#which products to sell on amazon 2021

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Amazon Alexa is a graduate of the Darth Vader MBA

Next Tuesday (Oct 31) at 10hPT, the Internet Archive is livestreaming my presentation on my recent book, The Internet Con.

If you own an Alexa, you might enjoy its integration with IFTTT, an easy scripting environment that lets you create your own little voice-controlled apps, like "start my Roomba" or "close the garage door." If so, tough shit, Amazon just nuked IFTTT for Alexa:

https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/25/23931463/ifttt-amazon-alexa-applets-ending-support-integration-automation

Amazon can do this because the Alexa's operating system sits behind a cryptographic lock, and any tool that bypasses that lock is a felony under Section 1201 of the DMCA, punishable by a 5-year prison sentence and a $500,000 fine. That means that it's literally a crime to provide a rival OS that lets users retain functionality that Amazon no longer supports.

This is the proverbial gun on the mantelpiece, a moral hazard and invitation to mischief that tempts Amazon executives to run a bait-and-switch con where they sell you a gadget with five features and then remotely kill-switch two of them. This is prime directive of the Darth Vader MBA: "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further."

So many companies got their business-plan at the Darth Vader MBA. The ability to revoke features after the fact means that companies can fuck around, but never find out. Apple sold millions of tracks via iTunes with the promise of letting you stream them to any other device you owned. After a couple years of this, the company caught some heat from the record labels, so they just pushed an update that killed the feature:

https://memex.craphound.com/2004/10/30/apple-to-ipod-owners-eat-shit-and-die-updated/

That gun on the mantelpiece went off all the way back in 2004 and it turns out it was a starter-pistol. Pretty soon, everyone was getting in on the act. If you find an alert on your printer screen demanding that you install a "security update" there's a damned good chance that the "update" is designed to block you from using third-party ink cartridges in a printer that you (sorta) own:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/11/ink-stained-wretches-battle-soul-digital-freedom-taking-place-inside-your-printer

Selling your Tesla? Have fun being poor. The upgrades you spent thousands of dollars on go up in a puff of smoke the minute you trade the car into the dealer, annihilating the resale value of your car at the speed of light:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/23/how-to-fix-cars-by-breaking-felony-contempt-of-business-model/

Telsa has to detect the ownership transfer first. But once a product is sufficiently cloud-based, they can destroy your property from a distance without any warning or intervention on your part. That's what Adobe did last year, when it literally stole the colors from your Photoshop files, in history's SaaSiest heist caper:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/28/fade-to-black/#trust-the-process

And yet, when we hear about remote killswitches in the news, it's most often as part of a PR blitz for their virtues. Russia's invasion of Ukraine kicked off a new genre of these PR pieces, celebrating the fact that a John Deere dealership was able to remotely brick looted tractors that had been removed to Chechnya:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/08/about-those-kill-switched-ukrainian-tractors/

Today, Deere's PR minions are pitching search-and-replace versions of this story about Israeli tractors that Hamas is said to have looted, which were also remotely bricked.

But the main use of this remote killswitch isn't confounding war-looters: it's preventing farmers from fixing their own tractors without paying rent to John Deere. An even bigger omission from this narrative is the fact that John Deere is objectively Very Bad At Security, which means that the world's fleet of critical agricultural equipment is one breach away from being rendered permanently inert:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/23/reputation-laundry/#deere-john

There are plenty of good and honorable people working at big companies, from Adobe to Apple to Deere to Tesla to Amazon. But those people have to convince their colleagues that they should do the right thing. Those debates weigh the expected gains from scammy, immoral behavior against the expected costs.

Without DMCA 1201, Amazon would have to worry that their decision to revoke IFTTT functionality would motivate customers to seek out alternative software for their Alexas. This is a big deal: once a customer learns how to de-Amazon their Alexa, Amazon might never recapture that customer. Such a switch wouldn't have to come from a scrappy startup or a hacker's DIY solution, either. Take away DMCA 1201 and Walmart could step up, offering an alternative Alexa software stack that let you switch your purchases away from Amazon.

Money talks, bullshit walks. In any boardroom argument about whether to shift value away from customers to the company, a credible argument about how the company will suffer a net loss as a result has a better chance of prevailing than an argument that's just about the ethics of such a course of action:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/microincentives-and-enshittification/

Inevitably, these killswitches are pitched as a paternalistic tool for protecting customers. An HP rep once told me that they push deceptive security updates to brick third-party ink cartridges so that printer owners aren't tricked into printing out cherished family photos with ink that fades over time. Apple insists that its ability to push iOS updates that revoke functionality is about keeping mobile users safe – not monopolizing repair:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/22/vin-locking/#thought-differently

John Deere's killswitches protect you from looters. Adobe's killswitches let them add valuable functionality to their products. Tesla? Well, Tesla at least is refreshingly honest: "We have a killswitch because fuck you, that's why."

These excuses ring hollow because they conspicuously omit the possibility that you could have the benefits without the harms. Like, your tractor could come with a killswitch that you could bypass, meaning you could brick it at a distance, and still fix it yourself. Same with your phone. Software updates that take away functionality you want can be mitigated with the ability to roll back those updates – and by giving users the ability to apply part of a patch, but not the whole patch.

Cloud computing and software as a service are a choice. "Local first" computing is possible, and desirable:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/03/there-is-no-cloud/#only-other-peoples-computers

The cheapest rhetorical trick of the tech sector is the "indivisibility gambit" – the idea that these prix-fixe menus could never be served a la carte. Wanna talk to your friends online? Sorry there's just no way to help you do that without spying on you:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/08/divisibility/#technognosticism

One important argument over smart-speakers was poisoned by this false dichotomy: the debate about accessibility and IoT gadgets. Every IoT privacy or revocation scandal would provoke blanket statements from technically savvy people like, "No one should ever use one of these." The replies would then swiftly follow: "That's an ableist statement: I rely on my automation because I have a disability and I would otherwise be reliant on a caregiver or have to go without."

But the excluded middle here is: "No one should use one of these because they are killswitched. This is especially bad when a smart speaker is an assistive technology, because those applications are too important to leave up to the whims of giant companies that might brick them or revoke their features due to their own commercial imperatives, callousness, or financial straits."

Like the problem with the "bionic eyes" that Second Sight bricked wasn't that they helped visually impaired people see – it was that they couldn't be operated without the company's ongoing support and consent:

https://spectrum.ieee.org/bionic-eye-obsolete

It's perfectly possible to imagine a bionic eye whose software can be maintained by third parties, whose parts and schematics are widely available. The challenge of making this assistive technology fail gracefully isn't technical – it's commercial.

We're meant to believe that no bionic eye company could survive unless they devise their assistive technology such that it fails catastrophically if the business goes under. But it turns out that a bionic eye company can't survive even if they are allowed to do this.

Even if you believe Milton Friedman's Big Lie that a company is legally obligated to "maximize shareholder value," not even Friedman says that you are legally obligated to maximize companies' shareholder value. The fact that a company can make more money by defrauding you by revoking or bricking the things you buy from them doesn't oblige you to stand up for their right to do this.

Indeed, all of this conduct is arguably illegal, under Section 5 of the FTC Act, which prohibits "unfair and deceptive business practices":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge

"No one should ever use a smart speaker" lacks nuance. "Anyone who uses a smart speaker should be insulated from unilateral revocations by the manufacturer, both through legal restrictions that bind the manufacturer, and legal rights that empower others to modify our devices to help us," is a much better formulation.

It's only in the land of the Darth Vader MBA that the deal is "take it or leave it." In a good world, we should be able to take the parts that work, and throw away the parts that don't.

(Image: Stock Catalog/https://www.quotecatalog.com, Sam Howzit; CC BY 2.0; modified)

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/26/hit-with-a-brick/#graceful-failure

[st-just]

“Seller services,” as Amazon refers to these and other sources of revenue, are a large and growing part of Amazon’s revenue — larger than Amazon Web Services and quite profitable. They also mean that letting a seller market off-brand products on your platform is often going to be more profitable than selling your own discount brands: Undercutting an independent seller’s small coffee-grinder business is, it turns out, a bad look and, in the big picture, maybe not worth the trouble. Sellers serve a lot of purposes for Amazon and joke among themselves about the free labor they provide. In exchange for access to the largest sales channel on the internet, they do a lot more than just pay Amazon its fees. They perform market research, obsessively investigating review data and marketplace trends to figure out what’s going to be popular on the platform next. (Recent red-hot third-party product types include miniature waffle-makers, reading lights that drape around your neck, and dog puzzles.) They handle customer service. They exert downward price pressure on one another, and they absorb a lot of risk (dozens of dog-puzzle sellers fail so that one may thrive). No matter what happens to them, whether their own businesses succeed or fail, Amazon makes money. This is a great deal for Amazon, and over the years it has become Amazon’s main deal — in 2021, the company estimated that activities on its marketplace created “more than 1.8 million U.S. jobs” and shared success stories from its hundreds of thousands of American sellers, some of whom had become millionaires. It was a slow and, in hindsight, astounding transformation in which the “everything store” substantially outsourced its store.

