Amazon Marketplace Research Articles

Impact of FTC's Allegation on Amazon's Marketplace: Evidence From Coffee Products

ABSTRACTHow do firms respond to regulatory allegations? The monopolist lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against Amazon provides an avenue to answer this question. Applying difference‐in‐differences to panel data of ground coffee products from Amazon's marketplace in the United States and Canada, we find that Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) fees were reduced by $0.27–$0.29 per product in the United States due to the FTC's monopolist allegation. We also find that the allegation led to price reductions of $0.79–$0.92 per product in the country. Since 42% of the 7.5 billion products sold on Amazon United States in 2023 were by FBA sellers, we estimate that the allegation led to an annual savings of $0.85 billion to $0.91 billion for the FBA sellers and $5.92 billion to $6.85 billion for Amazon's customers on average. These results suggest that the FTC's allegation had sizeable and positive welfare impacts on Amazon's third‐party sellers and customers, making it a significant win for the regulatory agency. Moreover, our study provides insights into the implications of the FTC allegation for agribusiness stakeholders and the future of grocery shopping.

Strategic Considerations for Small Businesses: Selecting the Optimal E-commerce Platform

Choosing the right e-commerce platform is crucial for small businesses seeking to expand their market presence and streamline operations. This paper explores the key factors influencing platform selection, such as usability, scalability, flexibility, and cost, while applying the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Resource-Based View (RBV) frameworks to analyze platform adoption. The study focuses on Shopify, WooCommerce, and Amazon Marketplace, comparing their impact on business growth, customer satisfaction, and operational efficiency. Additionally, the paper discusses emerging trends, including artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, offering practical insights for small businesses looking to optimize their digital strategies and gain a competitive edge

Digital technology use decisions by micro- and small-sized complementors in ecosystems: The influence of subjective norms

Ecosystems host supporting complementors who offer digital technologies to user-facing complementors. By focusing on the platform sponsor, the existing literature has scarcely considered why the predominantly micro- and small-sized user-facing complementors intend to use such technology and thus diffuse it in the ecosystem in a bottom-up manner. Using the theory of planned behavior, we identify the factors that influence the use of product review solicitation services by German-speaking Amazon Marketplace sellers via semi-structured interviews followed by two waves of questionnaire. We find that these complementors primarily intend to use this digital technology to (a) comply with expectations attributed to the platform sponsor that such technology should be used, and (b) imitate other complementors’ perceived use behavior of the technology. The impact of the former subjective norm is amplified by the complementors’ financial dependency on the ecosystem. In sum, we contribute to the ecosystem and digital entrepreneurship research streams by examining the importance of different ecosystem actors in driving digital technology use by user-facing complementors and identifying the role of dependency in this context.

Value perceptions of first-party content on multi-sided platforms: Findings from the Amazon Marketplace

Value perceptions of first-party content on multi-sided platforms: Findings from the Amazon Marketplace

Variable Importance Measures for Multivariate Random Forests

Multivariate random forests (or MVRFs) are an extension of tree-based ensembles to examine multivariate responses. MVRF can be particularly helpful where some of the responses exhibit sparse (e.g., zero-inflated) distributions, making borrowing strength from correlated features attractive. Tree-based algorithms select features using variable importance measures (VIMs) that score each covariate based on the strength of dependence of the model on that variable. In this paper, we develop and propose new VIMs for MVRFs. Specifically, we focus on the variable’s ability to achieve split improvement, i.e., the difference in the responses between the left and right nodes obtained after splitting the parent node, for a multivariate response. Our proposed VIMs are an improvement over the default naïve VIM in existing software and allow us to investigate the strength of dependence both globally and on a per-response basis. Our simulation studies show that our proposed VIM recovers the true predictors better than naïve measures. We demonstrate usage of the VIMs for variable selection in two empirical applications; the first is on Amazon Marketplace data to predict Buy Box prices of multiple brands in a category, and the second is on ecology data to predict co-occurrence of multiple, rare bird species. A feature of both data sets is that some outcomes are sparse — exhibiting a substantial proportion of zeros or fixed values. In both cases, the proposed VIMs when used for variable screening give superior predictive accuracy over naïve measures.

