C.R.A.P.

[peter-green]

thought I would change the subject,good article this morning about the creek.it would seem that they are no longer interested in certain low $ items.the above acronym is for cant realize a profit

sick of hearing about GCT,I use auctions myself and do not have much use for gtc.I run at least 500 no reserve auctions starting at a buck each year,half of this goes international.

love the EDELCON.I can ship all of my used goods anywhere for about $12.25.I highly recomend it,I have stopped INTL priority mail ,with edelcon I think its better and faster,excellent tracking,no need for pesky insurance.with risk comes reward,my international customers are the best

China will never have what I sell so I could care less about them as competion

[castlemagicmemories]

the above acronym is for cant realize a profit

Sure it is.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

castle. I read the article he's talking about. That is EXACTLY what the acronym stands for. The OP is mistaken when he calls out low priced goods----high priced goods are included. The issue isn't the price per se, it's whether Amazon believes they can make a sufficient profit on the item or not. Let's say I wholesale a certain product to Amazon (I don't, let's just say I do) and they resell it. Let's say I also advertise on Amazon. What A is doing is basically saying: Your wholesale price is too high, we can't make enough money selling this, so either lower it to where we want it or we won't let you advertise here anymore.

They play hardball over there.

[nodr-45]

Exactly. The article is about promoted listings on Amazon and the acronym is right in the article. Amazon is blocking promoted ads for products that are not profitable to the site.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/20/amazon-aggressively-suspending-ads-of-unprofitable-products-as-focus...

This comes not long after Amazon purged a bunch of suppliers. Instead of buying and stocking products Amazon is telling these suppliers to sell on the marketplace because Amazon makes more profit that way.

[richard1rst]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
The issue isn't the price per se, it's whether Amazon believes they can make a sufficient profit on the item or not.

Why does that surprise anyone? Amazon is simply doing what ALL of us here SHOULD be doing.

But first let me clarify “ALL”. I realize there are people on this site who do it as a hobby, or to pick up a little extra pin money, or to clean out their closet, etc. They are not part of my “ALL”.

The “ALL” I refer to are those who are here running a business for the specific purpose of earning a living.

I see many posts here from sellers complaining that they can not make a profit on what they are selling due to (fill in the excuse of your choice). I have often replied - then find something else with a better profit margin to sell. That's all that Amazon is doing.

@peter-green has the right idea:

"China will never have what I sell so I could care less about them as competition"

[rixstuff]

Also consider that pricing on Amazon is a race to the bottom.  Everybody prices just one penny less that everybody else so their item comes to the top in search results.  Eventually the item is down to 87 cents.  Sure your item is seen first and probably will sell but you wont make any money and neither does Amazon OR EBAY.

[beyondthetreeline]

"the above acronym is for cant realize a profit"

I believe that acronym is actually E.B.A.Y.

[tracdea1]

I think I'll stick with the little control I still have on this platform...
My boss wants to sell on the river. I told him to get someone else to do it, I will not.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

richard, well, that's not all that Amazon is doing here. We are talking about two separate things. Companies pay Amazon to advertise on Amazon. Just like a company can advertise on Google. That's advertising. It drives traffic to their businesses. We;re not talking about the company selling its stuff on Amazon. We're talking about they advertise there to drive traffic to their business

Some of those same companies also sell merchandise to Amazon. It is then Amazon's merchandise, Amazon owns it and Amazon sells it on Amazon.

Amazon makes money from the sales, but (obviously) Amazon could make more money if they could buy the merchandise cheaper. But the company has to make a profit, too, and doesn't want to sell it to Amazon for less.

So Amazon says " Of course, yes, I see. Perfectly understandable. You know, you do pretty good with your advertising here, huh? You pay us to advertise your site, and you're getting good traffic from those ads. Be a real pity, you know, anything happens to those ads, wouldn't it? Like, maybe you couldn't advertise here no more? No more traffic coming from us? Be a shame, a real shame. I'd hate to see that happen to you. I'll bet you'd hate to see it too, huh? Be almost as bad as someone shows up, middle of the night, torches your warehouse or something....But, you know, things happen. Just sayin'. So NOW, maybe you want to talk about lowering your price on that stuff we've been buying from you? Maybe that would be a smart idea, and I know you're a smart guy, right? Sure be a shame, anything happened to all that ad traffic you been getting...."

