Amazon Offered Vendors 'Amazon's Choice' Labels In Return For Ad Spending (digiday.com) 49
DigiDay has reviewed a pitch deck detailing a 2017 bidding program for the "Amazon's Choice" label, a mark that denotes than an item is recommended and gives certain products higher placement in search results. While the mark is now believed to be operated by Amazon's algorithms, sources say that Amazon actually offered sellers the chance to bid on the mark back in 2017. An anonymous Slashdot reader shares the report: Amazon has previously offered vendors the ability to "bid" for an Amazon's Choice badge by lowering prices and spending more money on advertising, bringing into sharper focus how the program, which recently came under fire from senators, actually works. It's unclear whether or not this offer was taken up by any Amazon vendors, or how long the program was offered before it was discontinued. One source believed it was only offered for a few months.
The criteria for each bid focused on reviews and in-stock rate. To be considered, Amazon required brands to be able to keep products in stock for a 12-month duration, keep customer review ratings above four stars, and maintain certain technical specifications for their respective subcategories. Essentially, Amazon was only interested in bids from brands already selling high-quality products on its platform. From there, Amazon wanted to drive attention to products in each category that would maximize its profitability. In an email to a brand client, an Amazon strategic vendor service manager recommended the brand drop its selling price by $30 in order to win the bid, a move that would increase Amazon's profits on the sale. For vendors, access to a strategic vendor service manager, considered to provide inside access to Amazon, costs hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. When asked if the program existed, an Amazon spokesperson denied that this program was offered.
Is that a surprise? (Score:5, Insightful)
Is that a surprise? I've assumed all along that "Amazon's Choice" meant that there was some commercial agreement that caused Amazon to rank those items higher. I've assumed since the very beginning that those were either Amazon owned brands or paid for ad spots.
What is the news here? That sponsors pay for sponsored links? That happens all over the internet. Did anyone think Amazon's Choice was anything other than a sponsored link?
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To be fair, I assumed that the sellers simply paid cash for the mark.
The "algorithm" being:
1) Select item.
2) Look up seller in db.
3) Has seller paid $100000?
4) If yes, then print "Amazon Choice!"
5) End
Obviously Amazon need to delete low scoring reviews to keep the item at 4* or better, but I'm sure they do that all the time in exchange for money. They are, after all, complete scumbags.
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I always took that as an actually reason to buy "Amazon choice" items: I figured the badge wasn't sold for cheap, and so outright scammers wouldn't buy it. Dodging outright scams on the Amazon Flea Market is a challenge for some items.
Re:Is that a surprise? (Score:4, Interesting)
offered vendors the ability to "bid" for an Amazon's Choice badge by lowering prices and spending more money on advertising
To be considered, Amazon required brands to be able to keep products in stock for a 12-month duration, keep customer review ratings above four stars, and maintain certain technical specifications
SO basically amazon said if you spend advertising with us on a product that you can make available, has good ratings, a good price, will continue to be manufactured to the same specs. We will give you the amazon choice label.
Given that we know amazon is about making money supposedly by pleasing their customers this doesn't really sound that terrible.
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SO basically amazon said if you spend advertising with us on a product that you can make available, has good ratings, a good price, will continue to be manufactured to the same specs. We will give you the amazon choice label.
Given that we know amazon is about making money supposedly by pleasing their customers this doesn't really sound that terrible.
Yeah, I'm actually ok with that. Given the amount of crap on Amazon, the knowledge that, while you might pay a bit of a price premium (but not much in my experience comparing "Amazon Choice" to not), the seller itself is somewhat reputable and has some measure of standards and quality. Amazon has a vested interest in making "Amazon Choice" products stay at a certain quality level since, if they keep wanting to get that premium, they can't allow the Amazon Choice label to get tainted, or people will stop b
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And it's just a kickback, laundered as ad revenue.
Gee, when I write it that way, it seems almost criminal. But I assumed that 'Amazon Choice' meant 'They paid for this promotion', so I'm not at all disappointed.
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Except we know it isn't true, because it's easy to find complete crap as "Amazon's Choice". Stuff that gets highlighted, and stuff that people would prefer to b
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"Is that a surprise?"
Neither a surprise nor news for nerds.
Next, they'll tell us that companies pay for specific shelf-space in supermarkets.
