Tuesday, November 6, 2012

The Dark SIde of Amazon



There’s a guy I know in the music industry. He’s had a ton of hits and made a lot of money selling his label and publishing company to large entertainment multinationals. He’s also a really stand-up guy, which is a rarity in such a cutthroat world. He once told me that you can get rich in the music business and still be a good person (and he’s proof of that). But, he said, to get REALLY, REALLY RICH in the music business you have to be willing to stab your best friend in the back.

Amazon has transformed retail, but we sometimes forget that there’s a price to be paid for that—and that price is paid by small shops, even by those who try to work with Amazon.  This article is about small sellers opening up Amazon affiliate stores but for some reason or another decided to end their relationship with the big A. And, despite requests from the small guys, Amazon  refusing to close out their affiliate stores. 

At first, this didn’t seem like that big of a deal to me. But the net result is, when someone searches for a small guy product by name, since their Amazon store is still “open”, the top links on a Google search direct the user to the Amazon store page where they are told the product is out of stock—and are provided with a host of competitor product links to choose from.  Amazon is an SEO powerhouse so it’s only natural that their listings for the product appear above the actual seller. And really, if Amazon says it’s out of stock, most people would just assume not to look elsewhere.

It may only be a matter of time before Amazon gets the same kind of rep as Wal-Mart.

 

 

 

 

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