-John Hermann, The Junkification of Amazon

[copperbadge]

We recently got into a discussion of producing audiobooks for small press, indy, and/or selfpub authors on another post, but we had strayed pretty far from the original post, and @genedoucette very kindly gave permission for me to slice his comment off the end of that post and put it into a new one.

genedoucette

I have been very, very lucky when it comes to audiobooks, so I'm hesitant to offer advice without adding a huge YMMV caveat at the top. For most of my self-published novels, I used ACX and paid a narrator out-of-pocket (rather than 50-50 proceeds split), which just means I'm paying an agreed-upon X dollars per finished hour, prior to making any money off f the audio editon. Every book I did this with paid for itself, sometimes within the first two or three months, sometimes longer. (YMMV: I did a lot of this during what I would call the audiobook bubble, when demand was higher than supply.) I had another novel series--Tandemstar--that I brought to an audiobook company, who brought it to their distributor, who agreed to pay for the production costs of the book and to pay me a (small) advance. To date, the royalties from that series have not made up the cost of the advance, but the good news was that none of the production costs came from my pocket and the advance meant I did make something out of the deal. The rule-of-thumb I always heard was, don't expect books that haven't sold well to sell any better as audiobooks. But my experience, with ACX/Audible, is this: about 50% of my monthly earning come from audio sales. How long is the book in question (word count), and what is the genre? Because it is absolutely possible to get a not-terrible narrator at a not-terrible cost on ACX. If it's a low word count book with a decent sales record, I'd 100% do it. If it's a high word count book with few sales, maybe not.

Thanks so much for this! I am admittedly always suspicious of Amazon writ large, but it's not like I've never partnered with them before, and often for indy authors they're one of a very few games in town.

50% of sales via audio impresses me a lot -- I'm not really in the industry so my sense of scale may be off but my eyebrows went up at that. And looking at ACX, a split-profits model would be appealing. I'm more interested in providing the reader with more options than I am with making royalties, so I don't mind low payout, but I also don't want to exploit a narrator if I can avoid it.

I doubt I'm selling near the level you are, but it's pretty consistent, at least -- for the last literary novel I published in 2021, and for the four genre romances published in the past year-and-change, it's generally 200-250 copies (epub and paperback) in the first 6 months, and about 40 per year after that. None of them are over 100K words -- the first of the romance novels, the one I'd be most likely to have done as an audiobook to trial, is around 50K, and the other books are all between 60K and 90K or so.

There's some fine print I'm not nuts about -- exclusivity to Amazon/Audible/iTunes for example -- but I can see why it's a necessary business model for them. There's not a ton of clarity on cost per hour for a book, but it looks like for a flat fee it starts around $250 per finished hour? So I'd probably be looking at minimum $1K out of pocket, which is probably roughly (I haven't done the math) royalties per book for a full year. It could be fun to give it a swing regardless, although reading the ACX site made me realize I'd actually have to give notes and feedback to a reader which sounds nervewracking.

It looks like the readers for ACX are repped by SAG-AFTRA, which means that for now I have time to consider while the strike is going on. (Obviously not all of them are union but if it's an entertainment format where the union is involved, I don't want to cross the picket.) And the ACX site is pretty comprehensive in terms of figuring out how it all works, so if I did want to source a narrator elsewhere and perhaps not distribute exclusively through ACX, I now have a grounding from which to research other options too.

Sorry, a lot of this is just me thinking aloud, but I truly do appreciate the info and also something to bounce off of in terms of considering it. And I appreciate the opportunity to share it with my readership too, thank you!

[mikefaistinfo]

Interview: Mike Faist Isn’t Sure About This Whole Acting Thing

“I can’t tell if I hate acting or if I love it too much,” he said ahead of the debut of the Amazon series “Panic.” Coming soon, a major role in Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story.” For now, he’s going to Ohio.

By Elisabeth Vincentelli Published May 27, 2021

Tall and lanky, looking as if he were born wearing Wranglers, Mike Faist cuts quite a striking figure in the Amazon Prime series “Panic”: His character, Dodge Mason, is a Stetson-wearing rodeo dude who breaks untamed horses, then soulfully gazes into their eyes.

That, however, is not at all how the character was written in the Lauren Oliver young adult novel that inspired the show, debuting Friday, in which Dodge and a dozen other small-town teenagers face off in a series of life-threatening challenges — think a naturalistic “Hunger Games” with more class war.

After shooting a pilot in 2018 in upstate New York (where the book is set), the production completely rebooted in Austin, Tex., a year later, and Dodge’s back story was changed to better fit the new locale. Suddenly, the school wimp who was interested in cards and magic had been turned into a Western archetype: the strong, do-right loner who doesn’t say much. Faist went with the flow.

“Ciphers can be really boring,” said Oliver, who also wrote the screenplay, “but he manages to capture the power inherent in a certain level of invisibility.”

Dodge is quite a departure for Faist, who is best known for his Tony-nominated performance as the tormented, cynical Connor Murphy in the Broadway musical “Dear Evan Hansen.” Blessed with a rangy charisma and a bone structure that appears to have been carved with a scythe, the actor, now 29, could have easily coasted in “Panic.” But his sensibility is closer to that of such atypical leading men as Adam Driver, and he modernizes a potentially boilerplate part.

“Mike really didn’t want to be a caricature, but I don’t think he ever could be,” said Jessica Sula, who plays Natalie, Dodge’s love interest in “Panic.” She recalled that when shooting resumed in Texas after a Covid-19-imposed pause, Faist chose to live in a trailer on a plot of land with his rescue dog, Austin.

“He’s just so fabulously ridiculous and wonderful,” she said of Faist, laughing fondly.

Faist’s own course has been ascendant since he dropped out of acting school at 18, and his plum role in Steven Spielberg’s highly anticipated “West Side Story” as Riff, the leader of the Jets, should put him on Hollywood’s speed dial when it debuts in December. (Shooting wrapped in September 2019.)

And yet the actor spent much of a recent conversation candidly admitting to ambivalence and incertitude. He spent some of the past year driving around the country with Austin and writing a screenplay. He has been turning down offers and is now selling his Brooklyn apartment and heading back to Ohio.

Faist was warm and laid back on a recent sunny morning in Park Slope, and he laughed a lot in what seemed to be protective self-deprecation as he pondered his future, professional and otherwise. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

How did they spring the new Dodge on you?

It was still the same elements in terms of, “Oh, here’s the new guy,” but instead of, like, a weird magician, he’s now a … cowboy? I was like, “What do you mean, I’m now a cowboy?” They were like: “Yeah, yeah, you’ll be fine. Maybe try an accent.”

You do look pretty comfortable playing a horse whisperer.

I’d never worked with a horse in a production before. There were two of them: a very calm, gentle horse and a skittish one. We just ended up working with this skittish horse because it was actually doing stuff. The scene where the horse moves toward me was not planned or choreographed at all. They are, you know, unpredictable.

It might have been less intimidating than a sex scene. Is the one with Jessica Sula your first as an actor?

Maybe. I don’t know.

Wouldn’t you remember?

You’d think! I did do a romantic scene [onstage] in “A Month in the Country” with Taylor Schilling. I remember getting a pretty [expletive] review. [Laughs.]

Since the fall of 2018, you’ve gone back and forth between “Panic” and “West Side Story.” How did you handle these very physical projects?

For “West Side,” I found these Bruce Davidson photos of Brooklyn gangs from the late ’50s. If you look at their photos, these guys are emaciated, they have tattoos, and they look wired. Any money they had, they would pool and buy cheap wine and maybe they would have French fries or something. Then they were doing drugs. So I was like, “I need to lose some weight.” But my body was totally breaking down. Then I tried to bulk up as much as possible for “Panic” — just eating potatoes.

Did you do any kind of special training?

I started going to the Mendez boxing gym in Manhattan for “West Side.” I was working with John Rosado, who was raised in New York, Puerto Rican, badass. He was like, “I can’t believe I’m training a Jet!”

Your first big job was in the Broadway musical “Newsies,” which is quite dance heavy. Still, was it daunting to audition for “West Side Story”?

I put together a tape, and then they said, “We want you to come back in and dance.” I was like, “Is there any way you could not have me dance?” They were like: “What are you talking about? This is ‘West Side Story’!” The only saving grace is that Justin Peck [the choreographer] and I have similar body types: tall, nothing but arms and legs. They had their work cut out for them in order to get me up to snuff.

Why aren’t you in the upcoming “Dear Evan Hansen” movie alongside your former co-star Ben Platt?

I feel like I couldn’t do it. I started that when I was, like, 21, and was with it for five or six years. When you’re doing eight shows a week, it very much turns into relying on your technique and the job of it. And the show was such a zeitgeisty thing. It really took a lot out of me, and I didn’t really have it in me anymore.

With “Panic” and “West Side Story” behind you, what are you lining up?

Maybe this is so pretentious, but “West Side” was everything I had ever hoped to accomplish as an actor. It’s really crazy, but it was transcendental: either I didn’t feel like I was myself, or I was the most authentic version of myself. I can’t really tell which one. Having gone from having no money, wanting to just be a working actor — I don’t want to just be a working actor anymore. I had that experience. It [expletive] me up.