It's not necessarily a bad idea or incorrect (Score:2)
For example, when I review proposals once I've winnowed a stack of 100 down to the ten best and only 5 are going to get funded it's time to consider other factor than the absolute ranking of the proposal quality. For example, I will try to pick 5 that are in different topic areas or pick them to increase other diversity factors. All 10 are great and my ability to discern sharply is neither precise nor accurate even though I did rank them 1 to 10.
When Amazon is handing out it's approval it's probably fir
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Pessimists will never be surprised by people being scammy. But not everyone is a pessimist. Nor is pessimism even frequently right. You suggest that the label is nothing more than a sponsored link when the summary itself says that the conflation of the two was only offered once in 2017.
I, for one, though "Amazon's Choice" was a combination of high ratings and high purchase frequency. Seems rational, doesn't it? I'm disappointed that it includes any amount of sponsorship and I hope that bringing this to ligh
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I've assumed all along that "Amazon's Choice" meant that there was some commercial agreement that caused Amazon to rank those items higher. I've assumed since the very beginning that those were either Amazon owned brands or paid for ad spots.
Amazon has maintained that the mark is algorithmically computed based on ratings, sales volume, and return rate (read their help text).
If they put this out for a bid, they have lied to and defrauded their customers. That's a serious charge and a class action would be l
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"Amazon has maintained that the mark is algorithmically computed based on ratings, sales volume, and return rate (read their help text)."
But a quick look at search results puts the lie to that claim, since at least some of their choices are neither popular nor well-reviewed.
Re: Is that a surprise? (Score:2)
The term is relative.
If you want Amazon's choice for a niche term, there may not be much competition.
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> What is the news here? That sponsors pay for sponsored links? That happens all over the internet. Did anyone think Amazon's Choice was anything other than a sponsored link?
It's potentially deceptive. "Amazon's choice" could possibly mean of that category it's the item that is purchased most often by shoppers on Amazon - hence it's "Amazon's (the mass of shoppers) choice". But that's not the case. It could also mean that the tag is a result of Amazon curating a particular category like some other com
Amazon's Choice has always been scammy (Score:4, Interesting)
When Amazon rolled out the "choice" label and made claims about how it is awarded based on sale pace, return rates, and customer feedback, yet placeed the label on items with no reviews and no apparent sales at all, it was very clear it was just a promotional gimmick.
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Odd... I thought that almost everyone already knew that the "Amazon Choice" program was a scam. On YouTube, there are a lot of product reviewers showing that products that get that label are often the lowest quality product in their category. You end up with glue that doesn't stick, padlocks that can be picked in 5 seconds, and headphones that sound like crap, for example.
Re:Amazon's Choice padlock (Score:2)
At least one funny thing came out of that scheme, this video review of an Amazon's Choice padlock:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Amazon: It would be a shame if something happened (Score:3)
Amazon Seller: Here is your "advertising" money.
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Except Amazon here legally owns & maintains the store front, delivery trucks, street, lighting, chairs, desks, counters, shelves, payment processing, backroom, and the comments box.
I don't think we would think like this if a Mall decided to raise the rent on the food court vendors.
Amozon is in it for the money. Period. (Score:2)
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Amazon Basics items?
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I always wondered if what drove this was partly "virtual inventory" on the part of marketplace sellers who didn't actually engage in sourcing a specific SKU, they just listed it for sale and Amazon actually acted as the wholesaler of the SKU.
So there was a bin of a specific SKU in the warehouse, but it belonged to everyone who was retailing that SKU, including Amazon, who also acted as the wholesale supplier. If you bought from SuperFunLegitBatts, what was actually happening was Amazon charging them for th
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The question looks like: what can you buy from Amazon, and be confident is it not a counterfeit product?
The only way I've found that works is going to the manufacturer website, and following a link from their website to Amazon. Also, books, for some reason. Otherwise it's really, really hard.
Bad for Vendors, Great for Consumers! (Score:1)
This is the business model that Costco was built on (minus the "ad revenue" incentives for vendors). It's one of the reasons that I will spend my money there for the rest of my life. I can buy their products knowing that they have been painstakingly reviewed for quality, value, and competitive edge... not to mention the incentive of bulk pricing. From a consumer's point of view, that's a very positive thing! It seems that Amazon is going down a similar path with their exclusive Amazon's Choice items. With t
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"This is the business model that Costco was built on"
That's not even the same ballpark, let alone the same motherfucking sport.
