- August 20, 2023
The most popular internet shop in the world, known for selling anything you can think of, from the strongest expandable garden hoses to vintage wooden tables and velour suit racks. We’re referring to the legendary Amazon.com.
Amazon has always encouraged brands to struggle for visibility for the top-left position in its rankings. Still, during the outbreak, Amazon’s online marketplace started using this spot for its private-label products, raising unfair competition.
Any product sold directly, either by the namesake’s domain, is wholly owned by Amazon. Amazon’s online marketplace is a platform where vendors can sell goods. Thus, when something is bought directly from Amazon.com, Amazon receives all of the earnings. When something is bought through Amazon Marketplace, Amazon.com and independent sellers split the proceeds.
Until recently, several sleep aids would show up in the most sought location on the search results page—top left on the main page of Amazon marketplace, when Amazon shoppers typed “melatonin” into the site’s search box.
A natural supplement vendor hired by consultant Jason Boyce frequently tries to outbid rivals for the finest slots by promising Amazon marketplace around $6 every time customers click on the product. As a result, the brand frequently appeared in the top row even if it never gained the top left position. But by the end of March, Boyce had seen that Solimo, an Amazon-owned brand, had taken over all the top left spots, pushing his client’s goods into a lower row. Likewise, once Boyce had entered “ground coffee” into the search box, Amazon Fresh Colombian coffee beans appeared in the upper left corner, pushing down another user. That’s why they are struggling for visibility.
Brands have always had the option to pay on search terms to claim the most prominent ranking position at the top of Amazon’s search engine results pages, in which their products show a “sponsored” tag above the description, even though users may not always be aware of this. The best position, the top left on the first page, is no longer available for hundreds of product search keywords, according to experts and ProPublica’s examination. However, they continue to bid for top-row places.
As a result of Amazon’s online marketplace tactic, listings for items including diapers, paper, mattresses, trail mixes, and lightbulbs have been demoted by competitors. According to advisers, Amazon’s marketplace is trying to protect short-term ad revenue to gradually increase the sales of its private brands by placing them in a few of the most desirable spaces.
According to Tim Williams, a seller who once worked at Amazon and has also been struggling for visibility, the new strategy goes against the company’s mandate that the consumer must come first in every decision. Hughes, the chief operating officer of a company that assists businesses in managing their Amazon accounts, questioned why their brand would be a better choice for consumers. “It doesn’t have to be better, cheaper, or anything else. So what excuse do they have for saying, “We’re simply going to display that in front of everyone else,” then? It is another instance of how Amazon can effectively control the platform.