That's what the article is about. It isn't just: "we'd like lower costs". It's "Lower your price to us, or lose your advertising. Capisce?"

[rixstuff]

Sure money is nice but I sell stuff I was gonna sell anyway.  The stuff has to go and I would rather have the money instead.  Ebay makes that happen.  I have never sold an item for less than I was willing to take.  I also don't do this for a living.  This is a big electronic yard sale - always has been.  All it does or has ever promised to do is provide you with a place to put your stuff out where people can find it and buy it.

I also have advised folks over the years that just maybe there is either no or only a very small market for what they are selling or that even when there are buyers, the prices are too high but they don't want to hear it.  They prefer the "Ebay is hiding my listings!" conspiracies or the "Customer service wont do anything about my lack of sales!" (Like WHAT? They cant suddenly make undesireable drivel the hot item - they cant MAKE buyers buy!)  You have to be able and WILLING to mix it up with different prices, a mix of products, combining into lots, different formats - BIN, auctions, offers, etc.  Whatever gets it sold.

[richard1rst]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
Capisce?"

---

And in my lifetime I have known a few of those fellas with the pug noses and cauliflower ears. But your “Godfather” rant notwithstanding, it still all comes down to maximizing their (your) profits. That is, and should be, the focus of any business.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

Of course it should. I haven't suggested anything else. The article is merely pointing out HOW Amazon is going about that. Amazon also has a long history of watching their 3rd party sellers, and if one of them is doing really well with a particular product, Amazon will run its ROI calculations and figure out: do we make more money from the fees this guys pays us, or could we make more by selling the product ourselves? If they conclude the latter, the seller is gone and Amazon starts selling the product.

Nothing wrong with that, just maximizing profit....but the seller who was tossed under the bus might be rethinking his desire to sell on the platform.

But I agree, business is business....

[dirk12955]

Not replying to anybody specific.


This sounds like what Walmart was doing to some of their suppliers.

[castlemagicmemories]

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@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
castle. I read the article he's talking about. That is EXACTLY what the acronym stands for. The OP is mistaken when he calls out low priced goods----high priced goods are included. The issue isn't the price per se, it's whether Amazon believes they can make a sufficient profit on the item or not. Let's say I wholesale a certain product to Amazon (I don't, let's just say I do) and they resell it. Let's say I also advertise on Amazon. What A is doing is basically saying: Your wholesale price is too high, we can't make enough money selling this, so either lower it to where we want it or we won't let you advertise here anymore.

They play hardball over there.

---

I believe you, and I understand, but seriously, that acronym, like many, was chosen for its' shock and attention grabbing value, whether by the OP or not, and that was what my comment referenced.  They wouldn't get the same effect with PUNP, Profit just not possible, or any other similar combination.

I understand; price manipulation in favor of the host.

[castlemagicmemories]

---

@my-cottage-books-and-antiques wrote:
richard, well, that's not all that Amazon is doing here. We are talking about two separate things. Companies pay Amazon to advertise on Amazon. Just like a company can advertise on Google. That's advertising. It drives traffic to their businesses. We;re not talking about the company selling its stuff on Amazon. We're talking about they advertise there to drive traffic to their business

Some of those same companies also sell merchandise to Amazon. It is then Amazon's merchandise, Amazon owns it and Amazon sells it on Amazon.

Amazon makes money from the sales, but (obviously) Amazon could make more money if they could buy the merchandise cheaper. But the company has to make a profit, too, and doesn't want to sell it to Amazon for less.

So Amazon says " Of course, yes, I see. Perfectly understandable. You know, you do pretty good with your advertising here, huh? You pay us to advertise your site, and you're getting good traffic from those ads. Be a real pity, you know, anything happens to those ads, wouldn't it? Like, maybe you couldn't advertise here no more? No more traffic coming from us? Be a shame, a real shame. I'd hate to see that happen to you. I'll bet you'd hate to see it too, huh? Be almost as bad as someone shows up, middle of the night, torches your warehouse or something....But, you know, things happen. Just sayin'. So NOW, maybe you want to talk about lowering your price on that stuff we've been buying from you? Maybe that would be a smart idea, and I know you're a smart guy, right? Sure be a shame, anything happened to all that ad traffic you been getting...."

That's what the article is about. It isn't just: "we'd like lower costs". It's "Lower your price to us, or lose your advertising. Capisce?"

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Capisce.  Non ci piove.