Amazon Merchants Say SKU Limits Will Decimate Their Bottom Lines

Trove ^ | March 6, 2014 | Christopher Zara, International Business Times

[max americana]

““For sellers who list a large number of novelty SKUs or SKUs that are similar to each other and which have not received customer interest, Amazon has instituted SKU limits.”

I know people close to me who sell on Amazon. If this is the case, you could compare this to Ebay. People don;t realize that Ebay places a cap on sellers (especially new ones) under a certain amount which is ridiculous. Then every month, you have to “interview” with these clowns and make your case to raise the limits. Back to Amazon, then the solution is to buy more barcodes for the SKU’s (ironically cheaper when buying bulk on Ebay)

[Lazamataz]

Well then, looks like they (Amazon) are seeking their own demise.

[Lurking Libertarian]

Amazon thinks this is to their advantage. I can't imagine retailers have much legal recourse under their agreements with Amazon. Of course, if it turns out not to be to Amazon's advantage, they can always change their policy again.

[FAA]

I don’t understand limiting SKUs unless there is some sort of extra bandwidth capacity associated. Is Amazon trying to limit the number of offers a seller can make? Maximizing thus band-width?

eBay and Amazon have been on the warpath for a while now. Siding out small timers and such. The people who built them are now anathema to them.

They may go to Hell.

[bigbob]

I recently read about a new company called Yagoozon, Inc. It was recently named the #11 fastest growing company in the world and the #1 fastest growing company in the Retailing space. The kid started it with $40, selling toys, novelties, costumes etc on Amazon and did $20M in sales last year. I’d think there would be enough in there for Amazon to get their share and be happy, and to encourage more like him.

[matthew fuller]

WTF is a SKU?

[2ndDivisionVet]

Stock keeping unit
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_keeping_unit

[Jet Jaguar]

Thank you. I was unsure if they were talking about barcodes.

[matthew fuller]

Thanks.

[SatinDoll]

I stopped going to Amazon when it started to look like a Five-and-Dime store on the internet.

My business is conducted on Ebay and Craigslist. Right now there isn’t any because people do not seem to be buying.

[Mount Athos]

i just got scammed on Ebay for the first time in many years of occasional use. And Ebay quickly covered everything I lost with their buyer protection agreement.

I really wasn’t expecting to get all my money back, especially not so fast and easily. I saved so much using it I could easily factor in a loss and be way ahead.
I guess I’m naturally skeptical of guarantees like that.

[mountainbunny]

Well then, looks like they (Amazon) are seeking their own demise.

In certain clothing categories, there are so many false results that it is very difficult to find what you want. Customers are unwilling to sort through hundreds of dubious results, and this is how they are trying to curb the problem.

I went to buy a hooded animal scarf for my daughter before Christmas, looking for a specific brand. There were literally hundreds of results, only a few of which were the brand I specifically searched for. Part of the problem seems to be that the vendors add popular keywords to items that only sort of fit the description in hopes that you'll see and buy their product.

I suppose that Amazon could police keywords, but then they'd end up arguing with vendors over the definition of what "is" is. This seems like a more even-handed way to fix the problem.

Customers won't stick around if it takes them hours to find a product.

[Jonty30]

If this was the case, I would think the problem could be solved by keyword categorization.

[ArmstedFragg]

Mostly, they're trying to reduce the astonishing level of clutter on their product pages that's being created by large numbers of marketplace vendors listing identical products, then describing them by every imaginable key word. I was looking for a desktop HD radio tonight, and got something like 400 hits, only three of which were actually HD radios.

I guess they're trying to spread the impact, but they'd probably be better off by just cutting loose a bunch of their redundant vendors, then increasing their selectivity on the ones they choose to affiliate with.

[funfan]

I have a shop on Etsy and I know that they do police the tags and the other Etsy members will report a shop if the items are mistagged.

[Lazamataz]

Good point!

[catfish1957]

Good point Laz. Our system has excellent ways of pulling up the slack. 2 or 3 new competitors will waitin in the wings to rush right in. Come 2016 or so, Amazon will have to explain to investors why revenues and profits are flat/down.

[Red in Blue PA]

In some cases, sellers say they are being limited to 100,000 items; in other cases the limit is said to be as low as 25,000 items

That is still a hell of a lot of SKU's!

[Pecos]

Open competition? Wow! What a concept! I wonder how the feds can screw this one up.