One of the most successful direct-to-consumer shopping outlets for China-based vendors outside of China’s own Alibaba e-commerce platform is Amazon. This trend has been accelerating for years. China-based sellers represented 75 percent of new sellers on Amazon in January, according to a new report. Since March 2020, more than half of new Amazon sellers in the U.S. are from China.
I agree with MaryVD. Amazon hurts U.S. business and is an ATM for Chinese government.
This situation becomes particularly problematic when sellers operate from overseas, as they may not adhere to United States law and are often unresponsive to lawsuits in U.S. courts. As a result, consumers not only fall victim to fraudulent and misleading claims but can also be harmed by defective products. Additionally, businesses that have developed innovative products and built goodwill in the market can see their customer base and sales rapidly decline due to the proliferation of "knock-off" products. Ecommerce platforms, including Amazon, have more incentive to accommodate a higher number of sellers rather than taking effective action to prevent such practices.
It is crucial to recognize that Amazon and other ecommerce outlets profit from the advertising, sale, and fulfillment of products on their platform, irrespective of whether these products defraud consumers or not. When consumers and businesses seek Amazon's intervention to halt these unlawful practices, their efforts are often met with insufficient responses. Depending on the extent of harm caused, some individuals or businesses resort to legal action, and ecommerce platforms frequently seeks immunity under Section 230, which was never intended for such purposes.
A small U.S. business is suing Amazon for $500 million for its part in being complicit in the sale of mislabeled and falsely described printer cartridges that were being passed off as cartridges they sell. Through Amazon, these Chinese sellers seem to have flooded the U.S. market with these printer cartridges destroying an entire U.S. industry built on diverting used printer cartridges away from landfills and recycling them into a new low cost product for consumers. The complaint lays out Amazon's failures to do anything but protect there own interests. Read about complaint here shorturl.at/noS07 or just google $500 million lawsuit against Amazon.
It is good the FTC is finally going after Amazon too.
Although interesting and relevant the article does not mention the extent to which direct sales from China to the US are affecting our small businesses, consumers and our country as a whole.
The article does make it very clear that Chinese businesses are on their way to take over Amazon just as they did eBay, not only here but in most first world countries, where the money is.
1. Both pricing and product offerings create a competitive challenge for domestic manufacturers selling on Amazon.
This would be true if it were fair competition. The main challenge domestic businesses face is the copying of their products, the use of their pictures, almost always in disregard to US copyright and trademark laws. The cost of copying a product can never equal the cost and time involved in creating a product from scratch. Then there is the challenge of competing against businesses being subsidized by the Chinese government.
2. Those numbers might be partially inflated because some vendors operate with multiple accounts.
Many of these vendors are large manufacturers themselves who hire employees to sell online.
3. To the customer, all that may matter is price and convenience. The location of the seller is not an issue.
The customer is unaware that a large number of items sold in Amazon are cheap copies of products
created by domestic businesses and are of inferior quality not subject to US government safety regulations.
4. there are plenty of private label brand merchants. Many of the China-based sellers fill this category, noted Jackson. They are not actually buying the product someplace else but instead trademark some of what they manufacture as a separate brand.
Amazon led a campaign to have businesses all over the world create their own brand. This does not mean you create the product yourself. Only that it has your brand label on it.
5. Amazon is relentlessly known to be end-customer focused, according to Jackson. For consumers, the customer experience is all about assortment, quality, customer service, and price
True to an extent. True concern for the customer means protecting them against being deceived into buying knockoffs of inferior quality or products that may be toxic.
6. "Sadly, there are some negative buyer reactions to China-based shippers. Those comments turn up in product reviews. Some consumers will give a one-star review just because it comes from China without saying anything about the quality of the product of the seller's service," Jackson added.
This negative reaction comes from a growing awareness by US consumers of the widespread abuse of ethical practices used by large numbers of Chinese government backed China-based sellers, such as buying positive feedback for themselves, buying negative feedback for competitors, sending empty boxes to customers, etc. The overwhelming amount of unethical practices in Amazon come from China. There are multiple groups in Facebook dedicated to this.
7. "However, it is also a bad change because consumers need to be careful about the type of products they are buying from potentially counterfeit sellers......For example, during Covid-19, many sellers are selling counterfeit disinfecting and PPE supplies while illegitimately making kill claims among other things...
This is a widespread problem in Amazon.
8. One admitted disadvantage that China-based suppliers bring to Amazon may be a cost advantage over the U.S. or European-based suppliers, he said. But they also have challenges in understanding local preferences, creating product listings that appeal to local customers, and optimizing the platform to compete with other sellers.
Just watching how many local products are knocked off by China-based suppliers shows finding what to sell here is not much of a challenge. Just look at the feedback, if it has a lot, copy it, or better yet, look at Amazon's list of best selling products in the site. Amazon provides all the tools to find this information at the click of a button.
