Amazon needs to stop restricting footwear brands!
Over the last couple years Amazon has continued to roll out new brand 'partnerships' that include restricting listings to 3rd party sellers. Their reasoning is to 'offer our customers a better product catalog and ensure competitive pricing'. I feel as if Amazon is self destructing their own footwear sales, most of their restricted products sit out of stock. Basic colors of Nike Air Max 270 sit out of stock in every size, countless other models out of stock. Meanwhile many of us 3rd party sellers have stock that we could sell but are locked out due to these restrictions. The other frustrating part of this is that Amazon does NOT have competitive pricing on the rare occasion they do have them in stock. FULL MSPR for the products, for example the Air Max 270's are $170. Before the restrictions hit they averaged 130-160. So Amazon is not delivering on either of their goals and it's killing the footwear market. What I would suggest is to reverse these restriction and allow 3rd party sellers to actually offer a much wider product selection and compete with each other for pricing. True capitalism produces the best markets for seller and buyers! Or if that is not possible at least allow the listings to be sold under 'used' condition. Let us help you Amazon!
Amazon needs to stop restricting footwear brands!
Over the last couple years Amazon has continued to roll out new brand 'partnerships' that include restricting listings to 3rd party sellers. Their reasoning is to 'offer our customers a better product catalog and ensure competitive pricing'. I feel as if Amazon is self destructing their own footwear sales, most of their restricted products sit out of stock. Basic colors of Nike Air Max 270 sit out of stock in every size, countless other models out of stock. Meanwhile many of us 3rd party sellers have stock that we could sell but are locked out due to these restrictions. The other frustrating part of this is that Amazon does NOT have competitive pricing on the rare occasion they do have them in stock. FULL MSPR for the products, for example the Air Max 270's are $170. Before the restrictions hit they averaged 130-160. So Amazon is not delivering on either of their goals and it's killing the footwear market. What I would suggest is to reverse these restriction and allow 3rd party sellers to actually offer a much wider product selection and compete with each other for pricing. True capitalism produces the best markets for seller and buyers! Or if that is not possible at least allow the listings to be sold under 'used' condition. Let us help you Amazon!
13 replies
Seller_nRFmxiQg4EGrw
That's because Nike doesn't want their products sold on Amazon by unauthorized sellers (meaning everyone).
Have you tried submitting your Letter of Authorization from Nike stating that you are authorized to sell Nike products on Amazon?
Seller_rI7BZIczK8iAC
Oh yes, it matters! Nike is forbidding Amazon to accept unauthorized sellers. Has nothing to do with Amazon, but with Nike.
Begin to read the forum and you will read ten identic threads daily about "authenticity" or "IP complaint". No, First Sale Doctrine doesn't apply to Amazon.
Seller_nRFmxiQg4EGrw
Correct; you can legally sell them.
But that does NOT mean that Amazon has to allow you to sell them.
And while Amazon wants to have low prices, they also want to avoid being involved in counterfeit items. And since there are NO sellers authorized by Nike, verifying supply chain would be impossible.
But sure, you can legally set up a table at a flea market and sell them, or even sell them from your own website. Of course, Nike might still come after you to prove that you are not selling fakes; but as long as you have proof they are real, they cannot legally stop you from selling them.
One other issue; for those who buy "directly from Nike" by going to the Nike store, the store policy is clear that purchases are for personal use only. While not criminal to resell those, Nike could still sue someone for breach of contract (unlikely to ever happen, but possible).
Seller_4zBzdtgCyS9EI
Your problem is you are doing RA and RA is no longer accepted on Amazon. Times have changed. You can get away with it until you don't. As soon as they ask for invoices, FBA inventory and funds are confiscated.
Nike especially is high risk as they forbid their shoes to be resold as new. Doesn't matter what you think 1st sale doctrine says, Amazon owns this platform and can make whatever rules they want.
Seller_rI7BZIczK8iAC
Probably they would lose more if Nike sued them for allowing the sale of counterfeits.
Go on the search bar on top in this forum, type "Nike" and read some threads.
Seller_nRFmxiQg4EGrw
Yep, there are other brands that just Nike that don't authorize sellers to sell their items on Amazon. Same reasons as Nike; they want to control their distribution, and block out counterfeit and grey-market items.
The difference is in the way the marketplaces are set up. If you sell counterfeit shoes on Amazon, then Amazon can be sued for allowing it, and charged with the crime. Because these other sites are set up differently, only the seller of counterfeit goods is looking at legal repercussions.
Correct; I'm sure that Amazon is very aware of the fact that people will not buy items on "Amazon that are not sold on Amazon. And there are a lot of non-footwear brands that also restrict who can sell on Amazon; some allow only a few sellers, some don't allow any
They are also aware that by preventing these brands (for which there are no sellers authorized by the brand, so only unauthorized sellers have them), that they are avoiding liability for counterfeit goods.
Note that punishments for Trafficking in Counterfeit can be much larger for a larger corporation; so yes, Amazon may be missing out on a few million or so that they could make by allowing unauthorized people to sell Nike etc., but they are avoiding fines that could be 10-100 times larger.
Seller_nRFmxiQg4EGrw
You are correct.
Part of that is requiring authentic, AUTHORIZED wholesale invoices.
Seller_z1JDNz6de1lqc
Everyone should be pushing Amazon to restrict more price fix and suppress more encourage Amazon to continue of self sabotaging its own platform because their chat bots do not listen to seller complaints! Every time we get listings suppressed that we sold for years we try and message amazon with other asins that we sell from same line series because it will increase our sales more if amazon takes all down. Amazon is no longer relevant the big brand items customers seek you need to buy from a completing platform. We you have 206 pages taken down right before the holidays restricted for BS safety issues on big brand items sold as long as 5-10+ years right before holidays is very clear we needs to continue to look at other markets this manipulation is out of control!
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Think about it why is Amazon PRICE FIXING listing we had one item we sold since 2011 for same price range 100-110 now price suppressed to $60 on Amazon so we simply leave Amazon with no listing and move to ebay and get the $110 and all this is Amazon trying to force sales on a manipulated marketplace in order to self generate transactional fees for self profit and expense and harm of small business!
