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Many retailers have been dumping Amazon. Birkenstock has announced they are leaving Amazon for “unacceptable business practices”. They have found that Amazon commingles inventory so ‘knock-off’ product are mixed with authentic product. This certainly isn’t fair to consumers and erodes margin and brand quality for the merchant. Unfortunately, Amazon allows many different retailers to sell the same brand without any safety checks in place to verify if they have the right to do so.

Birkenstock isn’t the only one leaving Amazon. Macy’s, Buy.com and Gap have been pulling out of Amazon, according to Internet Retailer.

Some retailers refuse to sell their products on Amazon. In part because Amazon owns all the analytical data to merchandise sold on their website so they know what products are hot and what are not. If you have a unique product you want to sell on Amazon’s website it will likely be counterfeited in pretty short order from other retailers. Or, worse yet, you could be competing directly against Amazon if they decide to come up with their own version of that same product, and it’s almost certain they will undercut your pricing. So the high volume traffic you receive because you’re on Amazon’s website can be both a blessing and a curse.

If you decide that you must use Amazon, consider only putting a small portion of your merchandise there so your other sale channels can work for you in a more profitable manner. Ask yourself this … what if Amazon suddenly decides to ban the sale of the product you’re selling? You could be out of business overnight; just another reason to not rely solely on them as your preferred selling agent.

Never forget one of the most important factors in selling is repeat business. Using Amazon is all about competing on price, not utilizing your marketing, merchandising or customer service.