Amazon Marketplace: An Analysis of External Factors and Machine Learning Models - Survey

Amazon Marketplace: An Analysis of External Factors and Machine Learning Models - Survey

Neons Fashion LLP (A): A Small Seller on the Amazon Marketplace

Neons Fashion LLP was an entrepreneurial venture of Arthi Ramalingam after completion of her MBA. Arthi had an interest in jewellery since childhood and she decided to focus on design, manufacturing and retailing of fashion and costume jewellery items under the brand name of Eternz through different sales channels like exhibitions, retail stores, own website and as an independent seller on e-commerce marketplaces. She initially started selling on Amazon marketplace through a third party, Cloudtail India Pvt. Ltd., and later sold through other e-commerce marketplace operators like Flipkart, Jabong and FirstCry. As her business grew, Arthi planned to add the kids' shoes category and also decided to participate in Bangalore Fashion Week to build the Eternz brand. However, in November 2016, Cloudtail terminated her contract which played havoc with the sales and profitability of her start-up. Neons Fashion LLP (A) provides details of how independent sellers are at the mercy of marketplace operators and ends with the need to review the choices of sales channels for different categories like fashion garments and fashion accessories, and for the upcoming launch of kids' shoes. Neons Fashion LLP (B) describes the events after the Bangalore Fashion Week that ultimately led to closure of business.

Neons Fashion LLP (B): The Setbacks

Neons Fashion LLP was an entrepreneurial venture of Arthi Ramalingam after completion of her MBA. Arthi had an interest in jewellery since childhood and she decided to focus on design, manufacturing and retailing of fashion and costume jewellery items under the brand name of Eternz through different sales channels like exhibitions, retail stores, own website and as an independent seller on e-commerce marketplaces. She initially started selling on Amazon marketplace through a third party, Cloudtail India Pvt. Ltd., and later sold through other e-commerce marketplace operators like Flipkart, Jabong and FirstCry. As her business grew, Arthi planned to add the kids' shoes category and also decided to participate in Bangalore Fashion Week to build the Eternz brand. However, in November 2016, Cloudtail terminated her contract which played havoc with the sales and profitability of her start-up. Neons Fashion LLP (A) provides details of how independent sellers are at the mercy of marketplace operators and ends with the need to review the choices of sales channels for different categories like fashion garments and fashion accessories, and for the upcoming launch of kids' shoes. Neons Fashion LLP (B) describes the events after the Bangalore Fashion Week that ultimately led to closure of business.

Sourcing for online marketplaces with demand and price uncertainty

Our paper is motivated by a manufacturer that sells a seasonal product through multiple retailers competing on an online marketplace, such as the Amazon marketplace. Demand and selling price uncertainty are key features of the online marketplace. Sourcing choices are differentiated by cost and available lead times—delaying shortens the lead time which is more expensive but yields more accurate information about future selling price and demand. Thus, ahead of the season, each retailer faces a continuous‐time decision problem about when to place an order with the manufacturer and in what quantity. The manufacturer is interested in knowing the ordering pattern of the retailers in order to plan production. We consider two sourcing strategies varying in the flexibility of order timing: an optimal precommitted ordering time strategy and an optimal time‐flexible ordering strategy. We prove that the former is optimal when the selling price is constant and the latter when the selling price is uncertain. We show that time‐flexible ordering can be mutually beneficial for the retailer and the manufacturer in a wide range of scenarios and that the manufacturer can favorably influence order timing by adjusting its wholesale price trajectory. The predictions of our model are consistent with the experience of a large U.S. manufacturer that motivated our study.

Big Data Analysis using Elasticsearch and Kibana: A Rating Correlation to Sustainable Sales of Electronic Goods

Big data collection involves enormous amounts of raw data. To boost the sustainability of corporate value and support business intelligence and decision-making systems, in-depth data analysis is necessary. The data storage, analysis, and visualization methods, as well as the discovery of patterns and linkages, all depend on extensive data analysis. This study aims to process datasets to learn things like how ratings impact market sales transactions and how much of an impact factor connected to consumers and items have on ratings. Elasticsearch and Kibana were used for the dataset processing. This study evaluated traits related to the test parameters using a variety of test procedures. The product is scored as a representation of the product types involved in the sales transaction, and the name is assessed as a reflection of the customer. Kibana and Elasticsearch, a full-text search engine, were used in this work to do extensive data analysis on data sets. It is a visualization tool that is employed in a controlled environment to evaluate how ratings impact market exchanges for electronic goods, and it offers suggestions. The study found a substantial relationship between electronic product sales on the Amazon marketplace from 2012 to 2018. It suggested the importance of buyer constituents as users and how different product categories relate to ratings in business transactions. Doi: 10.28991/HIJ-2023-04-03-09 Full Text: PDF

Identifying Targets for Innovation in Amazon Reviews of Bedwetting Alarms: Thematic Analysis.

