Amazon India Under Pressure, Report Reveals of Malpractice & Rigged Search Results

In a recent event, Reuters Investigates has reported some interesting details about Amazon’s documents from 2016. A valuable collection of internal documents from Amazon apparently brings a lot to question here. The documents show how it has exploited its own internal data to promotes its own brand (Amazon Basics, Solimo etc.) on its website. Although the company has denied the accusations.

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However, thousands of pages of internal Amazon documents examined by Reuters, tells differently. According to the documents and Reuters, the company’s emails, strategy papers and business plans hint of a systematic campaign. According to the report, the company has been producing knockoffs and manipulating search results. This is resulting in a boost for its own product lines in India, one of the company’s largest growth markets.

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What Does The Investigation Tell About Amazon?

Reuters investigation gives out extensive details about Amazon India’s alleged activity. Out of everything, two things are prominent.

1. First, a claim that Amazon employees used “Search seeding” (or boosting the rankings of specific product listings). This ensures that company brands like AmazonBasics appeared “in the first two or three” search results for a category.
2. Further allegation involves Amazon identifying “reference” or “benchmark” products that are popular with customers. After, they end up copying them. At least two high-level executives allegedly reviewed the plans.

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According to Reuters one such example that shines out the most is a popular shirt brand in India, John Miller. Owned by a company whose chief executive is Kishore Biyani, famously as the country’s “Retail King”. The allegation on Amazon goes states that like this – apparently, Amazon decided to “follow the measurements of” John Miller shirts down to the tees. It follows the brands from its measurements neck circumference to its’ sleeve length, the document states.

Role of Amazon Basics and Solimo?

These internal documents also show that Amazon employees studied proprietary data about other brands on Amazon.in. It extensively studied internal data like how often customers returned purchases and then designed products based on it. The 2016 report also brings out another instance-Amazon’s in-house brand called Solimo.

Solimo strategy as Reuters quote is simple. It “uses information from Amazon.in to develop products and then leverage the Amazon.in platform to market these products to our customers”. An internal Amazon document lays out the strategy for Solimo, a private brand the company created in India.

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Meanwhile, Amazon denied the allegations in a statement to Reuters, calling them “Factually incorrect and unsubstantiated.” However, claims from other countries are also surfacing about the same allegations.

The document from 2016 shows that Amazon employees working on the company’s own products. They are famously known as private brands or private labels. It had planned to partner with the manufacturers of the products targeted for copying. This is because they learned that these manufacturers employ “unique processes which impact the end quality of the product”.

At The End.

On the other hand, A 2020 Wall Street Journal report found that Amazon employees had studied detailed internal sales data to help it crush independent sellers with competing products. Amazon is also having accusations from before by employees who worked on private-brand products. They allege Amazon of exploiting proprietary data from individual sellers to launch competing products and manipulating search results to increase sales of the company’s own goods.

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Although, Amazon told the Wall Street Journal that the practice is strictly prohibited among employees. They have also denied the claims in a US congressional hearing. However, then-CEO Jeff Bezos said he couldn’t “guarantee” that the policy had never been violated. He further portrayed possible violations as the actions of rogue employees. This is not the formal strategy Reuters talks about. Moreover, Reuters notes, Amazon is under investigation in India for alleged anti-competitive behaviour.