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Amazon Loses Huge Footwear Company Because Of Fake Products, a Problem It Denies Is Happening (cnbc.com)
Several sellers on Amazon had noted earlier this month that the platform is riddled with counterfeit products and that things have gotten worse after Chinese manufacturers were allowed to sell goods to the consumers in the United States. Amid the report, the German footwear company Birkenstock has announced it will no longer sell its sandals on Amazon. The company added that it will also ban any sales of its products by third-party sellers on Amazon, effectively making its products unavailable on the world's largest online store, according to a report on CNBC. From the report: "The Amazon marketplace, which operates as an 'open market,' creates an environment where we experience unacceptable business practices which we believe jeopardize our brand," Birkenstock USA CEO David Kahan wrote from the company's U.S. headquarters in Novato, California. "Policing this activity internally and in partnership with Amazon.com has proven impossible."
Knockoff doesn't have to mean low quality. Often times the quality is almost as good as the premium name item.
Just saying.
It seems like this approach would just let the counterfeit products completely control the Amazon market for their type of product.
I wonder if Birkenstock is aware of a website called Aliexpress.com... A quick search shows that $20 off retail is much more than one needs to pay for a counterfeit version of their shoes.
BlameBillCosby.com
They likely can only control the third parties they directly sell to and build it into their contracts.
When you think of fake products, knock-offs and the like, you think primarily of fashion goods, like the Birkenstock sandals in the article. So, when I bought a Black and Decker electric knife recently, I never dreamed there would be a problem. The knife is a piece of crap. It was haphazardly packaged, and will not cut through anything. True to form, when I complained about it, they offered to take it back if I would return it. But then I thought, "What I bought was an errand." Instead of getting a legitimate product, conveniently delivered to my front door, I got a crappy product, and now I have to print out the return strip, repackage it, and then go down to the UPS store and stand in line to have it shipped off. They say they'll pay for the shipping and refund my money, but isn't my time and effort worth something? Why should I have to waste an hour dealing with something that is obviously a fake product? If they can deliver me a glob of shit, they can goddam well come around and pick it back up. Amazon needs to scrutinize their sellers better.
Proverbs 21:19
When I go to Amazon to perhaps purchase something, I go there to buy from Amazon, not some unknown third party. I wish there was an option to disable the entire marketplace listings for my account. If there was such an option, I might shop there more. As it is I barely go there anymore.
I view Amazon now as I have Ebay for a long time, where I go to buy cheap trash I don't really need. And i don't buy cheap trash.
Other well known sellers are becoming like flea markets too, Newegg I'm looking at you. If I go to an online retailer I am going there to buy from them, not some guy on a street corner. That's how it feels now. :(
Summary quotes the Birkenstock CEO as saying "The Amazon marketplace, which operates as an "open market,” creates an environment where we experience unacceptable business practices which we believe jeopardize our brand." It leaves out a later sentence in the same paragraph, which it probably at least as much of an issue as the counterfeiting problem: "It also includes a constant stream of unidentifiable unauthorized sellers who show a blatant disregard for our pricing policies."
Birkenstock wants all dealers to sell at full list - stores were selling on Amazon at a discount, and undercutting other dealers, who were complaining to Birkenstock.
It's just like what Ebay has been for over a decade now. You can not be sure you are buying anything that is real. I used to use the "prime" as a real item indicator, but even thouse are now turning out to be china junk sold as real with a username that even looks real.
"SandiskMemory" is NOT Sandisk... in fact Sandisk does not have a direct amazon store so anyone using the seller name SanDisk is selling china fake junk.
Amazon refuses to fix this because they are making mad profit off of it.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
A few years ago, I purchased what I thought were genuine Nikon batteries for use in my cameras.
Once they arrived, I took a very good look at them and determined they were, in fact, counterfeit.
( They had official looking hologram stickers and whatnot, but were not the real thing )
I returned them and ended up purchasing the batteries through a local dealer instead.
Now, while some will say " What's the big deal ? ", if a problem develops within those batteries and
it ends up destroying your $$$$ camera, you can bet Nikon would tell me " Too Bad for you ". Otoh,
if a genuine Nikon battery does the same thing, Nikon would probably be a bit more sympathetic since
it is their official product that I'm buying.