What did?

“West Side,” in the best of ways. I can’t unsee what I’ve seen. The pandemic nearly killed us and — what, I just want to be an actor? That’s ridiculous. [Laughs.] I don’t care enough. It’s a weird thing: I can’t tell if I hate acting or if I love it too much. It’s not like I don’t plan on doing it. I just don’t want to follow the trajectory of what the industry wants me to do.

Which is what?

Put on a cape and wear a mask. I need to take more agency because no one’s going to do it for me. It’s tricky, but it’s interesting and pretty exciting. I’m going to hang out with my family in Ohio and then start to figure out where I’m going to go. I would like to ultimately be of service and of use; that’s when I feel at my best.

You can find here: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/27/arts/television/mike-faist-panic-west-side-story.html

[teamfreewill2pointo]

https://www.instagram.com/stories/genpadalecki/3262227164971375676?utm_source=ig_story_item_share&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

I wonder if Whalefall is one of the books the Padaleckis bought the rights to… they’re both very passionate about the story!

Yeah I'm really curious to see what they did/do with the properties they purchase, if we find out about it.

I have a few different friends that have helped turn books/graphic novels into media. You may have seen one that recently came out after years of development.

It can be a really long road. I knew somebody who was looking to get the rights to the Wheel of Time series before the year 2000. The rights ended up with NBC, not the company my friend worked for, but got bounced around before being developed now by Amazon. I finally got to see it in 2021, 21 years later.

Sometimes, it's better for the production company that owns the rights to sell them rather than produce the work itself. I know Jared has done this with some of the book rights. From his latest comments, I assume that the Padaleckis are more interested in producing it themselves, but also in talking up the series and building up interest, he can increase the value of the brand, which can be then sold to another company that has more resources to produce the work.

[mkfiq]

What Does Ecommerce home page template Mean?

When you plan on providing digital products you probably don’t have to have a full fledged ecommerce platform. A digital product might be a thing like an ebook, online course, audio file, video file, or software application.

Marketers and developers are actually starting to really feel the mobile speed crunch. Mobile users assume pages on their own mobile devices to load faster than desktop.

Magic Spoon, a breakfast brand, does an excellent position portraying its products’ texture on its ecommerce site. The layout features a journal-like construction, which has a sparking color palette and detectable specifics powering each individual click and scroll.

logo created for fashion e commerce website working with a simple script font model and skinny feminin model as the most crucial thought should be to offer Ladies outfits

Given the gravity of this determination, Kimp delivers you a guidebook on designing Ecommerce logos in 2021. 

Simply because nearly every single business contains a logo, generating your own ecommerce logo alerts to customers that your online store is legitimate and credible.

The logo had been designed before which was Unused and client observed it and acquired it for his or her new eCommerce company. We both of those are adore the SD mark! by Graphaety ™

Video & movement graphics for partaking content material & adsKimp Video – Video & motion graphics for participating content & ads

You will need to use a paid application to take full advantage of Amazon FBA integration and dropshipping. Many fulfillment centers offer you free WooCommerce integration, nevertheless some could involve customized development for an extra cost.

There are ten themes (all free) offered within the admin. You would possibly need tiny familiarity with HTML and CSS given that the theme customizer doesn’t Have got a drag and drop functionality.

The In addition plan is $29/month and involves features like deserted cart email, personalised products, and ratings and reviews. The Top ecommerce marketplace quality Plan is $79/month and contains all that furthermore genuine-time shipping prices.

You can use free applications to incorporate Amazon two way sync and Amazon Checkout. You’ll will need paid out applications to manage items like Amazon FBA, fulfillment center and dropshipping integrations, eBay 2 way sync, evaluate snippet structured data, email marketing automation, and print on desire. You’ll require custom development if you would like integrate Adobe Commerce with WordPress.

For the small business over a spending plan, Sellfy is a good starting level. It provides you with anything you might want to get started selling online – regardless of whether you promote physical or digital products. It’s not a perfect solution at scale, although.

This beautifully designed ecommerce store incorporates a theme with a lot of white Room, which helps present the goods more prominently. It has an incredibly neat and clear design, making the website glimpse really Experienced and sophisticated.

[stormclouds-chainmail]

[Image description

Image 1: a tweet by Elizabeth Ann West @EAWwrites on 19 May 2023 followed by their twitter bio.

Tweet text: I'm really sorry that a bunch of people were today years old when they learned about Al for fiction. But I've been publishing with it since December 2021. Others even longer. It's not going away. Amazon is invested in it and bringing it on their platforms.

Twitter bio text: Founder at Future FictionAcademy.com Author of 25+ best-selling Pride & Prejudice variations. Lover of all things geeky!

Virginia Beach, VA

futurefictionacademy.com

Joined March 2008

Image 2: a screenshot of a quote and source.

Julia was twenty-six years old... and she worked, as he had guessed, on the novel-writing machines in the Fiction Department. She enjoyed her work, which consisted chiefly in running and servicing a powerful but tricky electric motor... She could describe the whole process of composing a novel, from the general directive issued by the Planning Committee down to the final touching-up by the Rewrite Squad. But she was not interested in the final product. She "didn't much care for reading," she said. Books were just a commodity that had to be produced, like jam or bootlaces.

From 1984 (Nineteen Eighty-Four), by George Orwell.

Published by Secker & Warburg in 1948

Additional resources

Image 3: a Gordon Ramsay meme where he looks down at something and the end of sentence in the subtitles has been edited. The subtitles now read, "Delicious. Finally, some good fucking Orwell comparisons."

End description]

“Author of 25+ best-selling Pride & Prejudice variations”

Yeah, no.

[cleverhottubmiracle]

