Amazon pushes shoppers to its own brand before clicking ‘buy’
Amazon has introduced a new feature that markets its private-label brands right before consumers add rival products to their shopping carts.
The Washington Post conducted dozens of product searches and saw offers for a “similar item to consider” featuring an Amazon brand appearing just above the area where shoppers click to add a purchase to their cart.
The boxes reportedly touted lower-priced Amazon versions of everyday items.
“It’s an ad at exactly the moment the customer is ready to buy,” James Thomson, a former senior manager in business development at Amazon and now a partner at brand consultancy Buy Box Experts, told the Washington Post. “I don’t see how that’s not unfair.”
Amazon defended itself in a statement to the Washington Post, the promotion to the way any store would push its own private-label goods.
“Like any retailer we promote our own brands in our stores, which provide high-quality products and great value to customers,” Amazon spokeswoman Nell Rona told the paper. “We also extensively promote products from our selling partners.”
More Amazon news
China insists on the removal of existing US tariffs
US-China Trade Deal Beijing’s top priority in the trade deal with the United States is the removal of existing tariffs on Chinese goods “Sources with direct knowledge of the trade talks told the Global Times on Saturday that the U.S. must remove existing...
Amazon is going to need a lot of robots
Amazon wants to ship you anything in 30 minutes Analysts predict that Amazon will try to add robots and automation to its entire operation. It is inevitable given Amazon's focus on efficiency and pleasing customers. Amazon is burning through billions to...
Former Amazon executive on the 5-star rating system
Amazon rating system developers ended up being too protective of it According to the former Amazon executive, the online ratings and reviews model was a good solution at first, but the team ended up being too protective of it. Dan Lewis spent many years at...