- Amazon conducted an expose operation to gather information on rival retailers, according to a new report.
- The company, called Big River Services International, sold its products through stores such as Walmart and eBay.
- Big River employees reportedly hid their ties to Amazon even from other employees within the tech giant.
Amazon is so obsessed with dominating the world of e-commerce that it has reportedly spent years gathering information by selling products directly on the websites of rival companies like Walmart and eBay.
The tech giant announced that the Big River The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that he has formed a company called Services International.
Big River was selling products such as T-shirts, shoes, and beach chairs on a competitor’s platform. The purpose, the magazine said, was to obtain information from competitors so that Amazon could inform its own business decisions.
Big River employees also went to great lengths to hide their ties to Amazon, even when speaking to other Amazon employees. They kept electronic records of their work to a minimum, even when informing Amazon’s higher-ups about their findings. Executives were allowed to view and take notes on printed copies of the Big River team’s report, but were not allowed to keep them, the newspaper reported.
Employees also used other non-Amazon email addresses to communicate with other companies, the report said. They were also instructed on what to do if someone found out they actually worked for Amazon, the magazine said.
“Benchmarking is a common practice in business,” an Amazon spokesperson told Business Insider, using industry terminology to compare a company to its competitors. “Like many other retailers, Amazon has a benchmarking team and a customer experience team that study the experiences of our customers, including our retail partners, to improve their experience working with us.”
For example, after Big River participates in the fulfillment program for e-commerce sellers operated by FedEx, Big River employees communicate pricing and other terms of the service to Amazon’s logistics team, and that information is passed on to Amazon’s logistics team. The magazine reported that the changes were made based on the.
An Amazon spokesperson said that after reviewing internal documents, “Amazon employees have information on FedEx pricing before it goes on sale, or use that information to set their own prices or to adjust prices with sellers.” There have been no confirmed cases of coordination of negotiations.”
“Information we reviewed indicates that the pricing information was obtained after FedEx launched FedEx Fulfillment on February 7, 2017, and that this information was It was one of many pieces of information that was considered,” a spokesperson told BI.
Big River has also developed its own brand, which it sells through rival marketplace websites. Among them are India-based brand Crimson Knot, which sells photo frames on Indian e-commerce website Flipkart, and a website hosted by Shopify to sell in the U.S., the magazine said. This includes a streetwear brand called “Not So Ape,” which was used. .
Amazon has faced intense scrutiny in the past over its treatment of sellers on its platform. In 2020, a Congressional committee found that the company used sales data from third-party sellers to create proprietary versions of its products, which typically disadvantages independent sellers and their businesses. brought about.
An FTC lawsuit last year alleged that Amazon effectively jacked up prices by increasing the amount it charges third-party sellers and punishing sellers who offer lower prices on websites other than Amazon.
