SEATTLE — For tens of millions of Americans, it is so routine that they don’t think twice.
They want something — a whisk, diapers, that 狗 — and they turn to Amazon. They type the product’s into Amazon’s or app, scan the first few options and buy. In a day or two, the purchase appears on their doorstep.
Amazon has transformed the of each into an expectation of 现代的 life. No car, no shopping 清单 — no — required.
But to make it all work, Amazon runs a that squeezes ever more money out of the hundreds of thousands of companies, from to 巨大的 brands, that put the everything into Amazon’s Everything Store.
In more than 60 interviews, current and former Amazon employees, sellers, suppliers and consultants detailed how Amazon dictates the rules for those businesses, sometimes changing those rules with little warning. Many spoke on the condition of anonymity, for fear of retaliation by Amazon.
Amazon punishes the 企业 if their are available for even a penny less elsewhere. It pushes them to use the company’s warehouses. And it compels them to on the 地点 to make see their products.
All of that leaves the suppliers more dependent on Amazon, by far the nation’s retailer, and scrambling to deal with its whims. For many, Amazon eats into their profits, making it harder to develop 新 products. Some worry if they can even survive.
"Every year it’s been a tighter," said Bernie Thompson, a of 电脑 who Amazon has highlighted in its marketing to other merchants. "Now you are one event away from not functioning."
Tumi, the maker, sold its at to Amazon for years. But executives said Amazon sometimes misjudged demand, keeping too few bags in stock, and regularly demanded more in marketing and other fees. Last year, Tumi decided to 出售 its bags to another company, which then listed the on Amazon. The arrangement gave Tumi more over inventory and better data.
A few months later, Amazon gave Tumi an ultimatum: Stop through the middleman, or do not 出售 to the retailer’s 150 million at all.
"Some guy we had never talked to gave us a call and was like, ‘We have changed the rules,’ " said Charlie Cole, who runs Tumi’s business. He pushed back, but wasn’t successful.
"It was like talking to a 砖 wall," he said. "They want to be able to everything."
Companies struggling to 航行 Amazon’s growing chaos fill Facebook groups, 信息 木板 and 工业 conferences. One session at a leading next year is called "The Big Question: Is Selling on Amazon Worth the Hassle?" More than 12,000 signed a petition on Change.org asking Amazon to alter an 规则 on that they said could "destroy" an business.
Many sellers and on Amazon are desperate to depend less on the tech giant. But when they look for elsewhere online, they come up short. Last year, Americans bought more books, T-shirts and other on Amazon than eBay, Walmart and its next seven largest 竞争者 combined, to eMarketer, a 研究 company.
"The secret of Amazon is we’re happy to help you be very successful," said David Glick, a former Amazon 恶习 总统 who left the 公司 last year. "You just have to kiss the ring."
Amazon says that its is so massive, the rules are necessary to give a experience. The 公司 said the 健康 of sellers was a priority, and that it had invested of dollars to support them. It said that about 200,000 sellers surpassed $100,000 in in 2018, roughly a 40 百分比 from the year before.
"If sellers weren’t succeeding," said Jeff Wilke, the 主要的 of Amazon’s business, "they wouldn’t be here."
Jack Evans, a spokesman for the company, said that Amazon only succeeded when sellers succeed, "and claims to the contrary are wrong." Merchants can choose the they sell, how they are priced and how they fulfill the orders, he said.
The policy change that affected Tumi, Mr. Evans said, was to make that Amazon had the best and availability for 流行的 products. He said that Tumi’s were high when it sold through the middleman.
Amazon has faced 批评 in the past for displacing Main Street 实体的 retailers. Now, the diverging fortunes of Amazon and many of the on its 地点 are at the heart of the 反垄断的 仔细检查 Amazon faces in Washington and Europe. Investigators at the Federal Trade Commission and the House Judiciary Committee are examining whether Amazon abuses its position as the 中心的 between making and those 购买 them.
Amazon collects 27 cents of each spend 购买 its 商人 sell, a 42 百分比 jump from five years ago, to Instinet, a 研究 firm. That does not include what pay to place on Amazon, a 商业 that Wall Street as valuable as Nike.
