Amazon Agreements with Big Brands Could Cut Out Small Sellers

Posted by HeatherStone under Sales
From http://smallbiztrends.com 3745 days ago
Made Hot by: FutureVision on August 17, 2014 7:00 am

If you're a small merchant selling big brand items on Amazon, watch out. An agreement Amazon has with Levi's is cutting out other Amazon merchants who sell Levi's brand apparel, says research from business intelligence subscription service L2. In fact, L2 even tried to set up a merchant account to sell Levi's on Amazon as part of its research but was denied. What will it mean for small sellers on Amazon if other big brands start entering deals for similar exclusivity? You can probably guess.

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Comments

Written by lyceum
3743 days ago

Heather: Thanks for your input in this matter. If I would resell a big brand, I would try to do it in my own personal way, using new and fresh distribution channels.

If everything goes according to the plan, I will become a wholesaler for a product, selling it under my own personal brand.

I am also involved in a new online venture that will sell clothing with slogans and thoughtful text messages. In this case we have a vendor, taking care of the printing, sales transaction, stock, distribution, shipping and payment.

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Written by lyceum
3743 days ago

Isn't up to the (big) brands to decide how they want to distribute their goods? If they have allowed a reseller to sell their products, shouldn't be stated how they could sell the stuff?

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Written by HeatherStone
3743 days ago

Hi Martin,

The issue, as we understand it, is that Amazon is using a pay-to-play approach by which major brands can limit the number of resellers who may market their products on Amazon. As for the ability big brands have to limit resellers to be on Amazon in the first place, the reality is that even if they could place limitations on authorized distributors or even retail outlets, there's no stopping the resale of items, (think second hand merchants), except by getting Amazon to disallow sales of the items.

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