What are you doing for your anti-Amazon customers?

Selling on Amazon
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Saw this in my internet travels last night. The mention of gift receipt means this was a drop shipped order by the eBay Seller from Amazon–already its own problem for Sellers–but the anti-Amazon sentiment is something that we are seeing more and more from shoppers using other channels.

The Buyer rightly recognized that this is a “scam,” but for the wrong reasons (and if the Buyer refuses to use Amazon, then can the eBay dropshipper be faulted here for making the few extra bucks that the Buyer was already willing to pay for the privilege of not using Amazon?).

This kind of customer has implications not just for drop shippers, but for all Amazon Sellers who also sell on other channels–especially those using Amazon FBA Multi Channel Fulfillment with Amazon-branded packages, or reusing Amazon packaging to fulfill orders in other channels.

Has anyone seen pushback from Buyers when they use Amazon fulfillment or packaging for orders on other channels?

How much of a role do anti-Amazon shoppers play in your business devision-making? And how are you accommodating these customers (or are you)?

Friendly reminder: Do not bash these customers in this thread. We are not discussing whether or not we agree with their stance or philosophy, just if/how Amazon Sellers are factoring this demographic into business decisions. Thank you in advance!

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I get my news for a variety of sources and have been seeing anti-Amazon and anti Bezos posts everywhere. I think they are cutting into business.

Among academic buyers (student, professors, libraries), far more orders are coming through ABE and Alibris.

3

Same. And across all demographics. The blowback to Bezos sponsoring the Met Gala and Sanchez co-hosting has been interesting to watch–and copious.

One reason that I included the BuzzFeed example is because the shopper is 51 (or claims to be, obviously). That is not some young whippersnapper just being “trendy” or easily swayed by peer pressure. And they say they stopped using Amazon last year, not last week/month.

I can see why they feel scammed. They worked harder and knowingly paid more to avoid putting anything into the Amazon piggybank, but their order still plopped the pennies right in anyway.

:thinking: Should eBay Sellers (or any other channel) using Amazon MCF and/or reusing Amazon packaging disclose that to Buyers upfront, in their listings or shipping info?

This is a particularly interesting point. Students (and many professors) usually aim for the cheapest option with the fastest delivery. Yet they are turning away from Amazon, even with its foundation in textbooks? :grimacing:

4

I am starting to see an uptick in sales on my own website, and sales are wayyy down on amazon for the month already.
2 sales this month on Amazon, I have never seen 7 day numbers so low.

From the people I talk to, they just don’t like getting scammed by cheap junk on amazon and counterfeits.

TBH I bought a Dewalt OEM battery on Amazon and I am waiting on delivery. I have a strong feeling that what I will be getting will be a knockoff. I had to carefully go through each listing because all the images showed a “Dewalt” OEM product but would say “Battery 20V replacement” or “replacement for dewalt” while the image was the OEM

5

A while back Amazon sent me a refund out of the blue with notice to discard the Dewalt battery I purchased because it had been deemed to be counterfeit. I went to Dewalt’s website and they have a section dedicated to counterfeit batteries and how to tell the difference. Mine matched up perfectly to what Dewalt showed as OEM so in the end it was anyone’s guess. If it was in fact OEM, I feel sorry for the 3p seller who may have been harmed. I kept the battery and charge it outside in my garden shed just in case, but have been using it for a few years now

6

I would be really careful of non-OEM batteries. We have had more than a few devastating fires in NYC due to substandard lithium batteries, Our building has forbidden the entry of all electric bicycles since last year, as have most public buildings like libraries and city office buildings.

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This is different from the situation the Buzzfeed poster is in. Using Amazon’s MCF to fill other channel orders is not the same as listing on ebay, then dropshipping from Amazon.

I have had some off-Amazon sales from customers who did not want to shop on Amazon.

Before MCF offered blank packaging, I filled an ebay order from my FBA inventory because the ebay order came in seconds after the last in stock item was ordered on Amazon. The item arrived in Amazon packaging and the ebay customer was livid. I think this was in 2021.

