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Amid e-commerce giant Amazon’s continued crackdown on sellers’ attempts to solicit positive reviews from consumers, three other Chinese consumer brands have been banned from sale on the platform, dealing a further blow to the community. “Made in China, sold on Amazon”.
Citing Guangdong SACA Precision Manufacturing, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that Amazon has banned the sale of RAVPower power banks, Taotronics headphones and VAVA cameras, three brands of electronics company Sunvalley based in Shenzhen, effective June 16.
The suspension came after merchants were found to offer gift cards to customers willing to write positive reviews on their purchases. This is a common practice in the Chinese e-commerce world, but considered abuse of the review system by Amazon.
“According to our investigation, the reason [for the ban] perhaps some products were offering gift cards to customers, which would be in violation of the rules of the Amazon platform, “SACA said in the statement.
The three brands affected by the latest ruling sell a range of consumer electronics, including baby surveillance cameras, with the affected products accounting for around a third of Sunvalley’s total sales on Amazon since the start of 2020, a SCMP reported citing the release.
The online platform had taken similar action against other Chinese merchants for breaking its rules on fake customer reviews, including an online store backed by TikTok owner ByteDance.
Since last month, the product listings of some of China’s biggest sellers of electronic gadgets have disappeared from Amazon’s online marketplace, SCMP reported earlier.
Amazon has a “zero tolerance policy towards violations, including asking a friend to leave a review, and its latest action has garnered widespread public attention in China because of the suppliers involved.”
“Amazon is closing thousands of stores every day for tampering with the review system. The reason it’s so remarkable this time is that the stores they are closing are so big,†said Zack Franklin, an Amazon consultant for Shenzhen-based traders.
One of those hit by Amazon electronics supplier Aukey, which generated more than three-quarters of its revenue from Amazon in the first quarter of 2018 and 2019, according to a prospectus it filed in 2019.
Mpow, Amazon’s main electronics store run by ByteDance and Xiaomi-backed consumer products company Patozon, has also been hit by the crackdown. It had recorded 2 billion yuan of exports in the first half of 2020, according to a financial statement.
“The main reason Amazon has specifically targeted larger Chinese accounts is to send a very strong signal to sellers. If you break the rules, we’ll shut you down,†Franklin said.
In recent years, a growing number of Chinese merchants have turned to major international e-commerce platforms, including eBay and Amazon, to reach consumers beyond their home market.
Despite the crackdown on fake reviews from Amazon, some small vendors are choosing to continue this practice to stay competitive.
This story was posted from an agency feed with no text editing. Only the title has been changed.
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