Online luxury’s counterfeit problem is spreading. Since the dawn of e-commerce, shoppers ordering designer bags on a digital resale site like eBay have done so knowing they risked buying a fake — essentially, a trade-off for securing a lower price. But now, those knock-offs are starting to show up on firsthand marketplaces as more consumers are ordering new handbags or sneakers and going on to return a fake version. Some shoppers are starting to sound the alarm. In January, influencer Tiffany Kimm went viral after claiming Ssense sent her a fake version of The Row’s $1,090 90’s bag. In a follow up video, Kimm said that Ssense ended up issuing her a refund and a 10 percent discount credit, but wouldn’t confirm if the original bag she ordered was indeed a counterfeit. The incident created paranoia in other shoppers. In February, another TikTok user named Jennielyn made a response video to Kimm where she questioned the authenticity of a Gimaguas shoulder bag she ordered from Ssense for $700 which came without a branded duster bag, the tag cut off and thinner leather than she expected. “We are committed to ensuring the authenticity of all products sold. We have measures in place to prevent the sale of counterfeit items,” an Ssense spokesperson said in a statement. “Our return policy outlines how items must be returned in their original condition, including all packaging, accessories and Ssense tags, to facilitate thorough examination.” Returns fraud, in which customers send back empty boxes, less expensive or counterfeit items instead of the merchandise they ordered, is a major — and growing — problem in fashion. In 2024, it led US retailers to lose $104 billion in revenue, more than quadruple the losses from 2020, according to data from fraud prevention software provider Riskified. A chart illustrating the growing returns fraud conundrum. (BoF Team) It’s also an extremely difficult problem for retailers to tackle. For starters, as replicas become more sophisticated, fakes are harder to spot. Building an authentication system is a notoriously tricky and expensive endeavour. Plus, primary retailers historically haven’t had to do so to earn consumer trust the way that resale sites eBay, The RealReal and Vestiaire Collective have. And of course, even when there is an authentication process in place, counterfeits can still slip through.But luxury e-tailers can’t afford to ignore the problem for much longer. Receiving a counterfeit product when you’re paying for the real thing can sow a dangerous level of consumer distrust. And considering the current luxury spending environment — global sales in the sector dropped 2 percent in 2024, and US president Donald Trump’s forthcoming tariff increases threaten to further hamper consumer sentiment — there’s extra incentive to get the issue under control.“Once someone managed to get a fake through the door, and you ended up sending that to an end customer that spent their hard earned money … there’s a huge chance that you’re missing that customer for life,” said Eyal Elazar, senior director of product marketing and market intelligence at Riskified. BoF breaks down how retailers can buck the trend. How do counterfeits make their way onto firsthand retail sites? Fake goods showing up in firsthand luxury e-tailer’s inventories through returns is partially a result of a rise in counterfeits on the market. Once mostly restricted to backdoor sellers on Canal Street and the like, shoppers today can get their hands on fakes through websites like AliExpress, DHGate, Shein and even Amazon. In response to Trump imposing more than 100 percent tariffs on China, manufacturers in the region that claim to produce luxury bags for brands like Hermès and Chanel are going viral on TikTok, offering to sell to them directly. The share of fakes that authentication software platform Entrupy encountered across billions of dollars worth of luxury items jumped from 8.3 percent in 2021 to 8.7 percent in 2023. But the increase in counterfeit returned goods also reflects a luxury backlash among younger consumers. Prices for high-end goods have increased more than 50 percent in 2019, according to HSBC. As such, more shoppers — particularly Gen-Zers — aren’t convinced they’re worth the exorbitant prices, and also feel that luxury brands make enough money as is. They’re not only seeking out dupes for coveted items like The Row’s $6,400 Margaux bag or Alaia’s $1,350 Mary Jane-styled leather ballet flats, but they’re also openly bragging about doing so on social media. “A lot of Gen-Z sees this as sticking it to the corporation,” said Gwyneth Lewis, chief of staff at trademarking software firm Huski AI. “In the 2010s people would wear a dress and return it. The 2020s version is buying something real and returning something fake.” It’s also easier to get away with: Consumers can take advantage of more lax online return policies introduced to drive sales during the pandemic e-commerce boom, such as the ability to get a refund once they ship back an item. While a greater number of younger consumers are willing to proudly carry a dupe, it’s still a relatively small number who go so far as to engage in the type of returns fraud that drives sizable revenue losses for retailers. One of Riskified’s clients (which it didn’t disclose for privacy reasons) found that only less than 1 percent of their customers caused a loss of $4 million in 2024 from fraud-related activity, Elazar said. “There’s a handful of people that are ruining it for everyone,” Elazar added. “The more of these bad people that we catch and prevent, the less this becomes a trend.”How can online retailers address it? The most obvious solution to ward off counterfeits would be for retailers to authenticate all high-end goods, especially handbags and footwear, when they are returned to their warehouses. But doing so would be a sizable investment for what is still a relatively minor issue, and even if such processes were implemented, detecting a fake is not straightforward. Luxury resale marketplace Vestiaire Collective, for example, has prevented €12 million ($13 million) worth of counterfeit goods from making it onto its site this year. To do so, the Paris-based company operates four authentication hubs in New York, Hong Kong, France and the UK, where it employs more than 100 authenticators, some of whom are so skilled they can detect a fake bag by the scent of its leather, said Victoire Boyer Chammard, Vestiaire Collective’s senior brand manager and authentication specialist.“In terms of investments linked to trust, it was never a subject of costs,” Boyer Chammard said. “We want to put money on the table to ensure that we try to be trusted.”While firsthand retailers could invest in similar practices, doing so would add another layer to an already time-consuming returns process where the main concern is getting items back into stock as quickly as possible. Add to that, hiring authentication experts is an additional expenditure at a time when businesses are already dealing with higher shipping costs — and bracing for the impact of threatened tariffs. Plus, the authentication process is far from perfect, even for resale marketplaces: StockX, for instance, is currently in a legal dispute with Nike, which is accusing the Detroit-based reseller of allowing counterfeit versions of the sneaker giant’s styles to be sold on its site. “Some of the marketplaces hurt their bottom lines to put extra processes in place,” Lewis said. “They are managing so many different problems.” To that end, there are alternatives. Max Peiro, chief executive of luxury analytics firm Re-Hub, suggested luxury e-tailers can add QR code-embedded seals to their products; if they’re broken, an item can’t be returned. Because they are harder to remove than standard tags, it prevents customers from swapping in a fake and also ensures that items are always in resalable condition. Retailers can also partner with firms that help identify return policy abusers and remove perks like instant refunds to those identified. Riskified’s software can detect shoppers whose past returns include shipping back boxes full of dried ice or items they didn’t originally order based on their IP addresses or zip codes, and ensure that any future returns they make — even if they placed an order with a new name and credit card — will be flagged for further inspection. More firms are developing similar features. In March, returns management company Narvar introduced an AI tool that flags potential policy abusers and is already gaining traction with its retail partners, said Anissa Kumar, Narvar’s chief executive, although she wouldn’t disclose how many clients have started using the service. While it’s likely impossible for retailers to ensure no counterfeits will ever show up on their marketplaces, finding and penalising more of the customers who are likely to engage in this sort of fraud is one step toward maintaining consumers’ trust in the long-term. “You have to make sure that once you spot someone who’s a fraudster, you block them and you block them in an effective way,” Elazar said. Source link

[norajworld]

Online luxury’s counterfeit problem is spreading. Since the dawn of e-commerce, shoppers ordering designer bags on a digital resale site like eBay have done so knowing they risked buying a fake — essentially, a trade-off for securing a lower price. But now, those knock-offs are starting to show up on firsthand marketplaces as more consumers are ordering new handbags or sneakers and going on to return a fake version. Some shoppers are starting to sound the alarm. In January, influencer Tiffany Kimm went viral after claiming Ssense sent her a fake version of The Row’s $1,090 90’s bag. In a follow up video, Kimm said that Ssense ended up issuing her a refund and a 10 percent discount credit, but wouldn’t confirm if the original bag she ordered was indeed a counterfeit. The incident created paranoia in other shoppers. In February, another TikTok user named Jennielyn made a response video to Kimm where she questioned the authenticity of a Gimaguas shoulder bag she ordered from Ssense for $700 which came without a branded duster bag, the tag cut off and thinner leather than she expected. “We are committed to ensuring the authenticity of all products sold. We have measures in place to prevent the sale of counterfeit items,” an Ssense spokesperson said in a statement. “Our return policy outlines how items must be returned in their original condition, including all packaging, accessories and Ssense tags, to facilitate thorough examination.” Returns fraud, in which customers send back empty boxes, less expensive or counterfeit items instead of the merchandise they ordered, is a major — and growing — problem in fashion. In 2024, it led US retailers to lose $104 billion in revenue, more than quadruple the losses from 2020, according to data from fraud prevention software provider Riskified. A chart illustrating the growing returns fraud conundrum. (BoF Team) It’s also an extremely difficult problem for retailers to tackle. For starters, as replicas become more sophisticated, fakes are harder to spot. Building an authentication system is a notoriously tricky and expensive endeavour. Plus, primary retailers historically haven’t had to do so to earn consumer trust the way that resale sites eBay, The RealReal and Vestiaire Collective have. And of course, even when there is an authentication process in place, counterfeits can still slip through.But luxury e-tailers can’t afford to ignore the problem for much longer. Receiving a counterfeit product when you’re paying for the real thing can sow a dangerous level of consumer distrust. And considering the current luxury spending environment — global sales in the sector dropped 2 percent in 2024, and US president Donald Trump’s forthcoming tariff increases threaten to further hamper consumer sentiment — there’s extra incentive to get the issue under control.“Once someone managed to get a fake through the door, and you ended up sending that to an end customer that spent their hard earned money … there’s a huge chance that you’re missing that customer for life,” said Eyal Elazar, senior director of product marketing and market intelligence at Riskified. BoF breaks down how retailers can buck the trend. How do counterfeits make their way onto firsthand retail sites? Fake goods showing up in firsthand luxury e-tailer’s inventories through returns is partially a result of a rise in counterfeits on the market. Once mostly restricted to backdoor sellers on Canal Street and the like, shoppers today can get their hands on fakes through websites like AliExpress, DHGate, Shein and even Amazon. In response to Trump imposing more than 100 percent tariffs on China, manufacturers in the region that claim to produce luxury bags for brands like Hermès and Chanel are going viral on TikTok, offering to sell to them directly. The share of fakes that authentication software platform Entrupy encountered across billions of dollars worth of luxury items jumped from 8.3 percent in 2021 to 8.7 percent in 2023. But the increase in counterfeit returned goods also reflects a luxury backlash among younger consumers. Prices for high-end goods have increased more than 50 percent in 2019, according to HSBC. As such, more shoppers — particularly Gen-Zers — aren’t convinced they’re worth the exorbitant prices, and also feel that luxury brands make enough money as is. They’re not only seeking out dupes for coveted items like The Row’s $6,400 Margaux bag or Alaia’s $1,350 Mary Jane-styled leather ballet flats, but they’re also openly bragging about doing so on social media. “A lot of Gen-Z sees this as sticking it to the corporation,” said Gwyneth Lewis, chief of staff at trademarking software firm Huski AI. “In the 2010s people would wear a dress and return it. The 2020s version is buying something real and returning something fake.” It’s also easier to get away with: Consumers can take advantage of more lax online return policies introduced to drive sales during the pandemic e-commerce boom, such as the ability to get a refund once they ship back an item. While a greater number of younger consumers are willing to proudly carry a dupe, it’s still a relatively small number who go so far as to engage in the type of returns fraud that drives sizable revenue losses for retailers. One of Riskified’s clients (which it didn’t disclose for privacy reasons) found that only less than 1 percent of their customers caused a loss of $4 million in 2024 from fraud-related activity, Elazar said. “There’s a handful of people that are ruining it for everyone,” Elazar added. “The more of these bad people that we catch and prevent, the less this becomes a trend.”How can online retailers address it? The most obvious solution to ward off counterfeits would be for retailers to authenticate all high-end goods, especially handbags and footwear, when they are returned to their warehouses. But doing so would be a sizable investment for what is still a relatively minor issue, and even if such processes were implemented, detecting a fake is not straightforward. Luxury resale marketplace Vestiaire Collective, for example, has prevented €12 million ($13 million) worth of counterfeit goods from making it onto its site this year. To do so, the Paris-based company operates four authentication hubs in New York, Hong Kong, France and the UK, where it employs more than 100 authenticators, some of whom are so skilled they can detect a fake bag by the scent of its leather, said Victoire Boyer Chammard, Vestiaire Collective’s senior brand manager and authentication specialist.“In terms of investments linked to trust, it was never a subject of costs,” Boyer Chammard said. “We want to put money on the table to ensure that we try to be trusted.”While firsthand retailers could invest in similar practices, doing so would add another layer to an already time-consuming returns process where the main concern is getting items back into stock as quickly as possible. Add to that, hiring authentication experts is an additional expenditure at a time when businesses are already dealing with higher shipping costs — and bracing for the impact of threatened tariffs. Plus, the authentication process is far from perfect, even for resale marketplaces: StockX, for instance, is currently in a legal dispute with Nike, which is accusing the Detroit-based reseller of allowing counterfeit versions of the sneaker giant’s styles to be sold on its site. “Some of the marketplaces hurt their bottom lines to put extra processes in place,” Lewis said. “They are managing so many different problems.” To that end, there are alternatives. Max Peiro, chief executive of luxury analytics firm Re-Hub, suggested luxury e-tailers can add QR code-embedded seals to their products; if they’re broken, an item can’t be returned. Because they are harder to remove than standard tags, it prevents customers from swapping in a fake and also ensures that items are always in resalable condition. Retailers can also partner with firms that help identify return policy abusers and remove perks like instant refunds to those identified. Riskified’s software can detect shoppers whose past returns include shipping back boxes full of dried ice or items they didn’t originally order based on their IP addresses or zip codes, and ensure that any future returns they make — even if they placed an order with a new name and credit card — will be flagged for further inspection. More firms are developing similar features. In March, returns management company Narvar introduced an AI tool that flags potential policy abusers and is already gaining traction with its retail partners, said Anissa Kumar, Narvar’s chief executive, although she wouldn’t disclose how many clients have started using the service. While it’s likely impossible for retailers to ensure no counterfeits will ever show up on their marketplaces, finding and penalising more of the customers who are likely to engage in this sort of fraud is one step toward maintaining consumers’ trust in the long-term. “You have to make sure that once you spot someone who’s a fraudster, you block them and you block them in an effective way,” Elazar said. Source link