Bottom line: If I cannot trust Amazon and / or the sellers who operate through Amazon to deliver genuine
products, I will simply cease using Amazon to purchase any of it.
It's that simple.
No it isn't. The reason shoes sell here in the US for $100+ that cost $20 to manufacture is profit, development and (mostly) marketing costs. Nike pays Michael Jordan a billion dollars for marketing purposes. That money comes from the consumer. A pair of Jordan shoes costs about $20 to make in China. The $100 profit goes to Nike. It doesn't go to quality.
The biggest problem raised in the article is the commingling of inventory. Many sellers of products provide the products to Amazon, and they are shipped out of Amazon warehouses. When multiple companies are selling the exact same product, Amazon commingles the inventory, as they consider the products to be fungible. In theory, that's fine. However, if some of the companies are selling knock-offs, you have a problem. People ordering from the knock-off seller have a good chance of getting the real thing and writing a great review. People ordering from legitimate sellers get knock-offs and write terrible reviews.
I've seen a number of products myself where the reviews clearly indicate that people are receiving different products, and there's no way to tell which one you might actually receive.
If Amazon were to fix this one problem, they would be in a much better position to manage counterfeit products.
Amazon gets 30% of everything sold there. There's HUGE incentive for them to let anybody sell whatever they want because:
- 30% is a lot. Last I checked, it was 30% of the sale price AND shipping
- Amazon doesn't make anywhere near 30% on just about everything else they sell, themselves. Much of their stuff is sold at a loss.
Now why somebody would want to give up 30% of the price (PLUS shipping) is beyond me. There are very few things that have the kind of markup it would take to make any money after that huge commission. I suppose that there's always somebody dumb enough to think that if you somehow sell enough stuff for a loss, eventually, you'll make money...?
I don't respond to AC's.
Birkenstock needs Amazon more than Amazon needs Birkenstock.
As I understand the term, it's only a knockoff if it's attempting to portray itself as a different company's brand. Supermarket own brand ketchup is not a Heinz knockoff, even if it's made in the same factory with the same ingredients, because it's got someone else's name on it and isn't trying to pretend to be Heinz ketchup.
If the shoes cost $20 to make and you can get shoes for the same quality as Nike and manage to sell them for $40, making $20 profit on each one, then you shouldn't worry about putting your own brand name on them. You'll get good reviews and the value of your brand increases. The problem is when you make an inferior product and put someone else's name on it, because then you get the benefit from their reputation and they pay the cost when their reputation suffers because of the substandard goods.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
All of the Birkenstock wearing hippies will have to buy their overpriced status symbols somewhere else. The horror!
The issue here, really, was that some vendors were actually willing to discount Birkenstock products instead of sticking to full retail price - and that made BIrkenstock's brick-and-mortar and small-web-site retailers cranky. So Birkenstock would rather lose a huge outlet for their products than lose a lot of smaller ones that don't want to compete on price. That's their call. But this is only marginally if at all about knock-offs. This is about competition and price, and Birkenstock is chopping off a venue where shoppers might save a few dollars on shoes so they could spend it on tofu instead.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Amazon is full of crap listings now. So common to see an item with a normal retail price of $60 in a listing that has the item at $400. It's the ecommerce equivalent of malware.
You should care: the shortfall that the government doesn't collect from corporations comes out of YOUR TAXES. Christ, how dumb are you? The government doesn't go without: it just takes more of YOUR money.
I have returned small counterfeit or complete no-name imitations that were sold as the real item before. But then I realized that when a seller does that, they are basically trying to scam you and hoping that you won't do anything about it.
After realizing that, I just hit them where it hurts - give them a one-star rating of the vendor/transaction (not the product - remember that there are two different ratings on Amazon), and make clear on the review what the problem was. This will affect their ability to sell on Amazon, eventually.
The only time so far that I've had to do this for a small item the vendor refunded my purchase price and shipping without asking for the apparent counterfeit (and/or used) item back.
So remember, they're trying to scam you and get away with it - act accordingly!