Nocturnal enuresis (NE) is a frequent diagnosis in pediatric and adolescent populations with an estimated prevalence of around 15% at the age of 6 years. NE can have a substantial impact on multiple health domains. Bedwetting alarms, which typically consist of a sensor and moisture-activated alarm, are a common treatment. This study aimed to determine areas of satisfaction versus dissatisfaction reported by the parents and caregivers of children using current bedwetting alarms. Using the search term "bedwetting alarms" on the Amazon marketplace, products with >300 reviews were included. For each product, the 5 reviews ranked the "most helpful" for each star category were selected for analysis. Meaning extraction method was applied to identify major themes and subthemes. A percent skew was calculated by summing the total number of mentions of each subtheme,+1 for a positive mention, 0 for a neutral mention, and -1 for a negative mention, and dividing this total by the number of reviews in which that particular subtheme was observed. Subanalyses were performed for age and gender. Of 136 products identified, 10 were evaluated based on the selection criteria. The main themes identified across products were long-term concerns, marketing, alarm systems, and device mechanics and features. The subthemes identified as future targets for innovation included alarm accuracy, volume variability, durability, user-friendliness, and adaptability to girls. In general, durability, alarm accuracy, and comfort were the most negatively skewed subthemes (with a negative skew of -23.6%, -20.0%, and -12.4% respectively), which are indicative of potential areas for improvement. Effectiveness was the only substantially positively skewed subtheme (16.8%). Alarm sound and device features were positively skewed for older children, whereas ease of use had a negative skew for younger children. Girls and their caretakers reported negative experiences with devices that featured cords, arm bands, and sensor pads. This analysis provides an innovation roadmap for future device design to improve patient and caregiver satisfaction and compliance with bedwetting alarms. Our results highlight the need for additional options in alarm sound features, as children of different ages have divergent preferences in this domain. Additionally, girls and their parents and caretakers provided more negative overall reviews regarding the range of current device features compared to boys, indicating a potential focus area for future development. The percent skew showed that subthemes were often more negatively skewed toward girls, with the ease of use being -10.7% skewed for boys versus -20.5% for girls, and comfort being -7.1% skewed for boys versus -29.4% for girls. Put together, this review highlights multiple device features that are targets for innovation to ensure translational efficacy regardless of age, gender, or specific family needs.

Individual Private Rights of Action under the Platform-to-Business Regulation

This article explores the availability of individual private rights of action under the Platform-to-Business Regulation. It is argued that Member States are required to provide for such remedies for the benefit of business users of online intermediation services and corporate website users. Individual rights of action are necessary, first, to ensure an adequate and effective level of overall enforcement and, second, to effectuate the implicit rights that must be inferred from the obligations the Regulation imposes on providers of online intermediation services and search engines. To make this case, we illustrate the practical relevance and deficiencies of individual rights of action using several German court cases; examine the key elements of the Regulation’s ‘visible’ enforcement architecture; apply the ECJ’s case lines on implicit individual rights and private rights of action as a non-specified enforcement tool; and provide an analysis of the potential added value and perceived weaknesses of individual rights of action as a mechanism to enforce the Regulation. Platform-to-business regulation 2019/1150, private enforcement, individual rights of action, online intermediation services, online search engines, amazon marketplace, platform economy, choice-of-court agreements, principle of effectiveness

(301) Evidenced-Based Analysis of the Top 50 Testosterone Booster Supplements on Amazon Marketplace