[elfwreck]

From the article:

At issue in the case are more than 418,000 units of certain children’s sleepwear garments, carbon monoxide detectors, and hair dryers that were sold to consumers on Amazon.com through the FBA program between approximately 2018 and 2021.

For the purposes of this proceeding, the parties stipulated that the products posed a substantial product hazard under CPSA Sections (a) and (j), after CPSC testing found that:

The children’s sleepwear garments did not meet the requirements for children’s sleepwear as required by the Flammable Fabrics Act.

The carbon monoxide detectors failed to detect CO2 gas and failed to alarm in its presence.

The hair dryers lacked required immersion protection required by applicable commission rules.

In its response to Complaint Counsel’s allegations, Amazon argued that the company, under its FBA program, is not a “distributor” of the products at issue but rather a “third-party logistics provider”....

Amazon tried to claim that since it doesn't have the items in its warehouses, it can't be a "distributor." The Commission threw that out, and mentioned:

Further, the Commission emphasized the “far-reaching control Amazon exercises in its Fulfilled by Amazon program,” including:

Screening products for eligibility in the FBA program

Communicating directly with customers and providing live customer support for FBA purchases

Determining whether products may be returned or exchanged by customers and the disposition of returned merchandise

Controlling communications between FBA participants and customers, requiring sellers to communicate exclusively through Amazon’s online platform

Exercising control over pricing and payments by enforcing pricing rules, processing customer payments, and authorizing refunds and exchanges

Amazon doesn't just coordinate between buyers & sellers; it puts a lot of constraints on what can be bought and how it can be sold, and that made it a distributor.

(Etsy and eBay are likely "third-party logistics providers." Other than having a few rules about what can't be sold on their platform, they don't mess with prices, quality levels, returns, or refunds.)

Note that this was focused only on product safety, not the rest of Amazon's shitty business practices. But it means they're liable for unsafe products, which means they'll have to do a LOT more review of third-party products selling through their site. I don't know what it means for mislabeled products or wrong-thing-delivered cases, but it probably at least means "easier to get refunds for those."

...If we're really lucky, they're now liable for false advertising claims for all those "the listing said this was red; I received a green dress" cases.

god i hope the cpsc takes the shot. i think this would dramatically change their entire business model. amazon makes so much money by selling defective or mislabeled or just plain dangerous products and then faces little liability because this stuff is actually being sold by random third-party sellers that don't get vetted at all and can be hard to prosecute because they're in china or wherever. this is a big part of what makes amazon so powerful and it would be good for everyone if they were forced to bear more responsibility for the damages caused by the crap available on their website

[chilimili212]

Online luxury’s counterfeit problem is spreading. Since the dawn of e-commerce, shoppers ordering designer bags on a digital resale site like eBay have done so knowing they risked buying a fake — essentially, a trade-off for securing a lower price. But now, those knock-offs are starting to show up on firsthand marketplaces as more consumers are ordering new handbags or sneakers and going on to return a fake version. Some shoppers are starting to sound the alarm. In January, influencer Tiffany Kimm went viral after claiming Ssense sent her a fake version of The Row’s $1,090 90’s bag. In a follow up video, Kimm said that Ssense ended up issuing her a refund and a 10 percent discount credit, but wouldn’t confirm if the original bag she ordered was indeed a counterfeit. The incident created paranoia in other shoppers. In February, another TikTok user named Jennielyn made a response video to Kimm where she questioned the authenticity of a Gimaguas shoulder bag she ordered from Ssense for $700 which came without a branded duster bag, the tag cut off and thinner leather than she expected. “We are committed to ensuring the authenticity of all products sold. We have measures in place to prevent the sale of counterfeit items,” an Ssense spokesperson said in a statement. “Our return policy outlines how items must be returned in their original condition, including all packaging, accessories and Ssense tags, to facilitate thorough examination.” Returns fraud, in which customers send back empty boxes, less expensive or counterfeit items instead of the merchandise they ordered, is a major — and growing — problem in fashion. In 2024, it led US retailers to lose $104 billion in revenue, more than quadruple the losses from 2020, according to data from fraud prevention software provider Riskified. A chart illustrating the growing returns fraud conundrum. (BoF Team) It’s also an extremely difficult problem for retailers to tackle. For starters, as replicas become more sophisticated, fakes are harder to spot. Building an authentication system is a notoriously tricky and expensive endeavour. Plus, primary retailers historically haven’t had to do so to earn consumer trust the way that resale sites eBay, The RealReal and Vestiaire Collective have. And of course, even when there is an authentication process in place, counterfeits can still slip through.But luxury e-tailers can’t afford to ignore the problem for much longer. Receiving a counterfeit product when you’re paying for the real thing can sow a dangerous level of consumer distrust. And considering the current luxury spending environment — global sales in the sector dropped 2 percent in 2024, and US president Donald Trump’s forthcoming tariff increases threaten to further hamper consumer sentiment — there’s extra incentive to get the issue under control.“Once someone managed to get a fake through the door, and you ended up sending that to an end customer that spent their hard earned money … there’s a huge chance that you’re missing that customer for life,” said Eyal Elazar, senior director of product marketing and market intelligence at Riskified. BoF breaks down how retailers can buck the trend. How do counterfeits make their way onto firsthand retail sites? Fake goods showing up in firsthand luxury e-tailer’s inventories through returns is partially a result of a rise in counterfeits on the market. Once mostly restricted to backdoor sellers on Canal Street and the like, shoppers today can get their hands on fakes through websites like AliExpress, DHGate, Shein and even Amazon. In response to Trump imposing more than 100 percent tariffs on China, manufacturers in the region that claim to produce luxury bags for brands like Hermès and Chanel are going viral on TikTok, offering to sell to them directly. The share of fakes that authentication software platform Entrupy encountered across billions of dollars worth of luxury items jumped from 8.3 percent in 2021 to 8.7 percent in 2023. But the increase in counterfeit returned goods also reflects a luxury backlash among younger consumers. Prices for high-end goods have increased more than 50 percent in 2019, according to HSBC. As such, more shoppers — particularly Gen-Zers — aren’t convinced they’re worth the exorbitant prices, and also feel that luxury brands make enough money as is. They’re not only seeking out dupes for coveted items like The Row’s $6,400 Margaux bag or Alaia’s $1,350 Mary Jane-styled leather ballet flats, but they’re also openly bragging about doing so on social media. “A lot of Gen-Z sees this as sticking it to the corporation,” said Gwyneth Lewis, chief of staff at trademarking software firm Huski AI. “In the 2010s people would wear a dress and return it. The 2020s version is buying something real and returning something fake.” It’s also easier to get away with: Consumers can take advantage of more lax online return policies introduced to drive sales during the pandemic e-commerce boom, such as the ability to get a refund once they ship back an item. While a greater number of younger consumers are willing to proudly carry a dupe, it’s still a relatively small number who go so far as to engage in the type of returns fraud that drives sizable revenue losses for retailers. One of Riskified’s clients (which it didn’t disclose for privacy reasons) found that only less than 1 percent of their customers caused a loss of $4 million in 2024 from fraud-related activity, Elazar said. “There’s a handful of people that are ruining it for everyone,” Elazar added. “The more of these bad people that we catch and prevent, the less this becomes a trend.”How can online retailers address it? The most obvious solution to ward off counterfeits would be for retailers to authenticate all high-end goods, especially handbags and footwear, when they are returned to their warehouses. But doing so would be a sizable investment for what is still a relatively minor issue, and even if such processes were implemented, detecting a fake is not straightforward. Luxury resale marketplace Vestiaire Collective, for example, has prevented €12 million ($13 million) worth of counterfeit goods from making it onto its site this year. To do so, the Paris-based company operates four authentication hubs in New York, Hong Kong, France and the UK, where it employs more than 100 authenticators, some of whom are so skilled they can detect a fake bag by the scent of its leather, said Victoire Boyer Chammard, Vestiaire Collective’s senior brand manager and authentication specialist.“In terms of investments linked to trust, it was never a subject of costs,” Boyer Chammard said. “We want to put money on the table to ensure that we try to be trusted.”While firsthand retailers could invest in similar practices, doing so would add another layer to an already time-consuming returns process where the main concern is getting items back into stock as quickly as possible. Add to that, hiring authentication experts is an additional expenditure at a time when businesses are already dealing with higher shipping costs — and bracing for the impact of threatened tariffs. Plus, the authentication process is far from perfect, even for resale marketplaces: StockX, for instance, is currently in a legal dispute with Nike, which is accusing the Detroit-based reseller of allowing counterfeit versions of the sneaker giant’s styles to be sold on its site. “Some of the marketplaces hurt their bottom lines to put extra processes in place,” Lewis said. “They are managing so many different problems.” To that end, there are alternatives. Max Peiro, chief executive of luxury analytics firm Re-Hub, suggested luxury e-tailers can add QR code-embedded seals to their products; if they’re broken, an item can’t be returned. Because they are harder to remove than standard tags, it prevents customers from swapping in a fake and also ensures that items are always in resalable condition. Retailers can also partner with firms that help identify return policy abusers and remove perks like instant refunds to those identified. Riskified’s software can detect shoppers whose past returns include shipping back boxes full of dried ice or items they didn’t originally order based on their IP addresses or zip codes, and ensure that any future returns they make — even if they placed an order with a new name and credit card — will be flagged for further inspection. More firms are developing similar features. In March, returns management company Narvar introduced an AI tool that flags potential policy abusers and is already gaining traction with its retail partners, said Anissa Kumar, Narvar’s chief executive, although she wouldn’t disclose how many clients have started using the service. While it’s likely impossible for retailers to ensure no counterfeits will ever show up on their marketplaces, finding and penalising more of the customers who are likely to engage in this sort of fraud is one step toward maintaining consumers’ trust in the long-term. “You have to make sure that once you spot someone who’s a fraudster, you block them and you block them in an effective way,” Elazar said. Source link