The customer had no understanding of what happened or why, and was convinced I was a dropshipper. To be fair, I understand where they were coming from, and why they were upset, especially since it was mostly about not wanting to shop on Amazon.

Currently, sellers can fill orders via MCF without customers knowing that’s what’s happening, so they wouldn’t know to push back.

I don’t think so.
As far as reusing the packaging goes, that’s just a perception issue. Amazon gains nothing from that. Their brand recognition is as high as it is going to go, and there is no financial kickback for them. The issue is that it looks like Amazon is involved. There are already reasons not to use another company’s packaging for orders, and this simply joins the list.

As for using MCF, yes Amazon makes money from it, but significantly less per order than if the item was purchased of their site. The choice customers make still moves money away from Amazon vs purchasing from Amazon directly. Some of the supply chain runs through Amazon and they make more than the nothing the customer would prefer, but how far into the weeds do we need to go on this? When people buy iPhone cases, iPhones, or fidget spinners, how deeply into the manufacturing, distribution channels, etc are they looking to make sure they aren’t inadvertently funding some company or country they object to?

When people say they want full disclosure, they don’t actually want full disclosure. They want disclosure of the things they care about, and only those things, regardless of the fact that they can’t articulate what those things may be, and don’t even care about some of them until later, when someone gives them a reason to care. Do I also need to disclose where I buy my shipping labels? If I bought some shipping boxes from Uline, do I need to mention that on every item I sell in case someone doesn’t like them? What if I don’t use MCF, but I ship my ebay orders with labels printed on a printer I bought from Amazon?

:man_shrugging:

8

MCF sellers can and should be shipping in plain packaging.

The buyers who are getting Amazon, Walmart, and Sam’s Club dropships are learning that it cost them money to avoid Amazon, and are right to be PO’d. They were suckers. There I said it. They should not have bought that class of merchandise on Ebay where the odds of getting a genuine product with an acceptable shelf life and a manufacturer’s warranty in effect are slim.

Jeff Bezos and Amazon observe many of the virtues progressives prize. He personally acts in ways which may disturb orthodox practitioners of all major secular religions.

If I avoided all businesses which practice progressive virtues, there are many items I could not buy.

9

When evaluating eBay sellers’ feedback before making a purchase, I frequently have seen feedback comments from angry buyers who got a dropship from Amazon who say they were specifically avoiding Amazon. I ship all my own orders and am careful never to use another retailer’s packaging. (Once in a while I will re-use a nice box, but for example I wouldn’t send an eBay order in an Amazon box.)

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:grimacing: Yes, I meant to state that more clearly in the OP but was under time pressure. I understand the differences, but I’m wondering about the implications for actual Sellers when a customer like this gets either MCF Amazon evidence, or (for FBM) reused Amazon packaging materials.

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eBay is the example, but it’s not just eBay.

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Ebay is larger than the other dwarfs who allow these sellers to sell. But the same items should not be bought on Mercardi and other schlock sites.

Lots of this is the desperate for cash, third world people snaring US stupids.

Sellers regularly complain that Amazon is restricting their sales of many items, usually it is tied to their desire to keep counterfeits and other inferior products off the site.

Walmart also restricts who can sell.

These restrictions protect the buyers.

Any person who buys anything you can ingest on Ebay, Mercari and similar sites is a danger to themselves. And many of these products causing the stir, are such products.

Shopping on the internet requires more care than shopping in B&M stores. You cannot see what you are buying, not can you tell what the conditions of storage are. The number of online buyers who have not realized that is far greater than it should be.

13

That’s a very interesting question!
Dabbles in ethics and old wisdom “what you don’t know can’t hurt you”/“ignorance is bliss”
How happy is the customer when the goods arrive timely and cheaply vs how much do they dislike the supply chain.

The rabbit hole is as deep as you want. How many buyers want to buy “not Chinese crap”, but are happy with buying “Chinese crap” that gets a sticker placed in US soil (or probably MX) that says Made in the US.