Abstract Introduction As the population ages, the prevalence of age-related hypogonadism is expected to rise. Demand for testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) has increased, as evidenced by revenue from T prescriptions in the world increasing from $150 million USD in 2000 to $1.8 billion in 2011. A market research analysis shows the market for T was 10.9 billion USD in 2019. The NHIS survey in 2012 revealed that consumers in the United States spend annually $30.2 billion on dietary supplements of which include T supplements. Dietary supplements have gained in popularity, as they are more accessible since the advent of online marketplaces and relaxed testing protocols for safety and effectiveness. Of the online marketplaces available to purchase supplements, Amazon Marketplace has the majority share of online sales at 41%, with the next largest retailer occupying only 6% of online sales. The aim of our study was to determine and evaluate the evidence behind the top 50 dietary T supplements (ranked in terms of sales) sold on Amazon Marketplace. Objective 1. Determine the product characteristics and claims made by the Top 50 T supplements sold on Amazon Marketplace. 2. Determine the cost to the consumer and customer satisfaction with these products. Methods The top 50 T supplements were determined by visiting the Amazon page, “Best Sellers in Sports Nutrition T Boosters,” which lists the top products based on sales and revenue. Active ingredients, number of active ingredients, 30-day costs, 5-star ratings, refunds, and claims of these products were documented. Ingredients present in a minimum of 50% of products were analyzed. Results A total of 50 supplements were analyzed. The three most common claims were “boosts/supports T” (46/50), “increases muscle mass” (46/50), and “increases energy” (45/50). The average number of claims a product made was 4. The average 30-day cost of a product was $25.95, with cost ranging from $6.66 to $84.99. The average customer satisfaction rating of these products was 4.23 (1-5), ranging from 3.4 to 4.7. Forty-seven out of 50 products did not offer a refund. A total of 129 unique ingredients were identified with 57% of the ingredients being unique to one product. Only Tongkat Ali root extract (Eurycoma Longifolia, EL) was used in a minimum of 50% of the supplements analyzed (59%) and thus further analyzed for efficacy and safety. Two randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trials examined the efficacy of EL. One of the trials only showed improvement in total T levels when EL was used concurrently with exercise. The second trial, which examined 32 patients either receiving placebo or EL, showed an increase of T levels in the EL group. No clinical trial has examined the safety profile of EL in patients. Conclusions There is large heterogeneity in the composition of T supplements sold on Amazon Marketplace, and these products can present a significant 30-day cost to patients despite having no strong evidence regarding efficacy and more importantly safety. Further research and trials are needed to examine the most common ingredients needed in these supplements. Disclosure No

An Evaluation of Popular Online Eye Health Products on Amazon Marketplace

To investigate popular eye health supplements available on Amazon Marketplace to increase awareness about their efficacy, safety, and the validity of their purported benefits. An observational quantitative and qualitative analysis of the top 100 eye health products was performed in March 2019. To determine the popular online eye health products on Amazon Marketplace, eight keywords were used for the search: "Eye Health," "Eye Health Supplements," "Eye Health Vitamins," "Retina Vitamins," "Macular Degeneration," "Macular Degeneration Vitamins," "Macular Health," and "Vision Health." The active ingredients, cost, and customer rating were all recorded. No statistically significant association was found between product type and price of the product, number of supplements, average rating, number of customer reviews, or number of verified customer reviews. The average daily cost of the eye health supplements was $0.72 ± $0.55 (range, $0.05 to $2.67). This study evaluated popular eye health supplements publicly available on Amazon Marketplace. The findings of this study help both patients and physicians better understand the safety and efficacy of these products so they may make more informed choices when supporting their eye health with commercially available supplements. [Ophthalmic Surg Lasers Imaging Retina 2023; 54(3):147-152.].

Inventory competition on electronic marketplaces – A competitive newsvendor problem with a unilateral sales commission fee

We present a competitive newsvendor problem with a sales commission paid by one newsvendor to another newsvendor when selling a product. Customer demand is stochastic, and customers individually decide with given probabilities from which newsvendor they want to order or whether they do not want to order at all. These probabilities can vary depending on which newsvendor is out of stock. The problem described arises when marketplace operators offer the same or substitutable products as third-party vendors and therefore directly compete with third-party vendors on their platform. Our research is motivated by practical cases such as the Amazon marketplace, where Amazon is the marketplace operator that sets the sales commission and, simultaneously, directly competes with third-party vendors. Both the marketplace operator and a competing third-party vendor should ideally account for the other party's behavior when deciding their order quantity. We calculate the noncooperative Nash equilibrium and the optimal cooperative order quantities (centralized solution). Additionally, we emphasize analyzing the effect of the sales commission on the optimal order quantities and the gross profits of the two parties.

Competition Law and Digital Markets: Adaptation of Traditional Categories or New Rules? Some Reflections Arising from the Amazon Cases Regarding the Access to Non-Public Data

The present paper is intended to analyse if alleged exclusionary abuses perpetrated by big digital platforms, with particular reference to the access to non-public data dealt with in the Amazon Marketplace case, can be assessed applying the legal standards that the Court of Justice developed around the refusal to deal and the margin squeeze practices. It also shows how the new Digital Markets Act, despite representing a step forward in the regulation of the activity of these economic operators, still leaves a few questions open, especially regarding its non-sectoral approach. Finally, the interplay between access to data and privacy rules is investigated. Digital single market, digital platforms, competition law, abuse of dominance, selfpreferencing, access to non-public data, essential facilities doctrine, margin squeeze, digital markets act, GDPR

Characteristics and common ultraviolet filter usage of sunscreens purchased online: Cross-cultural analysis across 5 continents.

