By Kaveesha Fernando
NEW YORK, USA (CWBN)_ Reputed American Business Newspaper the Wall Street Journal recently released a comprehensive report of the paper’s unethical business practices titled “How Amazon Wins: By Steamrolling Rivals and Partners”. The newspaper states that Amazon’s unethical business practices have allowed the multimillion-dollar company to amass large profits at the expense of other businesses.
The report gives examples of how Amazon has steamrolled other businesses. “No competitor is too small to draw Amazon’s sights. It cloned a line of camera tripods that a small outside company sold on Amazon’s site, hurting the vendor’s sales so badly it is now a fraction of its original size, the little firm’s owner said. Amazon said it didn’t violate the company’s intellectual-property rights,” the report states.
Another tactic apparently used by the company is to replicate ethical brands using unethical substitutes, thus turning a profit. “Amazon set its sights on Allbirds Inc., the maker of popular shoes using natural and recycled materials, and last year launched a shoe called Galen that looks nearly identical to Allbirds’ bestseller—without the environmentally friendly materials and selling for less than half the price,” the report adds.
Amazon employees who served on teams created by the company to study and replicate products manufactured by other brands detail how the company examines every detail of the product, its manufacturing and marketing process before delivering a strike of surgical precision – a “better” product for a fraction of the price for consumers.
One observation made in the report is that Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos demands that employees consider the company a start-up, thus employing extreme business practices which cause acute harm when employed by a multi-million dollar conglomerate.
The Wall Street Journal also states that Amazon uses its online platform against independent sellers; using seller information to create competing products and suppressing the sale of certain products offered by independent sellers, among other things.
Unfortunately, it seems that the same businesses who oppose Amazon’s unethical practices feel trapped by the system created by the company, leaving them no option but to use the platform. “It’s literally like being held as a prisoner with Amazon, and because of that there’s no place else companies like us can go to sell our products. Amazon uses that against us,” the Wall Street Journal quotes patio products seller Billy Carmen as saying.
