The Atlantic shares how Chinese factories have found a new way around U.S. retailers and into our homes: Chinese apps. SHEIN and other Chinese apps are bypassing Amazon to be a new leader in Chinese goods. In addition to Amazon, Target, Walmart, and indie shops now have a new group of digital competitors embedded in customers’ pockets.
Except from The Atlantic article:
MATERIAL WORLD
IS THIS HOW AMAZON ENDS?
An open embrace of cheap foreign products has helped ...
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New York magazine reports that shopping on Amazon is a mess. It’s got an antiquated interface and lots of spam results and reviews. It’s not a nice experience and you’re not sure what you’re buying.
Excerpt:
“There was the ’90s-retro e-commerce interface, which conceals a marketplace of literally millions of sellers, each scrapping for relevance, using Amazon as a sales channel for their own semi-independent businesses. It subjected ...
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While drinking Athletic, a non-alcoholic (fake!) beer, I noticed that its box proclaims that it gives back 2% to local trails. I love walking trails, and I thought: the next time I venture to have a sober night, I’ll pick up another box of Athletic. (Thanks, Athletic, for giving out $2.5m in trail grants.) Warby Parker gives a pair of eyeglasses for each pair bought (they've given 10m pairs!), while Bombas does this for socks. Bookshop.org gives a percent back to small ...
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Amazon issued a press release stating that it is fighting with 10,000 Facebook groups that sell fake Amazon reviews. It’s ironic, since Amazon has been a chief promoter of the avenue allowing this behavior: Section 230. Section 230 allows tech platforms to host and indirectly promote just about any type of bad behavior, including illegal behavior (fake review services and yes, human trafficking, murder-for-hire, etc.) and then say it’s just a community space and belatedly remove the ...
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Retail Dive reports on Amazon's lazy claims that it cares about stopping counterfeits. Counterfeiters on Amazon may steal a brand's product design, name, and product pictures. When a brand reports this to Amazon, Amazon often does: nothing.
This is an issue for American brands. For example:
A brands creates a product. The brand pays for research and development.
Brand may pay to have it made in America.
Brand takes professional pictures of the finished product.
Today's Times shares that Amazon is hiding behind “sellers privacy” and section 230 to help fuel its books sales—even if it creates chaos in its marketplace, higher prices, and even fake books.
During this holiday season, does one want to tell their family and friends that they sell knock offs--or that they help Main Street? I'd vote for the latter. Yet, a new service is trying to sell knock offs and eat in to retailers' lunches.
For the last few years, retailers have been having a hard time of it: they are increasingly circumvented by the brands. With the advent of the e-commerce websites and social media, brands are pitching their wares directly to consumers and ...
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Retailers have had a difficult time in recent years, as brands have increasingly circumvented them. With the advent of e-commerce websites and social media, brands are pitching their wares directly to consumers and cutting out retailers.
I’ve sometimes wondered: What if the factory decides to do the same and cut out the brands? If the retailers don’t like it, how will the brands? Some businesses are now trying this. Services like Italic allow a consumer to bypass...
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I’m seeing a disturbing trend online. Stores are not sharing news and events on their websites. Instead, they are relying on Facebook (and Instagram, which it also owns) to perform this task. That’s like a customer coming into the physical store and the store manager saying: "Want our news and events? We don’t have it here. Go to the coffee shop next door—which will be filled with our competitors pitching to you."
Companies with deep pockets and big connections to Wall St. have teamed up to make the Internet a dirtier place. Legislation is pending to make large sellers of new goods have to reveal the true seller of the good. The goal of the federal bill is to curtail the sale of fake and stolen goods through online marketplaces. This sounds logical. But not to: eBay, Poshmark, Mercari, and Etsy.
These businesses have hundreds of millions of dollars at stake from banks, investors, and rich people. They ...
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Excerpt:
Amazon.com has removed 20,000 product reviews after a Financial Times (FT) investigation suggested that some of the site's top U.K. reviewers may have profited from leaving positive ratings, reports Business Insider. The paper's analysis showed nine of Amazon's top 10 U.K. reviewers dished out five-star reviews to products from little-known Chinese brands. The FT found the same products in Facebook groups and forums that offer free products or money in exchange for ratings....
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March 12, 2020
March 12, 2020
Last week I compared Amazon to a vending machine with dangerous products, and today’s WSJ shares how it reviewed products from this vending machine and found counterfeits, fakes, and deceptively labeled products.
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News outlets like the Wall St. Journal have shared that Amazon is full of fake products, counterfeits, and listings with exaggerated prices. In today’s WSJ, Amazon shares it removed 1 million fake health products related to the Coronavirus. Amazon’s action supports the accusations that Amazon often fails when it comes to policing its marketplace. It’s rare ‘action’ is actually a sign of larger ‘inaction.’ While these Coronavirus products may have ...
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November 16, 2019
November 16, 2019
Facebook removed 3.2 billion fake accounts between April and September, more than twice as many as last year, shares CNBC.
One may ask: how many fake Facebook accounts still exist?
Many social media platforms are full of fake users and scammers.
Bridge only allows real people to sign up for its platform. We assess each sign up and only allow authenticated businesses and their staff to join. Since we don't rely on advertising revenue, we don't need to allow fake accounts to inflate our user base. ...
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November 15, 2019
November 15, 2019
New E-mail Scam Targeting Invoices and ACH Payments
There is a new scam where hackers take over a brand’s email account and request payment via ACH. This financial scam recently happened to a brand that we know. Please note: Bridge has not been a victim of this scam. We are warning businesses to ensure it does not happen to our friends.
Here is how the scam works:
1. A hacker takes control of an employee’s email account such as their Microsoft email user ID and password. This is likely done via a...
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October 26, 2019
October 26, 2019
Wonder how prices are so low on Amazon? Yes, many items are stolen (at the time of purchase) or counterfeit, but there’s another reason: they’re bought after you buy them using stolen credit cards. In other words, they’re stolen after the ‘legit’ purchase. Recently, a retailer reported that it was being asked to ship Versace items to far off locations, only to have the credit card holder say it didn’t order them. They say their credit card was stolen. The reason the scammer ordered the goods ...
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September 28, 2019
September 28, 2019
An expert in today’s WSJ estimates that 30% of Amazon reviews are fake. In addition, Amazon gives its Vine users free products to post reviews. I’m thinking 40% are suspect.
The article shares that customers value a product with more reviews and a lower average rating than a product with fewer reviews and a higher average.
The service ReviewMeta allows one to test an Amazon page for fake reviews. Fakespot is another fake review service.
A consumer research group surveyed Amazon and found significant evidence suggesting fake reviews for many items. Since reviews often influence your search results and help you decide, the fake reviews are potentially leading customers to bogus products.
Excerpt: "One example, a set of headphones by an unknown brand called Celebrat, had 439 reviews, all of which were five-star, unverified and were posted on the same day, suggesting they had been ...
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April 15, 2019
April 15, 2019
Facebook is filled with so many fake ads that Dr. Oz (yes, that doctor) has to write a letter to the Wall St Journal.
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April 12, 2019
April 12, 2019
YouTube is likely filled with a lot of fake entities posting content, reports today’s WSJ. Why is this notable? Because YouTube is increasingly carrying kids videos geared to our kids. I believe knowing who is broadcasting videos to our nation’s children is important. YouTube should require a entity posting certain content to authenticate their identity—and maybe should do this for all content posted. Truth should have a true author.
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