Amazon has shifted from marketplace to competitor, launching 118 private-label brands that copy bestsellers and undercut prices. A Peak Design camera bag selling for $90 now faces a cheaper Amazon Basics knockoff. Sellers frustrated by the practice are leaving the platform.
Amazon is forcing sellers off their platform, but why? In the early days, Amazon was great if you were a seller. It let companies get their products in front of millions of shoppers, and Amazon only took a tiny slice of every sale. It was a win-win for everyone. But then they got into the private label game themselves. They see what's selling in their store and they go and they offer their own version of it and put their own name on it, and they cut that supplier out. Well, let's take this $90 Peak Design bag. You can add it to your cart and go to checkout, and you'll notice something. There's a similar listing that's almost identical, and it's one-third the price. And of course, sellers are pissed that Amazon is competing with them, and they started clapping back at Amazon with snarky commercials. Instead, you just get a bag designed by the crack team at the Amazon Basics department. But Amazon is too big to fight. They're doing this on thousands of their most popular products since they know exactly what sells and what doesn't. Now they have over 118 private label brands offering tens of thousands of products.
