Yup, and they've (as far as I've heard -- could be wrong) threatened to blacklist sellers who move to upstarts like Jet or even if they sell more prominently on eBay.
Perhaps I don't know the definition of anticompetitive, but I feel like this fits the bill.
I haven't heard that. They have a rule that you can't sell items elsewhere for less than you're selling them on Amazon for, but otherwise there's no restrictions.
> They have a rule that you can't sell items elsewhere
That's a pretty anti-competitive rule if true.
Essentially it means you cannot sell on Jet.com because of how Jet.com's pricing is calculacted (any product COULD be cheaper on there if you stack enough of them).
You can limit the quantity on Jet, and you can put the price high enough that even with stacking it comes at to parity with Amazon. Or you could have similar stacking discounts by creating multipacks on Amazon.
The Jet threat came to a friend of mine, but I think you're right regarding selling items for less. There are a few mitigations for that specific restriction which have allowed some sellers to continue selling on multiple channels, but though some are likely obvious, I'm pretty sure I signed my right away to talk about said mitigations in public.
If not, I'll reply back with more. Will have to check.
Usual stuff when dealing with Amazon - never use the same browser/IP address/geographical ___location with two different accounts. Use different VPNs for different accounts/companies. Doable. Only the paranoid survive.
> and you have a way to ship those orders separately from Amazon ones
What do you mean by this? How likely would it be for a seller to even be in a position to ship orders from multiple websites in the same box? And how would Amazon find out without buying things on competitor websites and checking return addresses?
>How likely would it be for a seller to even be in a position to ship orders from multiple websites in the same box? And how would Amazon find out without buying things on competitor websites and checking return addresses?
Well firstly if you do something stupid like FBA multi-channel fulfilment, AZ may catch on. I don't mean shipping different orders together, I mean shipping from the same warehouse.
If the value is significant, I wouldn't put it past amazon to place a test order. Probably unlikely, but when you're breaking your business agreements, do it properly.
I have heard horror stories of people doing well selling some product buying from the manufacturer, and Amazon went to the manufacturer and bought on condition they don't sell the product to anyone else.
Perhaps I don't know the definition of anticompetitive, but I feel like this fits the bill.