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Whenever there are riches to be made, it naturally draws with itself a certain level of corruption.
In the case of Amazon, it was revealed this week by the Washington Street Journal that there is some inside data leakage going on. Apparently, Amazon employees are offering internal data in exchange for bribes and to help merchants increase their sales. According to the Wall Street Journal report, Amazon staff (primarily located in China) are taking bribes of anywhere from $80 to over $2,000 in exchange for internal data like metrics and reviewers’ email addresses, as well as account and review manipulation services. The Journal wrote:
“The practice, which violates company policy, is particularly pronounced in China, according to some of these people, because the number of sellers there is skyrocketing. As well, Amazon employees in China have relatively small salaries, which might embolden them to take risks. In exchange for payments ranging from roughly $80 to more than $2,000, brokers for Amazon employees in Shenzhen are offering internal sales metrics and reviewers’ email addresses, as well as a service to delete negative reviews and restore banned Amazon accounts, the people said.”
There has been news about this in the past and both times, Amazon has been pretty ruthless in following up with any and all cases of potential corruption.
The reason Amazon is so strict about it is because it not only hurts the company’s image as a whole but also, specific merchants and Amazon sellers that are fighting to survive.
However, it stands to reason if this issue will be completely resolved in the future by the retail giant. Because what happened this week has happened before.
Third-party brokers recruit Chinese Amazon employees via apps like WeChat. They then act as a middleman, negotiating deals—often in the form of packages. Other types of internal data include the email addresses of reviewers, who merchants can then reach out to in an attempt to curry favor with tactics like offering free or discounted products, as well as “proprietary sales information,” including keywords, sales volume, and buying habits. Having access to this information allows sellers to game the system by optimizing their listings to reach more customers.
Amazon won’t be cracking down on anyone using an MWS token though, or any other type of legitimate software to help boost their Amazon sales. Amazon is only on the hunt for that internal data breach and leakage.
We – at AMZinsiders – are at least glad that Amazon is recognizing this issue and working towards solving it. It’s always important to keep in mind to work with reputable companies as well as software. This way it’s a win-win for all parties. Using illegal data is never a good idea if you want to build a sustainable, long-term business.
What we do know is that in the future too, Amazon will continuously tighten its policies which will be only beneficial to those of us that are doing business according to Amazon’s rules (which, in fact, are there to benefit us all).
If you’d like to know how to build up a legitimate Amazon FBA business that will prove itself to become a true investment for your future, apply to speak to a member of the AMZinsiders mastermind team now.
To your success!
~ Your AMZinsiders team