Amazon recruits more Chinese sellers and puts consumers at risk
The Wall Street Journal takes a look at the rising number of Chinese sellers on Amazon and the problems they make
The percentage of China-based sellers directly supplying products on Amazon has risen to 38% from 25% three years ago, according to The Wall Street Journal analysis of the 10,000 most-reviewed accounts.
That increase has been accompanied by more problems. More than half of the problematic items sold on Amazon uncovered earlier by the Wall Street Journal—including items banned or declared unsafe by the government, or deceptively labeled—came from these Chinese accounts.
The move by Amazon makes commercial sense, writes The Information. Cutting out a lot of the U.S.-based middlemen means both higher margins for the Chinese sellers and lower prices for consumers. But enforcing quality and safety issues with companies based in China is much harder.
More Amazon news
Jeff Bezos took the controls of some huge robotic hands
Bezos Expects Robotic Hands To Be Ready Within 10 YearsJeff Bezos took control of a pair of giant remote-controlled robot hands at Amazon's re:MARS robotics conference in Las Vegas.The hands don't just mirror the movement of the person wearing the gloves —...
Amazon may soon face an antitrust probe
Here are 3 questions the FTC is asking about it The Federal Trade Commission has been questioning Amazon’s competitors about its Prime service and how it competes with its own marketplace sellers. Amazon and its fellow tech giants will soon find themselves the focus...
Amazon is working on a device that will read human emotions
Amazon brings sci-fi tech to life Amazon is developing a voice-activated wearable device that can recognize human emotional state, turning Sci-fi tech into reality The wrist-worn gadget is described as a health and wellness product in internal documents...