It also goes to, how annoyed are you when you buys something from any marketplace and is drop shipped from Sam’s club. Last year I bought a pocket knife from Amzn, a well known brand from OR, and the package was drop shipped from Costco. It annoyed me, but the drop shipper had my home address, I felt vulnerable. If I reported him, he knew where I lived. Still, I wrote to the manufacturer through their Amazon messaging system hoping that they would have to respond to an Amazon message. I told them “hey, I’m willing to report this because I dislike drop shippers”, and they simply clicked “response not needed” and never got back at me. If they didn’t care about it, I was not going to file the claim where I gained nothing. The pocket knife came correctly and is still in my pocket (blade’s getting a bit dull by now…)

There will always be disgruntled buyers, but Amazon keeps growing. It’s the old “if you have some enemies you did something right” (we all have a deep love hate relationship with Amzn, so somethings right and many wrong. But at the moment I believe that for my case the rights outweigh the wrongs… yet ask me again tomorrow and the answer might be different, entirely due to Amz’s own doing)

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Sourced where? (where did the raw materials come from)
Made where? (where were the raw materials made into components for the product)
Assemble where? (where were the components assembled into the final product)

Sell by
Use by
Expires on

How deep is the hole?

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It’s also worth noting that Walmart is pushing their multichannel fulfillment service for those who really want to avoid Amazon, and there are also consumers who disapprove of and try to avoid Walmart.

Even if a seller firewalls their selling channels so that an order placed on one channel is completely insulated from another channel, the customer is still supporting the seller who is selling on other marketplaces, and therefore paying them fees, commissions, etc. Where does it end?

16

When I buy on Walmart.com, I always limit my searches to items which are in stock at the local stores.

When I buy on Amazon I limit my searches to items which are FBA, and usually what I buy is also sold by Amazon. When it is sold by a 3P seller, I usually have a look at prices on Walmart.com which almost always are lower.

I have never liked either company, but I do not like many companies, it is irrelevant to me if they deliver quality service at a good price.

I am a crabby old man, get off my lawn.

17

Same. And if something just has to ship, I only buy if Walmart is the Seller. Which is a Seller betrayal, I know :grimacing:

Great question, and we still haven’t touched on whether being powered by AWS is something any anti-Amazon shopper considers in using any website, for retail purposes or otherwise.

Whereas, we who watch these things because it is part of our sales strategy, know that Amazon retail is consistently propped up by AWS.

…but that’s even fuzzier. :grin:

It’s an important point, for sure, even if just focusing on Amazon retail.

And at what point will anyone consider that the Amazon consumer tide has been turned?

That’s a “whole 'nother” problem, lawwwdy… :woman_facepalming:

To circle back around to Amazon Sellers’ experiences, I found all of these to be interesting points:

Again, are you as an Amazon Seller working to appeal to anti-Amazon shoppers? If yes, how?

18

I’m selling on other channels. That’s it. That’s as far as I’m going to go.
Some customers don’t like Amazon. Some don’t like Walmart. I’m sure there are some out there that don’t like ebay. I doubt it would be hard to find some who have a grudge against Shopify.

Any strategy I might take to position or market myself as “not associated with that site you hate, I promise!” would either be a lie, or require me to put all my eggs in a different basket, and would necessitate associating even more closely with other sites that other customers don’t like.

There is no winning here, so I decline to play.

19

That has been my path, too. I even still offer Amazon Pay on my site.

But as the Amahate seems to feel like “more” lately, I’m just wondering if there are easy ways to up that game, to give consumers more options and more reasons to shop with me.

Very true. I don’t sell on Target, but have certainly seen consumer backlash there, too, as well as Best Buy and Home Depot.

But looking at specifically and solely ecommerce platforms without b&m, I’m personally not aware of the same level of active consumer avoidance with eBay or Shopify or Etsy, as seems to be growing with Amazon.

Ultimately, as long as Amazon sales remain consistent or improving, I am hard-pressed to find any reason that Amazon 3Ps should make changes to accommodate anti-Amazon shoppers–but knowing that I might have blinders on, am just seeking other perspectives, especially if there are strategies that are simple and low-cost.

20

Broadly true, but I haven’t seen a mass exodus of customers to other sites either. Mostly, it’s been entrenchment of customers who already shop on other marketplaces.