Amazon Clamps Down on Chinese Products, Suspends Merchants for Fake Reviews
- Some Chinese sellers have lost their accounts on Amazon after the tech giants clamped down on unscrupulous suppliers
- It was reported that a number of Chinese merchants manufactured fake reviews for its products in order to influence their listings
- Product reviews on Amazon are vital to the e-commerce company and are a major factor in the success of sales
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Chinese products are being pulled out of Amazon stores by the e-commerce company. Jeff Bezos' company seem to be waging a war of sorts against selected Chinese companies taking advantage of buyers.
Merchants from the Asian country accounts for large percentage of sellers on Amazon, especially new sellers, which is estimated at 75% in January 2021, up from 45% last year.
Some of these merchants are said to spend big on product reviews, which the tech giant take seriously, and use to determine the longevity of a merchant on its online marketplace.
In other to remain relevant on the Amazon platform and avoid being dropped by the company for bad reviews, some Chinese companies engage in black hat, which is a tactic used to review products.
Black hat involves either paying real buyers to leave positive reviews or create zombie accounts to send fake orders in order to add positive reviews. Listing of products is usually affected by the kinds of reviews they get on Amazon.
Source: UGC
Chinese companies engage in this act because Amazon is seen as a gateway to United States market, and an alternative revenue source outside of China. The likes of Mpower and Aukey were suspended, Tech Crunch reported.
According to Juozas Kaziukenas, founder of Marketplace Pulse, eleven merchant accounts were suspended by Amazon, which stated that it takes swift action against those that violate genuine reviews.
Amazon spokesman said the company has:
"long-standing policies to protect the integrity of our store, including product authenticity, genuine reviews, and products meeting the expectations of our customers.”
It added that:
“We take swift action against those that violate them, including suspending or removing selling privileges,”
Meanwhile, Briefly News presents the top tech companies in the world and where they are located in Africa.
1. Apple
Tech giant Apple announced plans to open its headquarters and first official store in Africa. It will be in Egypt.
2. Twitter
Twitter's Africa headquarters will be sited in Ghana. The company announced it would recruit 11 people in the West African country.
3. Amazon
The tech giant opened offices in South Africa in 2015.
4. Google
Google's first African Artificial Intelligence lab was opened in Ghana in 2019.
5. Facebook
Facebook opened its African headquarters in South Africa in 2015.
6. Microsoft
Microsoft opened its first Africa data centres (Africa Development Centre) in Kenya and Nigeria in 2019.
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Source: Briefly News