Costco and Amazon could hardly be more different. The only thing they have in common is that they both have B&M stores, and they both sell things online. After that they differ in literally every particular:
Costco stocks only a small selection of items which they know they can sell profitably. Amazon sells everything under the sun.
Costco stocks only quality goods which they know
Trust Amazon much? (Score:2)
When you look up a product, no matter how generically, try these tricks:
- Sort by lowest price. Watch the list change dramatically.
- Try excluding terms, for instance 'Ryobi Blower -40v". Watch the list go to hell.
- Try to be specific. Watch the list show you stuff that has NO relation to what you searched for.
I know these shenanigans are largely Amazon's attempt to put what they want to sell to you in front of you, rather than what you want, but there is more here.
- Those wacko items are intended, I bet, t
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Sorry, maybe I am just smarter (I highly doubt it), but I don't have as much of a bad experience on Amazon as some of you guys. I get something delivered on a weekly basis. Easily 75 items per year. And I do shop around. Somethings like wrenches, 2x4s, etc I get from Walmart, HomeDepot, Lowes, CostCo, etc. But a good chuck of the stuff I own is from Amazon.
I am not saying my shopping is perfect at Amazon, but for 9/10 things, it goes smoothly. I get what I expect. Its compariable to Walmart without t
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It's not about how you get your stuff, Amazon is great with fulfillment. It's about how they try to manipulate you into buying what *they* want to sell you.
And when it's what *you* want to buy, great. When it crosses the line to misrepresentation, even of popularity or the vendor relationship, that's questionable.
And then we have reviews, fabricated, irrelevant, or just paid for, the true wild wild west of all online shopping.
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Re: Trust Amazon much? (Score:2)
Oh come on. This is called "shopping" from time immemorial. Try to buy coffee at an airport, a planter box at a grocery store, 2-liter coke at a pizza shop, laundry detergent at a home improvement, or sandwich at a gas station. Amazon is loads better than what we historically have had.
It's not perfect, nor even great, but there is a reason it is so successful. There is a reason they continuously make the front page here.
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I live in small town USA and can buy most products here but the selection is poor so amazon does get a lot of my business. I don't have issues finding the products I want on amazon many times at a better price than local. I have never had to return anything probably because I usually only buy things that qualify for prime shipping, have 1000+ reviews, and at least 4 stars.
Wasn't it obvious? (Score:3)
Wasn't it obvious? When I saw "Amazon's Choice" I always took it literally - best for Amazon. It didn't say "Amazon Recommends" or anything like that which might get them in trouble if they were paid to assign it.
So, yeah, Amazon is a for-profit company, so you should expect "Amazon's Choice" is what would make them money, whether they directly let sellers bid or have any other algorithm, it can't possibly mean they have a testing department and they think this particular product is better than the competition...
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Amazon pissed me off with "Choice" (Score:2)
I recently bought a Garmin cycle computer from Amazon (because no-one local to me sold it). I had researched what I wanted and without thinking (or looking closely) I chose the entry on Amazon marked as "Amazon choice". When I received the device I saw that it was obviously a return (seal on the box not good and there was dirt under the plastic that protected the display). When I went back and looked at my Amazon order I saw that I had in fact bought it from a 3rd party seller and not from Garmin - yet
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I did complain to Amazon about returns being sold at full price, but they basically brushed me off. So this event started to turn me off Amazon and is changing my buying habits.
It's funny, what made so many people so loyal to Amazon in the beginning was how amazing their customer service was. They gained a lot of loyalty that way. I remember a slight grievance I had with an item being slightly late in the early days. They shipped a new one overnight and told me to keep the original when order when it finally arrived. So it was like a free item.
Now Amazon are so huge their customer service is terrible. Now they don't have to woo customers they've become one of the worst compan
Anyone suprised by this never looked that close (Score:1)
The "Amazon Choice" tags can be oddly specific, if you look at what an item is "Amazon Choice" for. It is in smaller text next to the "Amazon Choice" badge.
Example, Go take a look at the Logitech G920 racing wheel. You will find that it is "Amazon Choice for "logitech g920". Now isn't that helpful.......
It was obviously SOME kind of scam (Score:2)
The Amazon's choice label doesn't appear to correspond to anything detectable. It doesn't correlate to price, popularity, or review scores. Clearly it had to be related to something else. I always assumed it was the product on which Amazon made the most profit. I guess I wasn't far off, since they get paid for ads.
Earn paytm cash online (Score:1)
Amazon (Score:1)