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elgato
Joined: 24 Feb 2005
Posts: 17240
Location: Texas
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| Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2011 7:01 pm Post subject: How do you cope with Price Parity on Amazon? |
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We’ve been forwarded an interesting email along with a bit of confusion from an Amazon seller. They’ve had a “Policy Warning” from Amazon and the rap on the knuckles is due to their pricing.
Amazon say that they “require that sellers who choose to sell products on Amazon not charge customers higher prices on Amazon than they charge elsewhere”. This means that you can’t sell on other marketplaces or your own website at a lower total price (item plus carriage) than you sell on Amazon. Amazon’s policy on this is set out on the Amazon Price Parity page. It’s worth noting that the Price Parity policy also mandates that customer service and returns rights are also at least as favourable on Amazon as on the other sites you trade on.
There are two arguments here – firstly Amazon say that their customers trust that they’ll find consistently low prices and other favourable terms on Amazon. On the other hand sellers incur fees when selling on Amazon which may be higher than the cost of selling on alternative channels – price parity might actually lead to making a net loss when selling on Amazon.
The question has been asked is this Price Fixing which is illegal under the Competition Act, however as Amazon allow each marketplace partner to set their own pricing this doesn’t apply. Amazon aren’t colluding to set prices for products, they’re simply requiring that sellers don’t charge a customer more on Amazon than they do elsewhere online.
There are a number of solutions for sellers who don’t feel able to price match due to Amazon’s charges:
http://tamebay.com/2011/11/how-do-you-cope-with-price-parity-on-amazon.html |
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elpereles
Joined: 15 Dec 2006
Posts: 1478
Location: Puerto Rico
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| Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2011 1:33 pm Post subject: Re: How do you cope with Price Parity on Amazon? |
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| This is the only reason I never try Amazon. |
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cohibastore.com
Joined: 14 Sep 2006
Posts: 4908
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| Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 9:30 pm Post subject: Re: How do you cope with Price Parity on Amazon? |
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duh - don't use the same name on Amazon as you do elsewhere.
at one time I regretted not being able to easily switch the Amazon ID to my new business name on ebay/elsewhere, but i found it somewhat comforting my customers won't be able to compare and complain about different pricing.
CS |
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