The pennies add up. Last year, the 利润 from was so high that it surprised even some close to the business, to two of the involved.
Thanks to the success, the company’s 利润 exceeded its Wall Street by more than $3 billion.
Investments vs. Contributors
Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s and 主要的 executive, lumps the many parts of the 公司 into two buckets, to the two close to the business. One bucket is investments, or bets on the like Alexa, its assistant. The other is contributors, or the 企业 that provide money for Amazon’s investments.
To him, the is a contributor that can be squeezed for cash.
Billions of dollars generated from go into like Alexa, which has 10,000 working on it, and the company’s expensive Hollywood productions. And still, Amazon’s businesses, including Alexa and other 昂贵的 projects, produced $5 billion in operating 利润 last year.
The 成功 stems from a shift that was underappreciated when Mr. Bezos made it two decades ago.
From the day the 公司 started in 1995, Amazon offered the same way as retailers like Target, 购买 them at and reselling them at a higher price. Four years later, Mr. Bezos and his team decided that Amazon would also let 清单 on the 地点 for a cut of the sale, more like eBay and Alibaba. The change allowed Amazon to offer a wider variety of products.
"We want to try and build a place where can come to find and discover anything that they might want to online," Mr. Bezos said that year.
The decision eventually turned Amazon into the 一站式的 it’s known as today. Shoppers could find not only 众所周知的 like Tide detergent, but also obscure Christmas ornaments.
Initially, the move empowered sellers and gave them access to millions of customers. They could their however they wanted. And they could set their price.
Bit by bit, the sellers lost control.
Lured Into Shipping
When Amazon opened its doors to sellers, the 工业 — for storing, packing and — was in its infancy. Many sellers on Amazon ran their warehouses.
Seeing a 优势 in offering faster times, Amazon opened 仓库 near cities. Inside, workers navigated to pick from bins and pack them into boxes.
The expansion left Amazon with to fill, and the 公司 turned to sellers. It pitched them on the idea of paying Amazon to 商店 and their products, even those sold on other sites.
James Thomson, a Canadian with a doctorate in marketing, managed a team responsible for signing up sellers, leading them on tours of Amazon’s near Reno, Nev., Phoenix and elsewhere. "Look how vast this is," he recalled telling sellers. "Look at how we can easily absorb your 10,000 a month."
"You do have a bigger warehouse than mine," Mr. Thomson remembered them saying, "but I have rates."
Several years later, Amazon’s 集中精力 changed, and so did its pitch.
In early 2011, only a few million were Prime members, paying $79 a year for unlimited shipping. But Amazon knew those spent far more on the site. Executives wanted more to sign up for Prime, and they wanted to 出售 those even more stuff.
That year, Amazon began adding more perks to Prime. Most notable was unlimited video streaming of TV like "Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood" and movies like "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo."
As more became members, eligible for Prime became more popular. Amazon reminded sellers that if they used the company’s warehouses, their would be Prime eligible, too.
"That is what we were selling," Mr. Thomson said.
It worked. The number of sellers using Amazon’s 仓库 increased by 65 百分比 in 2013, to a 信 sent to investors. The 公司 has since spent of dollars to continue building out its network.
Mr. Bezos noted how intertwined sellers, 仓库 and Prime had become in a note to investors in 2015. "At this point, I can’t really think about them separately," he wrote.
Amazon has since flipped back and forth over whether outside sellers must use Amazon’s 仓库 to 出售 Prime products. But for most of goods, like supplies, cameras and gear, more than 85 百分比 of the top-selling out of Amazon’s warehouses, to Jungle Scout, which provides to Amazon sellers.
Amazon has surpassed DHL to become the largest provider of and other in the world, to The Journal of Commerce, a publication.
Many sellers say that the 公司 集市 价格 to fulfill Amazon orders. But they say Amazon is charging them higher for other services. For example, because the 仓库 operate near capacity, the 公司 several 有时 more than 竞争者 to 商店 before they out.
