So, a former dealer of my product put up a bunch of homemade videos on Amazon on their “store page” to describe nearly everything they sold. The videos are not harmful, but they are amateurish, and do not add value to the listing. Yet the video replaced one of the still photos that I put up, which DOES add value.
These people are no longer a seller of my product. They are now an “influencer”, according to the caption under the video. They earn a “commission” it explains. (One presumes from Amazon, not from me.)
The video is more of an influenza than an influence, but how to get Amazon to take it off my listing? It does not appear in my list of photos, I do not seem to have a tool to decide what is on my listing, when mine is the only offer.
If you go back to @papy 's original post on that thread, it appears this is a relationship between Amazon and the micro-influencer community. They are told to select their favorite products and post a review on them. It doesn’t appear to be an opt-in program nor can the seller do anything about it.
Not just micro-influencers, which believe it or not would actually be not quite as bad as the reality.
The better-known (macro?) influencers come with great production value but also a reputation and audience that you might not want associated with your product.
The not-yet-micro (what’s smaller than micro? wanna-be?) influencers don’t have the production quality (yes, there is a right way and wrong way to create content with your phone and a ring light ) and no identifiable, coalesced niche following. That’s when you get content that is
The micro-influencers have an identifiable niche following and acceptable production quality. They’ll make your product look good and convert to sales, but they can also inadvertently cheapen your brand.
It’s a nonconsensual nightmare for Sellers, IMO. No (direct) cost, but no power, either. It’s just all yikes from me in this iteration.
ZERO Argument from me… I think it’s total BS because I know one day we will get something that’s not good with no control over removing it.
Doubt that even SAS could help us with that. They have removed a few reviews for us but they were REALLY bizarre and nobody could figure out they got past Amazon’s stellar AI…
I’m afraid I’m gonna have to channel my inner Jeff (Spicoli, not Bezos, though he might do in a pinch, as Congress seemingly believed) imitating Belushi’s Bluto in response:
Unfortunately, it’s not YOUR listing, it’s Amazon’s listing, and Amazon has decided that the best way to use the space on that page is to include these videos (and doesn’t seem to care what sellers think about that).
Having it remove one of the original images for it sounds like a glitch though, one that’s probably going to be ridiculously difficult to fix.
You don’t need to be popular. The listing we got it on sells a couple hundred a month.
I’m actually afraid to look at our better listings at this point because all it will do is potentially raise my BP and there’s squat I can do about it so why bother…?
I suppose “someone added an intentionally counterproductive and damaging video to the listing in an attempt to destroy all sales” is not a violation of the community guidelines.
Nope, I checked that. Here’s my note to our SAS manager on the subject. Just our freaking luck that we get a great video on our worst selling listing and crap on our best.
Hi XXXXXXXXX, curious about your thoughts / knowledge of this program.
*We got an influencer video on our top seller and quite frankly, it sucks. *
*The information is wrong (you don’t swallow this product), it’s positive but not overly positive, and it looks like it was filmed with a 20 year old camera. *
As you can see in my screenshot of it below, it’s all upside down and backwards!. I’ve seen lots of these on other products and they don’t look like this.
I looked into this person and they have a whopping 3,800 followers on social… Further, this particular review is not on their social pages so what’s the freaking point???
*I’m confident that there’s zero we can do to have this removed because it’s Amazon afterall… Are there no standards for this program in terms of quality, accuracy, or a requirement for it to be posted on the social pages this person is associated with? Isn’t that the point of an influencer program? *
As a seller, we could never get a video this crappy approved to be on the site. We had trouble getting very professionally produced pieces approved… Thx
ETA - This barrage of BS we are dealing with on AMZ & WMT is starting to wear me out. Can’t wait to be on retail shelves late spring / early summer 2024. Will be transitioning away from controlling our marketplace accounts and working with “Pattern” as the seller of our brands. We already have a relationship with them.
No, the video does not appear - it seems that one must upload one’s own video to combat the invasion of the “influencers”. (Either that, or my hand-loaded, subsonic #1 buck shells, as nothing stops a zombie like a shotgun.)
Here’s what I did - I sent an email to the “influencer” as they are no longer selling my product on Amazon. I asked them to take it down, as it adds no value at all to the listing.
We shall see… a more firmly-worded cease and desist can be sent by the legal beagle, which even when utterly groundless can often have the desired effect, just because it is a implied threat, as it is “from a lawyer”.
) and no identifiable, coalesced niche following. That’s when you get content that is
