Am I Being Played by Amazon?

Selling on Amazon
1

Stumbled across a video (I think it may have originally been posted here) that made a strong case that Amazon uses their Amazon Basics to drive sellers to buy more advertising, which is one of Amazon’s cash cows. With that fresh in my head, I got yet another message from Amazon hawking their lending partners.

I decided that this was going to be the year that I stopped getting an inventory loan from Amazon. Sales were good, I had new product in the pipeline, and it was looking good that I could self-finance. Then the bottom fell out of my sales (summer is my busy season and sales usually start to decline this time of year, but not to this extent - down 40% YOY). I know it could just be the economy, or the weather, or any number of things, but the drop-off seemed to coincide with my last payment on my previous loan. I would get previous loans just before the end of the loan before it, thus never having a gap until now.

While the explanation for my sales drop-off is likely something banal, is it beyond the realm of possibilities that Amazon would suppress my listings to drive me into the arms of another loan? :thinking:

5 Likes
2

I do believe Amazon rigs lots of stuff like this, especially when it comes to advertising and loans.

Wouldn’t surprise me in the least. We’ll never know though because it’s all in their secret sauce algorithms.

Do you think for 1 second that Amazon wants to deal with a seller who can’t pay back their loan? The way to guarantee that is to add the loan factor to the algorithm while the loan is active for your listings so they get better organic placement. It’s super shady, but as a business, it makes sense.

I’ve seen some really strange things happen on Amazon as a seller so I’m with your assessment of this situation. Amazon has always been pay to play in every way.

You keep feeding the beast, they will continue to pay you. If you can do that and make a profit, more power to you….

PS - I believe we landed on the :first_quarter_moon_face: , so not a conspiracy theorist - just a realist.

2 Likes
3

I find it hard to believe that Amazon deliberately plays these games.

It is more likely they are an unintended benefit

1 Like