart from the many complications that would entail - such as a company in that business growing so big that they no longer qualify for the exemption - I can also see Amazon crying that it's unf
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if a seller has no prior relationship with Amazon, then Amazon has no right to list their products
That is weird take though. You could say 'Google had no right to return my webpage in search results' if I had not prior relationship with them.
This is like private property in most states. Its not tresspassing unless you have been told you are not welcome to be there directly or indirectly, no trespassing signs posted at some interval or it is otherwise secured, ie fenced off etc. Otherwise you are free to go for a walk in someone's woods, you just have respect the owner and leave if they ask.
Similarly I
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Drop shipping is okay, not great but okay. It's everywhere and normally unnoticed. However the person drop shipping is supposed to take on the responsibility for the product. Amazon is passing on that responsibility and is engaging in extortion. "We've messed up the description of your product. Give us money to fix it else suffer reputation damage and potentially lose your business due to all the charge backs and fraud claims sent to your payment processor and original store." That's illegal.
Restaurants forced on to delivery networks (Score:1)
I can see similar problems with this bullshit. Where Amazon acts as a third party intermediary causing all sorts of problems.
Amazon being Amazon (Score:1)
Already noticed (Score:3)
This was noticed about 2 weeks ago by store owners. Amazon uses distinctive email addresses when placing the order so they can track progress, which allows store owners to reject the orders or refuse to accept them. Amazon's opt-out attitude is pissing store owners off something awful, so I expect stronger measures will develop.
Flip the script (Score:3)
Tell them Amazon has offered a refund plus additional gift card for messing up their order. Give them Amazons customer support number.
So UBER EATS or GRUBHUB for online retailers (Score:2)
Sellers Unite! (Score:2)
Sellers need to band together and file lawsuits against Amazon for copyright infringement regarding the photos and product description text that Amazon is pilfering from their websites. There are probably several other potential legal challenges they could mount as well, related to deceptive marketing and sales.
Edge Cases In Automation (Score:2)
It's going to be funny when Amazon automatically creates listing from a storefront relisting their eBay store. A ton of eBay listings for new products are just drop ships through Amazon Prime (yay free shipping without the subscription) (probably true by now for Etsy listings as well). Amazon manipulates their prices to drive out competition, so they might temperately lower prices on their Shop Direct listing. Drop sellers also use automatic scrapping software, so their eBay store may switch their order