The costs can be several 有时 higher for sellers who use Amazon to made on other websites. Amazon $13.80 for on a T-shirt bought on a 地点 other than Amazon, $3.68 when bought on Amazon.
In addition, Amazon had let sellers pay $1 to an order in a 平原 without the company’s logo. But in 2016, the 公司 said it would use only Amazon boxes. Sellers were told they could take their back from Amazon’s 仓库 if they wanted. "Return or will apply," it wrote to sellers.
Amazon says that its are optional and a value. Sellers who choose to use it "enjoy that want," the 公司 told Congress’s this year.
The 公司 says it offers lower costs on Amazon because it makes other money from them, including commissions and advertising, that it does not get for made on other websites.
Shoppers on other sites turn away when are not available in two days or less, said Karl Siebrecht, co-founder of Flexe, a start-up that retailers with a of centers.
"It’s 新 browser," he said. "Amazon.com. Click. Buy. Done."
Price Control
This summer, Brandon Fishman, the of VitaCup, a start-up that 牛叫 with vitamins and nutrients, saw a opportunity.
Zulily, an 地点 that offers 健康状况 in exchange for slower shipping, wanted to 清单 VitaCup’s 30 百分比 off for a time. It was a chance for Mr. Fishman, whose 公司 gets the majority of its through Amazon and its site, to reach 新 customers.
But Amazon’s noticed the lower and removed the bright "Buy Now" and "Add to Cart" from its site. When those are gone, get a 连接 that says, "Available from these sellers" and they must make more to purchase an item. Those are often the difference between 成功 and failure for a seller.
Mr. Fishman’s Amazon tumbled, and he emailed Zulily to quickly take down the listing.
"I have told them about my rage many times," Mr. Fishman said of Amazon. "It has not changed them."
Amazon has pushed to keep 健康状况 since the day it opened. That has become trickier as more came from outside sellers. According to 反垄断的 law, each of goods should determine what to charge on its own. To avoid problems, an is typically present when 国内的 Amazon teams discuss pricing, to two former employees.
In 2017, Amazon began reducing to match competitors; if the 新 was lower than the one requested by the sellers, Amazon paid the difference. The 公司 also alerted if their were cheaper elsewhere.
Still concerned about 新闻 that on Amazon weren’t always the lowest, the 公司 tried another approach, the one that hit VitaCup: removing the Buy Now and Add to Cart when its detected lower prices. When those disappear, 跌倒 as much as 75 percent, sellers say.
Executives at Amazon intended this as a tool to lower prices. The 公司 has told Congress that the 数量 to an endorsement, saying it only displays them on "offers that it is confident will present a for its customers."
But many raise their elsewhere to avoid losing the buttons. Or they decide to 清单 their only on Amazon. That is what happened to a 健康 supply 公司 that worked with Jason Boyce, who 建议 sellers.
"My client cut off Walmart — Walmart! — because it was hurting their Amazon business," Mr. Boyce said. "If that’s not 垄断 power, I don’t know what is."
Amazon said in statement that sellers "have of their both on and off Amazon," and that the 公司 helps them by advising them how to earn the Buy Now and Add to Cart buttons.
Ads by Necessity
The Zulily frustrated Mr. Fishman. But he boiled over after another move by Amazon.
One morning in June, Mr. Fishman opened his Amazon app and typed "VitaCup" into the 搜索 bar at the of the screen. On the 结果 was an ad for Amazon’s of coffee.
He had been paying Amazon almost $200,000 a month for ads. Mr. Fishman posted a screenshot on LinkedIn and raged.
"I have a 问题 with this!!!" he wrote.
For years, the question of whether Amazon should push on its 地点 generated 凶猛的 among and executives inside the company, to eight current and former Amazon employees. In memos and meetings, they disagreed on what was best for a 公司 that preached obsession with serving customers.
One camp believed that would trust, because expected Amazon to show them 流行的 with and a price.
The other camp saw as a Amazon could tap to drive down and fund 新 for customers. The was obvious. When online, they more often turn to Amazon than Google to start their search, to studies. And every brand wants to get in front of them.
Workers eventually got word that Mr. Bezos had settled the debate, to two employees. Mr. Bezos said that Amazon had two options: Sell ads, and use the for investments. Or ads, and get beaten by competitors.