[tameblog]

Sister publication Gifts & Decorative Accessories recently spoke with experienced retailer Carol Schroeder, co-owner of Orange Tree Imports in Madison, Wis., who shares advice on how to price products amid economic woes, plus how to propel the buy local movement and boost local small businesses. Good, Better, Best Q: Should we stock goods at lower price points during these tumultuous times? We’ve heard that shoppers are likely to be more cautious about their spending this year. A: These are indeed choppy waters for independent retailers to navigate, especially with the big unknown of tariffs on goods from certain countries. Customers may see prices creeping upwards due to these surcharges, and it’s hard to predict how that will impact their purchases. The safest way to protect yourself from big changes in shopping habits is to offer goods at a variety of price points. This classic approach, which became popular in department stores in the 1900s, is based on the concept of stocking three different quality levels – good, better and best – for your most popular categories of merchandise. An example would be tapers offered in a no-frills bulk pack, as a pair tied together with a ribbon, and as a gift box of hand-dipped candles made by a local artisan. This strategy is sometimes known as Goldilocks pricing, because it offers something for everyone. You might think that would mean that shoppers would choose the price level that best fits their budget, however consumer behavior is more complicated than that. The good option does of course appeal to customers who can only afford a no-frills product. But those who can afford the luxury level will often choose the better option because they don’t need the features of the best product – or because they are being economically cautious. In this case, the fact that you offer items at a higher price point makes them feel better about choosing the ones in the middle range. Of course there are those for whom price is no object. Pam Danziger of Unity Marketing, who has spent decades studying the ups and downs of the luxury market, recently noted that “in the current economic climate, affluent consumers are taking a more measured approach to luxury spending.” While often turning away from expensive products that evoke status, they are still frequently interested in buying products that are at a higher price due to their quality. There are also middle-income shoppers whose high-ticket purchases are aspirational, spending beyond their budget to show that they appreciate well-made, durable merchandise. As a retailer, you will find that one advantage to stocking the G-B-B price points is that you can learn from experience which level of goods sell best for you. Your shoppers will vote with their dollars, allowing you to concentrate your inventory purchases on the range that is strongest for you in today’s economic climate. Buying Local Still Important Q: Our area’s shop-local organization lost some key personnel during the pandemic and hasn’t been active lately. Is that a movement worth our time and effort? A: Take a look at the enormous gains made by online shopping – especially Amazon – during the five years since the start of COVID-19, and you’ll see the reason for the declines that many independent stores have experienced since the pandemic began. While it was predicted in 2021 that the majority of consumers would be prioritizing shopping at neighborhood stores and buying locally sourced products once it was safe to shop in person, that hasn’t turned out to be the case. Buying online is so easy, and with the availability of free and almost instantaneous delivery, two of the major pain points have been removed. How can we convince customers to come to brick-and-mortar stores? First and foremost, we need to offer a shopping experience that is worth their while. Coming into your store needs to be a convenient, efficient and enjoyable option. The goods we offer must be what they want to buy. You can welcome shoppers warmly and have a delightful ambiance, but that doesn’t mean anything if your inventory doesn’t include the items they expect you to have – along with the serendipitous discoveries that make shopping in person so exciting. There are also great advantages to our communities having locally owned stores that are unique to our area. Our businesses support the regional economy, create jobs and have a positive social impact. It is also better for the environment since buying locally sourced merchandise reduces transportation costs, both at the wholesale and the consumer level. The best way to tell this story, and to remind customers of its efficacy, is through the buy local movement. By joining together, we can get the word out much more effectively. Together with the Small Business Administration (SBA), American Express has contributed enormously to this effort through Small Business Saturday. This annual event champions shopping small nationwide on Thanksgiving weekend, with an estimated $200 billion spent at small businesses since its inception in 2010. But we need to work locally to make this a year-round effort. If you don’t have a buy-local organization in your area, reach out to your business neighbors to work together to promote this concept to the public. An existing chamber of commerce or town government might be willing to sponsor your group. Be sure to include restaurants as well as service businesses and retailers, since everyone benefits from more local customers. You’ll want to establish some goals for your organization. Perhaps you primarily want to educate and engage your community around the issue of shopping and dining locally. You might also want to sponsor some events or create window signs and a website. Even a shared hashtag can be an effective way to show that your business community is committed to working together to promote this shared goal. Our group started using #monroestreetmadison a few years ago, and there are now more than 10,000 Instagram posts linked to that. While there are no longer strong national buy-local organizations to turn to for leadership, you can find inspiration and actionable ideas from dozens of localized initiatives around the country – and the world. Researching statistics supporting the economic benefits of shopping local is also important so that you have current material for social media posts and press releases. In a shopping environment becoming increasingly dominated by online sales (especially Amazon), it’s essential that we let our customers know the many reasons why shopping local matters. !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s) if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments); if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0'; n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)(window, document,'script', ' fbq('init', '693453330863834'); fbq('track', 'PageView'); Source link

[ramestoryworld]