A wide range of sunscreen products are available globally. Designed to meet various customer needs, they differ in formulations type, textures, ingredients, ultraviolet (UV) protection capabilities, and other properties. Knowing the factors influencing the purchase of sunscreens and the UV filters commonly used in each global region would be beneficial for dermatologists, consumers, and regulators. Data on 50 best-selling sunscreens from each of 20 countries on 5 continents (1000 products in all) were retrieved from Amazon Marketplace during the period from January to July 2021. Among the 5 continents, Asia had the highest proportion of consumers (71.1%) choosing high sun protection factor (SPF) sunscreens (SPF ≥50). In contrast, Europe had the highest percentage (11.8%) purchasing <30 SPF sunscreens. The lack of standard UVA protection labeling was significantly highest in South America. The use of inorganic-based sunscreen was highest in North America, and across all continents, those products were significantly more expensive than organic-based sunscreens. Globally, lotions were the most favored formulation type. "Nongreasy/dry touch" (45.1%) and "lightweight texture" (40.4%) were the most common promotional terms used. The most common UV filters differed among regions. Iron oxide, which can function as a visible light filter, was most frequently found in sunscreens in South America (20%) and North America (19.3%). The regional factors influencing the purchase of sunscreen products differed. A considerable number of sunscreens may not provide adequate sun protection for consumers. Dermatologists should recommend sunscreens with sufficient UV protection that suit the skin of individual consumers.

Automatic Eligibility of Sellers in an Online Marketplace: A Case Study of Amazon Algorithm

Purchase processes on Amazon Marketplace begin at the Buy Box, which represents the buy click process through which numerous sellers compete. This study aimed to estimate empirically the relevant seller characteristics that Amazon could consider featuring in the Buy Box. To that end, 22 product categories from Italy’s Amazon web page were studied over a ten-month period, and the sellers were analyzed through their products featured in the Buy Box. Two different experiments were proposed and the results were analyzed using four classification algorithms (a neural network, random forest, support vector machine, and C5.0 decision trees) and a rule-based classification. The first experiment aimed to characterize sellers unspecifically by predicting their change at the Buy Box. The second one aimed to predict which seller would be featured in it. Both experiments revealed that the customer experience and the dynamics of the sellers’ prices were important features of the Buy Box. Additionally, we proposed a set of default features that Amazon could consider when no information about sellers was available. We also proposed the possible existence of a relationship or composition among important features that could be used for sellers to be featured in the Buy Box.

Paying for the picnic was not enough; get ready to share your lunch too. They are selling but also learning your product: Predatory marketing and imitation strategies in the Amazon marketplace

Multisided platforms, as pointed by Rietveld et al. usually start with a single-use just as Amazon was a place to buy/sell used/new books until it scaled into selling close to a million unique brands. Platforms started for a singular purpose later; scaling into multi-purposes calls for certain governance limitations. The capability and appetite to enter new markets/industries seem insatiable once the platform garnishes the resources to meet the initial goals set by the stakeholders. Amazon bid to buy a prepaid cellular brand; it also wants to expand into the pharmacy. The question here is, what are the industries that Amazon cannot scale into using its platform? Probably renewable energy, but didn't amazon backed an electric vehicle manufacturer lucid. So, the industries that present a promise which its digital platform cannot scale into are brought into the fold by funding. This paper aims at adding a new perspective to digital platforms research by introducing how the third-party sellers on an e-commerce platform such as amazon perceive the platform and how that perception gets affected when the platform starts competing with the third-party sellers by creating digital storefronts. This paper investigates how the Platform-supported products receive an extra push; the platform mediates the selling of its product over the third-party sellers and how the loyal third-party sellers prepare themselves to compete with the platform.

Paying for the Picnic Was Not Enough; Get Ready to Share Your Lunch Too. &lt;i&gt;They are Selling But Also Learning Your Product: Predatory Marketing and Imitation Strategies in the Amazon Marketplace&lt;/i&gt;

Paying for the Picnic Was Not Enough; Get Ready to Share Your Lunch Too. &lt;i&gt;They are Selling But Also Learning Your Product: Predatory Marketing and Imitation Strategies in the Amazon Marketplace&lt;/i&gt;