Ads soon appeared at 批评的 locations, in particular on the that pops up after a a into Amazon’s 搜索 bar. Some were across the of the page, and the several listed in the 搜索 结果 were disguised as a regular listing, aside from the word "Sponsored" in light gray. Combined, they have at 有时 filled almost the first screen.
Mr. Wilke said the 国内的 to was overcome by the results.
"It turned out they worked," he said. "And by worked, I mean the help find what they’re looking for. And the reason we know that is cause they more stuff."
But it added another cost for companies. Ranking high is essential to driving on the site. Competitors raced to place to ensure a 突出的 spot.
Out of 反垄断的 concerns, 公司 and advertising it works with from bragging that Amazon is where most 搜索 for online, to two who were warned about this.
Quartile, among the largest of a 新 of that help 航行 Amazon advertising, tested the importance of the last year. It stopped running for 750 流行的 products. Immediately, by 24 percent.
The effect then cascaded. That’s because the fewer a has, including driven by ads, the lower it ranks on the site. At the end of 10 weeks, of the without had tumbled 55 percent.
"It’s increasingly pay-to-play," said Melissa Burdick, a 10-year Amazon veteran who now 建议 brands.
Amazon said its were optional and the majority of sellers built their 企业 without them.
John Denny, who ran for the 喝 公司 Bai, said used to believe that if they had a product, it would show up in the 搜索 results, and would follow.
"Those days are over," Mr. Denny said. "There are no lightning strikes on Amazon any more."
Resigned Partners
A decade ago, Mr. Thompson, a former Microsoft developer, recognized a 市场 for 电脑 like 电脑 docking stations and cables. He started Plugable and betted that depending on Amazon would turn his idea into a business.
It worked. In 2016, Mr. Bezos highlighted Mr. Thompson when talking about the 成功 of sellers in his 信 to investors. Amazon posted a video about Plugable on its to attract 新 sellers.
"He has a history of metrics, and an absence of like safety and complaints," Chris McCabe, a former Amazon 欺骗 investigator, said in an interview.
But in the last couple of years, as rules shifted and his 利润 shrank, Mr. Thompson began that working with Amazon had become increasingly difficult.
He took his concerns to Amazon this summer, giving a to a at the company’s Seattle headquarters. On slide No. 6, Mr. Thompson laid out his nightmare: Amazon cutting off of his best seller, a laptop docking station that is frequently one of the 100 most 流行的 电子学 on the site.
His plea to the was simple. "No surprises," he said.
He got surprised.
One Sunday in July, he got an email saying that Amazon had removed the docking stations. Amazon said it was because of that Plugable’s had not matched the condition described on the site.
Other docking stations, including one made by Amazon, filled the 空虚 online.
Mr. Thompson scrambled, contacting two 高级的 he knew and his manager, who Amazon him $5,000 a month to have. None of them could fix it.
He and other dug through and returns. They found only reviews, said Gary Zeller, one of Mr. Thompson’s deputies.
"There was nothing borderline about it," Mr. Zeller said.
After four days and at least $100,000 in lost sales, the listing went back up. Mr. Thompson said he still did not understand what ignited the problem.
Amazon declined to comment on Plugable. Mr. Wilke said that the company’s depended on policing the 地点 without harming well-meaning merchants.
"We have a 刺激 to be as accurate as possible in identifying 坏 actors, make very few mistakes when we’re wrong, on giving second chances to who make an mistake," he said.
Mr. Thompson is now looking for 新 to make money. But Amazon accounts for roughly 90 百分比 of 电子学 online, to 市场 research. His 商业 at Walmart and eBay, the next largest retailers, are less than 5 百分比 of his revenue.
In September, Plugable hired two to 出售 directly to corporations.
"We really built the 公司 on Amazon," Mr. Thompson said. "We have no regrets about doing that. But today our 集中精力 has to be getting diversification off Amazon."
He said he understood what he was up against.
"We are dealing with a partner," he said, "who can and will disrupt us for 不可预知的 reasons at any time."