Sister publication Gifts & Decorative Accessories recently spoke with experienced retailer Carol Schroeder, co-owner of Orange Tree Imports in Madison, Wis., who shares advice on how to price products amid economic woes, plus how to propel the buy local movement and boost local small businesses. Good, Better, Best Q: Should we stock goods at lower price points during these tumultuous times? We’ve heard that shoppers are likely to be more cautious about their spending this year. A: These are indeed choppy waters for independent retailers to navigate, especially with the big unknown of tariffs on goods from certain countries. Customers may see prices creeping upwards due to these surcharges, and it’s hard to predict how that will impact their purchases. The safest way to protect yourself from big changes in shopping habits is to offer goods at a variety of price points. This classic approach, which became popular in department stores in the 1900s, is based on the concept of stocking three different quality levels – good, better and best – for your most popular categories of merchandise. An example would be tapers offered in a no-frills bulk pack, as a pair tied together with a ribbon, and as a gift box of hand-dipped candles made by a local artisan. This strategy is sometimes known as Goldilocks pricing, because it offers something for everyone. You might think that would mean that shoppers would choose the price level that best fits their budget, however consumer behavior is more complicated than that. The good option does of course appeal to customers who can only afford a no-frills product. But those who can afford the luxury level will often choose the better option because they don’t need the features of the best product – or because they are being economically cautious. In this case, the fact that you offer items at a higher price point makes them feel better about choosing the ones in the middle range. Of course there are those for whom price is no object. Pam Danziger of Unity Marketing, who has spent decades studying the ups and downs of the luxury market, recently noted that “in the current economic climate, affluent consumers are taking a more measured approach to luxury spending.” While often turning away from expensive products that evoke status, they are still frequently interested in buying products that are at a higher price due to their quality. There are also middle-income shoppers whose high-ticket purchases are aspirational, spending beyond their budget to show that they appreciate well-made, durable merchandise. As a retailer, you will find that one advantage to stocking the G-B-B price points is that you can learn from experience which level of goods sell best for you. Your shoppers will vote with their dollars, allowing you to concentrate your inventory purchases on the range that is strongest for you in today’s economic climate. Buying Local Still Important Q: Our area’s shop-local organization lost some key personnel during the pandemic and hasn’t been active lately. Is that a movement worth our time and effort? A: Take a look at the enormous gains made by online shopping – especially Amazon – during the five years since the start of COVID-19, and you’ll see the reason for the declines that many independent stores have experienced since the pandemic began. While it was predicted in 2021 that the majority of consumers would be prioritizing shopping at neighborhood stores and buying locally sourced products once it was safe to shop in person, that hasn’t turned out to be the case. Buying online is so easy, and with the availability of free and almost instantaneous delivery, two of the major pain points have been removed. How can we convince customers to come to brick-and-mortar stores? First and foremost, we need to offer a shopping experience that is worth their while. Coming into your store needs to be a convenient, efficient and enjoyable option. The goods we offer must be what they want to buy. You can welcome shoppers warmly and have a delightful ambiance, but that doesn’t mean anything if your inventory doesn’t include the items they expect you to have – along with the serendipitous discoveries that make shopping in person so exciting. There are also great advantages to our communities having locally owned stores that are unique to our area. Our businesses support the regional economy, create jobs and have a positive social impact. It is also better for the environment since buying locally sourced merchandise reduces transportation costs, both at the wholesale and the consumer level. The best way to tell this story, and to remind customers of its efficacy, is through the buy local movement. By joining together, we can get the word out much more effectively. Together with the Small Business Administration (SBA), American Express has contributed enormously to this effort through Small Business Saturday. This annual event champions shopping small nationwide on Thanksgiving weekend, with an estimated $200 billion spent at small businesses since its inception in 2010. But we need to work locally to make this a year-round effort. If you don’t have a buy-local organization in your area, reach out to your business neighbors to work together to promote this concept to the public. An existing chamber of commerce or town government might be willing to sponsor your group. Be sure to include restaurants as well as service businesses and retailers, since everyone benefits from more local customers. You’ll want to establish some goals for your organization. Perhaps you primarily want to educate and engage your community around the issue of shopping and dining locally. You might also want to sponsor some events or create window signs and a website. Even a shared hashtag can be an effective way to show that your business community is committed to working together to promote this shared goal. Our group started using #monroestreetmadison a few years ago, and there are now more than 10,000 Instagram posts linked to that. While there are no longer strong national buy-local organizations to turn to for leadership, you can find inspiration and actionable ideas from dozens of localized initiatives around the country – and the world. Researching statistics supporting the economic benefits of shopping local is also important so that you have current material for social media posts and press releases. In a shopping environment becoming increasingly dominated by online sales (especially Amazon), it’s essential that we let our customers know the many reasons why shopping local matters. !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s) if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments); if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0'; n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)(window, document,'script', ' fbq('init', '693453330863834'); fbq('track', 'PageView'); Source link

[alexha2210]

Sister publication Gifts & Decorative Accessories recently spoke with experienced retailer Carol Schroeder, co-owner of Orange Tree Imports in Madison, Wis., who shares advice on how to price products amid economic woes, plus how to propel the buy local movement and boost local small businesses. Good, Better, Best Q: Should we stock goods at lower price points during these tumultuous times? We’ve heard that shoppers are likely to be more cautious about their spending this year. A: These are indeed choppy waters for independent retailers to navigate, especially with the big unknown of tariffs on goods from certain countries. Customers may see prices creeping upwards due to these surcharges, and it’s hard to predict how that will impact their purchases. The safest way to protect yourself from big changes in shopping habits is to offer goods at a variety of price points. This classic approach, which became popular in department stores in the 1900s, is based on the concept of stocking three different quality levels – good, better and best – for your most popular categories of merchandise. An example would be tapers offered in a no-frills bulk pack, as a pair tied together with a ribbon, and as a gift box of hand-dipped candles made by a local artisan. This strategy is sometimes known as Goldilocks pricing, because it offers something for everyone. You might think that would mean that shoppers would choose the price level that best fits their budget, however consumer behavior is more complicated than that. The good option does of course appeal to customers who can only afford a no-frills product. But those who can afford the luxury level will often choose the better option because they don’t need the features of the best product – or because they are being economically cautious. In this case, the fact that you offer items at a higher price point makes them feel better about choosing the ones in the middle range. Of course there are those for whom price is no object. Pam Danziger of Unity Marketing, who has spent decades studying the ups and downs of the luxury market, recently noted that “in the current economic climate, affluent consumers are taking a more measured approach to luxury spending.” While often turning away from expensive products that evoke status, they are still frequently interested in buying products that are at a higher price due to their quality. There are also middle-income shoppers whose high-ticket purchases are aspirational, spending beyond their budget to show that they appreciate well-made, durable merchandise. As a retailer, you will find that one advantage to stocking the G-B-B price points is that you can learn from experience which level of goods sell best for you. Your shoppers will vote with their dollars, allowing you to concentrate your inventory purchases on the range that is strongest for you in today’s economic climate. Buying Local Still Important Q: Our area’s shop-local organization lost some key personnel during the pandemic and hasn’t been active lately. Is that a movement worth our time and effort? A: Take a look at the enormous gains made by online shopping – especially Amazon – during the five years since the start of COVID-19, and you’ll see the reason for the declines that many independent stores have experienced since the pandemic began. While it was predicted in 2021 that the majority of consumers would be prioritizing shopping at neighborhood stores and buying locally sourced products once it was safe to shop in person, that hasn’t turned out to be the case. Buying online is so easy, and with the availability of free and almost instantaneous delivery, two of the major pain points have been removed. How can we convince customers to come to brick-and-mortar stores? First and foremost, we need to offer a shopping experience that is worth their while. Coming into your store needs to be a convenient, efficient and enjoyable option. The goods we offer must be what they want to buy. You can welcome shoppers warmly and have a delightful ambiance, but that doesn’t mean anything if your inventory doesn’t include the items they expect you to have – along with the serendipitous discoveries that make shopping in person so exciting. There are also great advantages to our communities having locally owned stores that are unique to our area. Our businesses support the regional economy, create jobs and have a positive social impact. It is also better for the environment since buying locally sourced merchandise reduces transportation costs, both at the wholesale and the consumer level. The best way to tell this story, and to remind customers of its efficacy, is through the buy local movement. By joining together, we can get the word out much more effectively. Together with the Small Business Administration (SBA), American Express has contributed enormously to this effort through Small Business Saturday. This annual event champions shopping small nationwide on Thanksgiving weekend, with an estimated $200 billion spent at small businesses since its inception in 2010. But we need to work locally to make this a year-round effort. If you don’t have a buy-local organization in your area, reach out to your business neighbors to work together to promote this concept to the public. An existing chamber of commerce or town government might be willing to sponsor your group. Be sure to include restaurants as well as service businesses and retailers, since everyone benefits from more local customers. You’ll want to establish some goals for your organization. Perhaps you primarily want to educate and engage your community around the issue of shopping and dining locally. You might also want to sponsor some events or create window signs and a website. Even a shared hashtag can be an effective way to show that your business community is committed to working together to promote this shared goal. Our group started using #monroestreetmadison a few years ago, and there are now more than 10,000 Instagram posts linked to that. While there are no longer strong national buy-local organizations to turn to for leadership, you can find inspiration and actionable ideas from dozens of localized initiatives around the country – and the world. Researching statistics supporting the economic benefits of shopping local is also important so that you have current material for social media posts and press releases. In a shopping environment becoming increasingly dominated by online sales (especially Amazon), it’s essential that we let our customers know the many reasons why shopping local matters. !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s) if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments); if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0'; n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)(window, document,'script', ' fbq('init', '693453330863834'); fbq('track', 'PageView'); Source link

[angusstory]

