Monthly Amazon Update – July 2019

Amazon is delivering 48 percent of its US parcels by itself. The other half is shared by USPS (33 percent), UPS (16.5 percent) and FedEx (1.5 percent). The data is sourced from Rakuten Intelligence, who analyzed millions of Amazon package tracking numbers. The same development is to be expected in Germany and other markets: The huge market share of Amazon, especially in Germany with around 50 percent of all e-commerce, compared to the US with around 20 percent, and the fact that more and more sellers are shipping with Amazon, are supporting that assumption. Link

After the last investment round of 700 million US-Dollars into the American electric vehicle startup Rivian, an acquisition by Amazon is highly likely. Rivian is one of the most promising, serious competitors in the EV market and could influence the future of Amazon Logistics with autonomous electric vehicles. Link

The blocking of numerous seller accounts by Amazon from June for suspected review fraud is still ongoing. Amazon is being unusually quiet about the situation to affected account owners and doesn’t react on any measurement plans being handed in. Apparently, even some collateral, not guilty accounts are being affected by the blockings. Link

For Prime Day 2019, Amazon offered US customers a 10 US-Dollar voucher for using the browser tool “Amazon Assistant” and having their browsing behavior on Amazon tracked. The data, containing visited product pages and the users activity on them, is supposed to deliver important insights for better marketing and ad targeting for Amazon. Link

After the deadline from last fall to urge its Sellers to use smaller and more environmentally friendly packaging, Amazon is starting to charge an additional 2 US-Dollars per order for each company not complying with the new guidelines. According to the Wall Street Journal, the measurement saved various companies a high amount of space and material. Link

According to a study from IFH, 94 percent of German online shoppers are buying on Amazon and with 17.3 million Prime users, more than every third user is paying for Prime. The surprise learning: customers would be willing to pay 7 to 12 Euros just for being able to use Amazon. The dependency and indispensability of Amazon apparently animates customers to buy more things they did not intend to buy in the first place. Link

According to the EU-Commission, it is illegal for sellers, who sell licensed products, to be prevented from selling the products in a different country. For this practice, “Hello Kitty” license owner Sanrio is being ruled to pay 6.2 million Euros, because they forbid the sale of “Hello Kitty” products inside the European economic zone. Link

After pressure from the German anti-cartel-office, Amazon is changing its handling with sellers who use Amazon Marketplace. After countless complaints, Amazon is now forced to cater more towards their sellers: Liabilities, e.g. for damaged products, are being shared more evenly and not mainly on the seller side anymore. Also, the instant right of contract termination for Amazon has been lifted, changing to a 30-day period. Under certain circumstances, sellers can now take Amazon to court in Germany and do not have to go to Luxemburg like before. Link

A ruling by the German federal court is forbidding Amazon to use brand names to advertise other brands to customers. The manufacturer “Ortlieb”, wo doesn’t sell on Amazon, fought over Amazon showing users competitor products after searching for their brand name. According to the federal court ruling, the brand rights are being violated. The exploitation of a brand name as a “guide” to other brands is to be refrained from. Link