Diane Seidle, a Bridge coach, pens a column about Amazon in this month’s Tableware Today. The article shares that premium brands’ products are being severely discounted—meaning a slim margin is being made by the seller. I’ll be the first to admit that some margin is better than losing an order to a competitor and thereby getting no margin, but there is the line between competition and just making a subsistence living. A subsistence living is not humane, it’s stressful, bad for supporting your family, and therefore we have to fight to stop Amazon’s razor thin margins.
Ask yourself: what are brands doing to stop discounting on Amazon? If you don’t know, and if they don’t have an answer, then they may not be the partner for your store. Every Amazon discounter is stealing from you. You play by the MSRP and/or MAP rules. Why do they get to break the rules? If you did, the brand may stop selling to you. But to Amazon they turn a blind eye and throw their hands up. I wonder if it’s because they just made a sale? What do they care if someone makes a think margin, barley survives, and cheats you if they still get the sale? They win. You lose.