Had a request to partner with Hour Loop, Inc (HOUR) for vendor relationship between us and Amazon Seller.
Anyone ever heard of or used them?
Cheers!
Ryan
They are an Amazon seller, I believe those requests are just wholesale requests so they can hop on the listings with you.
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Had a request to partner with Hour Loop, Inc (HOUR)
Heard of them. Canât stand them. They destroy the price on everything.
Theyâre like a consolidator, I think. You send them your merchandise, they ship it to Amazon under their FBA account, and sell it for you, probably for some kind of commission. They have like a gazillion feedback, and some special privileges, apparently, because they manage to take the Buy Box even when they donât have product to sell.
You know, like this crap -
Other sellers lose the Buy Box to their âout of stock, youâll never get it, but we donât care because weâre Amazonâs favoriteâ offers. 
It might benefit you as a seller to hop in bed with them, but my personal opinion is I canât stand them for the damage they do to brands (donât follow MAP, and cheapen the perception of value by selling at near-wholesale retail prices), other sellers (canât make a profit when Hour Loop sells at giveaway prices), other sellers again (canât win the Buy Box because Amazon prioritizes Hour Loop)âŚ
Theyâre also publicly traded, and if their stock goes up, I might buy some, as a way to get back some of the money theyâve caused me to lose. 
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Agreed. I actually know for a fact that they donât have a good relationship with some manufacturers. For example, I was in a call with the National Sales Manager of one of the largest pen manufacturers in the US last week, and he told me that theyâre probably going to ditch them as a buy-direct dealer, because of their tendency of coompletely mess up the marketplace, as @Roxy explained, and complete lack of interest in fostering and maintaining good relationships with vendors.
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he told me that theyâre probably going to ditch them as a buy-direct dealer, because of their tendency of coompletely mess up the marketplace
Thanks for posting that. Itâs good to get confirmation that my observations as a simple end-user are correct.
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Go see how many September 25 reviews they have 
The most recent reviews are dated tomorrow September 26 which implies that they were posted by âbuyersâ from overseas.
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They have one bad review from the future and they already have it crossed out. How is this possible?
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Buying big volumes at a deep discount then undercutting everybody else whoâs paying more is a decent business strategy, but a TERRIBLE brand âpartner.â Anyone who cares about channel management at all will cut them off fairly quickly.
Though I could see a way a manufacturer could make this work in their favor. Get these guys and all the other sellers on Amazon to race to the bottom (and get some of them to sell at a loss), the low price will help build up the sales ranks on the ASINs, then give hour loop and all the other resellers the boot and get on the ASIN by themselves and then hike the price over time.
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Theyâre not even getting deeper discounts than other sellers on âat leastâ some of the products that they carry, like the pens that I made a reference to in my previous message.
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Theyâre not even getting deeper discounts than other sellers
They use an automatic repricer that seems to be tied to the manufacturer/brandâs current price list, not to what HL obtained the product for.
For instance, Iâll see them on an item where the wholesale price might be $20 and HL lists it for $33. Eventually, the manufacturer might discontinue that item and drop the price to $6 to blow them out. HL will then drop his FBA inventory (already in the warehouse, from a previous purchase made before the price drop) to $8.
So it appears he isnât pricing according to what he paid for his inventory ($20) but according to what he, or someone else, might be able to replenish the item for now ($6). Itâs an interesting strategy, because itâs a guaranteed loss on anything he has in FBA.
I donât really understand what he does, I just know to avoid him, and any listings heâs on, when I see him. Since it does appear that he is consolidating other peopleâs merchandise under his Amazon account, it makes the stupid low pricing even more puzzling. By bringing HL into the fold, youâre adding yet another person who gets a cut of your sale, so it would seem his account should be pricing higher, not lower.
He must be selling a good chunk of products at a loss, which is good (ish) for customers, but what is the point?
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