Sister publication Gifts & Decorative Accessories recently spoke with experienced retailer Carol Schroeder, co-owner of Orange Tree Imports in Madison, Wis., who shares advice on how to price products amid economic woes, plus how to propel the buy local movement and boost local small businesses. Good, Better, Best Q: Should we stock goods at lower price points during these tumultuous times? We’ve heard that shoppers are likely to be more cautious about their spending this year. A: These are indeed choppy waters for independent retailers to navigate, especially with the big unknown of tariffs on goods from certain countries. Customers may see prices creeping upwards due to these surcharges, and it’s hard to predict how that will impact their purchases. The safest way to protect yourself from big changes in shopping habits is to offer goods at a variety of price points. This classic approach, which became popular in department stores in the 1900s, is based on the concept of stocking three different quality levels – good, better and best – for your most popular categories of merchandise. An example would be tapers offered in a no-frills bulk pack, as a pair tied together with a ribbon, and as a gift box of hand-dipped candles made by a local artisan. This strategy is sometimes known as Goldilocks pricing, because it offers something for everyone. You might think that would mean that shoppers would choose the price level that best fits their budget, however consumer behavior is more complicated than that. The good option does of course appeal to customers who can only afford a no-frills product. But those who can afford the luxury level will often choose the better option because they don’t need the features of the best product – or because they are being economically cautious. In this case, the fact that you offer items at a higher price point makes them feel better about choosing the ones in the middle range. Of course there are those for whom price is no object. Pam Danziger of Unity Marketing, who has spent decades studying the ups and downs of the luxury market, recently noted that “in the current economic climate, affluent consumers are taking a more measured approach to luxury spending.” While often turning away from expensive products that evoke status, they are still frequently interested in buying products that are at a higher price due to their quality. There are also middle-income shoppers whose high-ticket purchases are aspirational, spending beyond their budget to show that they appreciate well-made, durable merchandise. As a retailer, you will find that one advantage to stocking the G-B-B price points is that you can learn from experience which level of goods sell best for you. Your shoppers will vote with their dollars, allowing you to concentrate your inventory purchases on the range that is strongest for you in today’s economic climate. Buying Local Still Important Q: Our area’s shop-local organization lost some key personnel during the pandemic and hasn’t been active lately. Is that a movement worth our time and effort? A: Take a look at the enormous gains made by online shopping – especially Amazon – during the five years since the start of COVID-19, and you’ll see the reason for the declines that many independent stores have experienced since the pandemic began. While it was predicted in 2021 that the majority of consumers would be prioritizing shopping at neighborhood stores and buying locally sourced products once it was safe to shop in person, that hasn’t turned out to be the case. Buying online is so easy, and with the availability of free and almost instantaneous delivery, two of the major pain points have been removed. How can we convince customers to come to brick-and-mortar stores? First and foremost, we need to offer a shopping experience that is worth their while. Coming into your store needs to be a convenient, efficient and enjoyable option. The goods we offer must be what they want to buy. You can welcome shoppers warmly and have a delightful ambiance, but that doesn’t mean anything if your inventory doesn’t include the items they expect you to have – along with the serendipitous discoveries that make shopping in person so exciting. There are also great advantages to our communities having locally owned stores that are unique to our area. Our businesses support the regional economy, create jobs and have a positive social impact. It is also better for the environment since buying locally sourced merchandise reduces transportation costs, both at the wholesale and the consumer level. The best way to tell this story, and to remind customers of its efficacy, is through the buy local movement. By joining together, we can get the word out much more effectively. Together with the Small Business Administration (SBA), American Express has contributed enormously to this effort through Small Business Saturday. This annual event champions shopping small nationwide on Thanksgiving weekend, with an estimated $200 billion spent at small businesses since its inception in 2010. But we need to work locally to make this a year-round effort. If you don’t have a buy-local organization in your area, reach out to your business neighbors to work together to promote this concept to the public. An existing chamber of commerce or town government might be willing to sponsor your group. Be sure to include restaurants as well as service businesses and retailers, since everyone benefits from more local customers. You’ll want to establish some goals for your organization. Perhaps you primarily want to educate and engage your community around the issue of shopping and dining locally. You might also want to sponsor some events or create window signs and a website. Even a shared hashtag can be an effective way to show that your business community is committed to working together to promote this shared goal. Our group started using #monroestreetmadison a few years ago, and there are now more than 10,000 Instagram posts linked to that. While there are no longer strong national buy-local organizations to turn to for leadership, you can find inspiration and actionable ideas from dozens of localized initiatives around the country – and the world. Researching statistics supporting the economic benefits of shopping local is also important so that you have current material for social media posts and press releases. In a shopping environment becoming increasingly dominated by online sales (especially Amazon), it’s essential that we let our customers know the many reasons why shopping local matters. !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s) if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments); if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0'; n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)(window, document,'script', ' fbq('init', '693453330863834'); fbq('track', 'PageView'); Source link

[tumibaba]

Sister publication Gifts & Decorative Accessories recently spoke with experienced retailer Carol Schroeder, co-owner of Orange Tree Imports in Madison, Wis., who shares advice on how to price products amid economic woes, plus how to propel the buy local movement and boost local small businesses. Good, Better, Best Q: Should we stock goods at lower price points during these tumultuous times? We’ve heard that shoppers are likely to be more cautious about their spending this year. A: These are indeed choppy waters for independent retailers to navigate, especially with the big unknown of tariffs on goods from certain countries. Customers may see prices creeping upwards due to these surcharges, and it’s hard to predict how that will impact their purchases. The safest way to protect yourself from big changes in shopping habits is to offer goods at a variety of price points. This classic approach, which became popular in department stores in the 1900s, is based on the concept of stocking three different quality levels – good, better and best – for your most popular categories of merchandise. An example would be tapers offered in a no-frills bulk pack, as a pair tied together with a ribbon, and as a gift box of hand-dipped candles made by a local artisan. This strategy is sometimes known as Goldilocks pricing, because it offers something for everyone. You might think that would mean that shoppers would choose the price level that best fits their budget, however consumer behavior is more complicated than that. The good option does of course appeal to customers who can only afford a no-frills product. But those who can afford the luxury level will often choose the better option because they don’t need the features of the best product – or because they are being economically cautious. In this case, the fact that you offer items at a higher price point makes them feel better about choosing the ones in the middle range. Of course there are those for whom price is no object. Pam Danziger of Unity Marketing, who has spent decades studying the ups and downs of the luxury market, recently noted that “in the current economic climate, affluent consumers are taking a more measured approach to luxury spending.” While often turning away from expensive products that evoke status, they are still frequently interested in buying products that are at a higher price due to their quality. There are also middle-income shoppers whose high-ticket purchases are aspirational, spending beyond their budget to show that they appreciate well-made, durable merchandise. As a retailer, you will find that one advantage to stocking the G-B-B price points is that you can learn from experience which level of goods sell best for you. Your shoppers will vote with their dollars, allowing you to concentrate your inventory purchases on the range that is strongest for you in today’s economic climate. Buying Local Still Important Q: Our area’s shop-local organization lost some key personnel during the pandemic and hasn’t been active lately. Is that a movement worth our time and effort? A: Take a look at the enormous gains made by online shopping – especially Amazon – during the five years since the start of COVID-19, and you’ll see the reason for the declines that many independent stores have experienced since the pandemic began. While it was predicted in 2021 that the majority of consumers would be prioritizing shopping at neighborhood stores and buying locally sourced products once it was safe to shop in person, that hasn’t turned out to be the case. Buying online is so easy, and with the availability of free and almost instantaneous delivery, two of the major pain points have been removed. How can we convince customers to come to brick-and-mortar stores? First and foremost, we need to offer a shopping experience that is worth their while. Coming into your store needs to be a convenient, efficient and enjoyable option. The goods we offer must be what they want to buy. You can welcome shoppers warmly and have a delightful ambiance, but that doesn’t mean anything if your inventory doesn’t include the items they expect you to have – along with the serendipitous discoveries that make shopping in person so exciting. There are also great advantages to our communities having locally owned stores that are unique to our area. Our businesses support the regional economy, create jobs and have a positive social impact. It is also better for the environment since buying locally sourced merchandise reduces transportation costs, both at the wholesale and the consumer level. The best way to tell this story, and to remind customers of its efficacy, is through the buy local movement. By joining together, we can get the word out much more effectively. Together with the Small Business Administration (SBA), American Express has contributed enormously to this effort through Small Business Saturday. This annual event champions shopping small nationwide on Thanksgiving weekend, with an estimated $200 billion spent at small businesses since its inception in 2010. But we need to work locally to make this a year-round effort. If you don’t have a buy-local organization in your area, reach out to your business neighbors to work together to promote this concept to the public. An existing chamber of commerce or town government might be willing to sponsor your group. Be sure to include restaurants as well as service businesses and retailers, since everyone benefits from more local customers. You’ll want to establish some goals for your organization. Perhaps you primarily want to educate and engage your community around the issue of shopping and dining locally. You might also want to sponsor some events or create window signs and a website. Even a shared hashtag can be an effective way to show that your business community is committed to working together to promote this shared goal. Our group started using #monroestreetmadison a few years ago, and there are now more than 10,000 Instagram posts linked to that. While there are no longer strong national buy-local organizations to turn to for leadership, you can find inspiration and actionable ideas from dozens of localized initiatives around the country – and the world. Researching statistics supporting the economic benefits of shopping local is also important so that you have current material for social media posts and press releases. In a shopping environment becoming increasingly dominated by online sales (especially Amazon), it’s essential that we let our customers know the many reasons why shopping local matters. !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s) if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments); if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0'; n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)(window, document,'script', ' fbq('init', '693453330863834'); fbq('track', 'PageView'); Source link