How do I find out information on an Amazon seller?
April 1, 2015 2:27 PM Subscribe
I work at a small manufacturing company. A number of our products are being sold on Amazon at far below retail. If I can identify the customer who purchased them from us, I contact them and they raise the price. The problem is that I can't always match the Amazon seller to one of our customers. I've tried so many different ways and I'm stuck.
?
I've looked into a service that will do this but the few I talked to can only help if the items were purchased from us. I can't guarantee that some of these sellers are buying the products from us.
Is there a way to find out who the seller is or at least a city and state where they are located?
I've looked into a service that will do this but the few I talked to can only help if the items were purchased from us. I can't guarantee that some of these sellers are buying the products from us.
Is there a way to find out who the seller is or at least a city and state where they are located?
Place an order and see where the item was physically shipped from? Make a friendly call to customer service and casually ask the person on the other end of the line where the company is located (most people don't mind chatting for a bit)?
posted by halogen at 2:44 PM on April 1, 2015
posted by halogen at 2:44 PM on April 1, 2015
I work for a company that makes software for Amazon sellers and have good news and bad news.
Good news: Buying it is probably your best option and should get you somebody to contact. You can also contact the seller through the form Amazon provides.
Bad News: There's no guarantee that you'll be able to get them to change their price. Why?
1) They may be sourcing the product at a cost that lets them sell under retail. For example, is your product being sold at Target (or another retailer). Is Target marking down your item in some of their stores? Is the seller using that discount+cash back credit cards to get their COGS down to where they can sell that item on Amazon for a below retail price?
2) If you can trace this back to a person buying wholesale from you, do you have a MAP agreement in place? If so, are you willing to stop selling to the seller? If not, then they really don't have an incentive to raise their price.
3) The seller may not care about losing money. If they're selling FBA, selling at a loss may be preferable to eating Amazons long term storage fees for unsold inventory. If they don't have a good way to return the product to you/a distributor, and it's not selling like they hoped, they may as well cut prices to minimize their loss. Again, you're unlikely to convince them to change their mind If this is the case.
You may also find out that the item being sold below retail is just a cheap knockoff being sold on the same Amazon product page. If this is the case, good luck. You'll need to contact Amazon and wait for them to deal with it. And keep pestering them until they deal with it. And then you'll need to stay vigilant to catch the next person trying the same trick.
You are in a position that a LOT of manufacturers find themselves in and there's no easy, good option.
posted by paulcole at 3:01 PM on April 1, 2015 [3 favorites]
Good news: Buying it is probably your best option and should get you somebody to contact. You can also contact the seller through the form Amazon provides.
Bad News: There's no guarantee that you'll be able to get them to change their price. Why?
1) They may be sourcing the product at a cost that lets them sell under retail. For example, is your product being sold at Target (or another retailer). Is Target marking down your item in some of their stores? Is the seller using that discount+cash back credit cards to get their COGS down to where they can sell that item on Amazon for a below retail price?
2) If you can trace this back to a person buying wholesale from you, do you have a MAP agreement in place? If so, are you willing to stop selling to the seller? If not, then they really don't have an incentive to raise their price.
3) The seller may not care about losing money. If they're selling FBA, selling at a loss may be preferable to eating Amazons long term storage fees for unsold inventory. If they don't have a good way to return the product to you/a distributor, and it's not selling like they hoped, they may as well cut prices to minimize their loss. Again, you're unlikely to convince them to change their mind If this is the case.
You may also find out that the item being sold below retail is just a cheap knockoff being sold on the same Amazon product page. If this is the case, good luck. You'll need to contact Amazon and wait for them to deal with it. And keep pestering them until they deal with it. And then you'll need to stay vigilant to catch the next person trying the same trick.
You are in a position that a LOT of manufacturers find themselves in and there's no easy, good option.
posted by paulcole at 3:01 PM on April 1, 2015 [3 favorites]
What you're trying to do is known as "price fixing" and it's probably against the law.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 4:23 PM on April 1, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 4:23 PM on April 1, 2015 [2 favorites]
Price fixing is when every item in the same category is the same price- collusion between multiple companies.
Requiring companies who retail YOUR product to stick to the MSRP is not illegal.
posted by small_ruminant at 4:31 PM on April 1, 2015 [7 favorites]
Requiring companies who retail YOUR product to stick to the MSRP is not illegal.
posted by small_ruminant at 4:31 PM on April 1, 2015 [7 favorites]
A couple follow ups:
If you are selling on Amazon yourself, absolutely do not tell another seller to adjust his/her price, no matter whether your issue is justified or not. Amazon will revoke your selling privileges for doing this. It may not be illegal, but Amazon doesn't care. They run the show and make the rules and don't need your product/your business that badly. They shoot first and don't ask questions.
I am definitely not a legal authority, but have seen the way conflicts like this play out between manufacturers, distributors, 3rd-party sellers and Amazon.
posted by paulcole at 4:46 PM on April 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
If you are selling on Amazon yourself, absolutely do not tell another seller to adjust his/her price, no matter whether your issue is justified or not. Amazon will revoke your selling privileges for doing this. It may not be illegal, but Amazon doesn't care. They run the show and make the rules and don't need your product/your business that badly. They shoot first and don't ask questions.
I am definitely not a legal authority, but have seen the way conflicts like this play out between manufacturers, distributors, 3rd-party sellers and Amazon.
posted by paulcole at 4:46 PM on April 1, 2015 [1 favorite]
IANYL, this is not legal advice, it is factual legal information only and it may not apply to your specific situation.
In addition to price fixing, resale price maintenance (where a supplier tries to impose a minimum resale price on a reseller) is illegal in many countries and the position in the US is complex. Lawyer, lawyer, lawyer.
posted by yogalemon at 5:09 PM on April 1, 2015 [2 favorites]
In addition to price fixing, resale price maintenance (where a supplier tries to impose a minimum resale price on a reseller) is illegal in many countries and the position in the US is complex. Lawyer, lawyer, lawyer.
posted by yogalemon at 5:09 PM on April 1, 2015 [2 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Scram at 2:43 PM on April 1, 2015