In all, these sellers are not just damaging US small businesses through unfair competition and unethical practices, they are also deceiving customers by misrepresenting the product they will receive and by sending the infamous "empty box". But in a larger scale, US businesses who lose sales not only stop supporting their local infrastructure, such as carriers, the post office, local suppliers for their businesses, etc...and all the jobs that could have been created but also pay less taxes to our government, which are paid instead by those sellers to the Chinese government while making their infrastructure stronger. Customs are avoided by sending small parcels. US importers do however pay them whenever they bring in imports.
The fact that I am the only one leaving a comment here, shows how unaware we are , as a country , as to what this really means to us all. Just like the Silk Road project is physically making China's presence strong in the world, places like Amazon provides them the same service for free.
Made in China, Sold on Amazon: The Numbers are Skyrocketing
Posted by: Jack M. Germain March 30, 2021 05:00 AMOne of the most successful direct-to-consumer shopping outlets for China-based vendors outside of China’s own Alibaba e-commerce platform is Amazon. This trend has been accelerating for years. China-based sellers represented 75 percent of new sellers on Amazon in January, according to a new report. Since March 2020, more than half of new Amazon sellers in the U.S. are from China.
The article does make it very clear that Chinese businesses are on their way to take over Amazon just as they did eBay, not only here but in most first world countries, where the money is.
1. Both pricing and product offerings create a competitive challenge for domestic manufacturers selling on Amazon.
This would be true if it were fair competition. The main challenge domestic businesses face is the copying of their products, the use of their pictures, almost always in disregard to US copyright and trademark laws. The cost of copying a product can never equal the cost and time involved in creating a product from scratch. Then there is the challenge of competing against businesses being subsidized by the Chinese government.
2. Those numbers might be partially inflated because some vendors operate with multiple accounts.
Many of these vendors are large manufacturers themselves who hire employees to sell online.
3. To the customer, all that may matter is price and convenience. The location of the seller is not an issue.
The customer is unaware that a large number of items sold in Amazon are cheap copies of products
created by domestic businesses and are of inferior quality not subject to US government safety regulations.
4. there are plenty of private label brand merchants. Many of the China-based sellers fill this category, noted Jackson. They are not actually buying the product someplace else but instead trademark some of what they manufacture as a separate brand.
Amazon led a campaign to have businesses all over the world create their own brand. This does not mean you create the product yourself. Only that it has your brand label on it.
5. Amazon is relentlessly known to be end-customer focused, according to Jackson. For consumers, the customer experience is all about assortment, quality, customer service, and price
True to an extent. True concern for the customer means protecting them against being deceived into buying knockoffs of inferior quality or products that may be toxic.
6. "Sadly, there are some negative buyer reactions to China-based shippers. Those comments turn up in product reviews. Some consumers will give a one-star review just because it comes from China without saying anything about the quality of the product of the seller's service," Jackson added.
This negative reaction comes from a growing awareness by US consumers of the widespread abuse of ethical practices used by large numbers of Chinese government backed China-based sellers, such as buying positive feedback for themselves, buying negative feedback for competitors, sending empty boxes to customers, etc. The overwhelming amount of unethical practices in Amazon come from China. There are multiple groups in Facebook dedicated to this.
7. "However, it is also a bad change because consumers need to be careful about the type of products they are buying from potentially counterfeit sellers......For example, during Covid-19, many sellers are selling counterfeit disinfecting and PPE supplies while illegitimately making kill claims among other things...
This is a widespread problem in Amazon.
8. One admitted disadvantage that China-based suppliers bring to Amazon may be a cost advantage over the U.S. or European-based suppliers, he said. But they also have challenges in understanding local preferences, creating product listings that appeal to local customers, and optimizing the platform to compete with other sellers.
Just watching how many local products are knocked off by China-based suppliers shows finding what to sell here is not much of a challenge. Just look at the feedback, if it has a lot, copy it, or better yet, look at Amazon's list of best selling products in the site. Amazon provides all the tools to find this information at the click of a button.
In all, these sellers are not just damaging US small businesses through unfair competition and unethical practices, they are also deceiving customers by misrepresenting the product they will receive and by sending the infamous "empty box". But in a larger scale, US businesses who lose sales not only stop supporting their local infrastructure, such as carriers, the post office, local suppliers for their businesses, etc...and all the jobs that could have been created but also pay less taxes to our government, which are paid instead by those sellers to the Chinese government while making their infrastructure stronger. Customs are avoided by sending small parcels. US importers do however pay them whenever they bring in imports.
The fact that I am the only one leaving a comment here, shows how unaware we are , as a country , as to what this really means to us all. Just like the Silk Road project is physically making China's presence strong in the world, places like Amazon provides them the same service for free.