Amazon's Ethical and Unethical Issues in disciplines of Marketing Management

By Jash Richhariya

Amazon , as we all know is one of the biggest companies globally , but despite , it is having many ethical and unethical issues regarding the marketing management. So I am going to discuss some of those mareting Issues in detail in this blog.

1. Exploiting those who sell on Amazon & those who buy

Not content with hurting just about everyone it employs, Amazon finds a way to hurt those who sell on their platform and those who buy on it. Research by ProPublica found that Amazon’s algorithm is built in a specific way so that when customers search for something they’re directed towards products from Amazon or sellers who pay for Amazon’s services, even when these items are significantly more expensive than other competitors selling on the site.

                                    

They found that Amazon ranks products by price + shipping, but conveniently omits shipping costs for its own products or those sold by companies that pay Amazon. As competition gets more and more aggressive sellers are forced to join the “Fulfilled by Amazon” programme, which requires paying Amazon to warehouse and ship their products, as it increases their chances of winning the buy box. The fees for the program can amount to between 10 – 20% of sales, meaning that smaller businesses lose money and customers are exploited.

2. Fraudulent Claims Of Hazardous Materials, Counterfeit And Not Sold As New

           

It is surprisingly easy to get an Amazon listing suspended.Because Amazon adopts a guilty until proven innocent attitude, all it takes are a few false complaints to completely ruin your account.

If you are selling a product that contains chemicals or cleaning reagents, evil sellers can buy your product and claim that it contains hazardous or illegal materials.

Because Amazon always errors on the side of caution, they will almost always suspend your product for further investigation. And the reinstatement process can takes weeks or months.

Another quick way to get someone suspended is to file an inauthenticity claim against a product. Even if the claims are baseless, you’ll find that Amazon requires little or no evidence before taking action.

3. Fake Review Sabotage

                          

Without even trying, you can easily find companies in China offering fake negative review services where you can instantly sabotage a competitor’s listing for a small sum of money. It’s not even that expensive!

Here’s how it works.

A malicious seller pays a service to leave negative reviews on your brand new listing. The service then uses hundreds of fake Amazon accounts to buy your merchandise and have it sent to random people.

Then, they leave fake negative reviews which are “verified” and destroy your sales.This same tactic can be used to file false A-Z claims of counterfeit merchandise, item not as described or items sold as used as well.

So , these were some of the marketing issues Amazon is having.

Thanks for Reading ! Comment below what do you think :)