The explosion of Amazon.com‘s private-label products has prompted concern that Amazon could use its clout to promote these house brands at the expense of merchants selling similar products on the web store. But the fears may be overblown, according to a new study released by Marketplace Pulse. In the study, the research firm examined 23,000 products and the consumer behavior associated with those products. They found that shoppers “aren’t more inclined to buy Amazon brands even when the company elevates them in search results.”
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The evidence seems to indicate that “most Amazon-branded goods are flops that don’t threaten other businesses at all,” wrote Marketplace Pulse, as quoted in a Bloomberg article about the results. The Bloomberg article also notes that “the study suggests popular political and media narratives about Amazon’s market power are overblown, despite the company capturing 52.4 percent of all online spending in the U.S. this year.”
“This idea that Amazon can introduce a product and magically use data to dominate a category is just a conspiracy theory,” said Marketplace Pulse founder Juozas Kaziukenas. “There are a couple of successful examples everyone uses, but most of their products aren’t successful at all and many other companies continue to outsell Amazon even after it introduces its own competing brands.”
The bottom line here is that while brand carries weight with consumers, quality still counts more!