Since we opened the Store to sellers in 2001, third-party sellers have grown to account for around 60% of everything sold on the Amazon Store, with their sales growing twice as fast as those of Amazon retail. Last year, over 100,000 jobs across Europe were created by third-party sellers and European small and medium businesses achieved over €14.5bn in export sales. We will work hard to ensure that sellers continue to succeed on Amazon and together we can deliver a great service to our customers.
While we disagree with the European Commission’s preliminary conclusions in these cases, we have worked closely with the Commission to address its concerns and ensure we can continue to serve customers across Europe, as well as support European small and medium-sized businesses and others selling through our stores.
The Amazon Store
We continuously invest to develop a high-quality, seamless shopping experience in the Amazon Store. When you visit the Amazon Store, you’ll see many products being sold by many sellers. While Amazon retail itself offers many products, most products are offered by third-party sellers. All products – whether they are being sold by Amazon or by a third party – are presented to customers in the same way when a customer is reviewing that product. That experience empowers customer choice based on the best combination of selection, price, and convenience, irrespective of whether the products purchased are sold by Amazon retail or by third-party sellers.
We also invest to make sure sellers are supported with tools and training to help them succeed – offering far more than simply a place to sell their goods. Amazon succeeds when our selling partners succeed. The retail space is incredibly competitive and dynamic, and consumers and sellers have many options to choose where to buy or sell goods. We do not take for granted sellers’ decisions to sell on Amazon and consumers decisions to buy on Amazon, and are always working to make sure we offer a great service to each.
Our commitments
While we are confident our business model and practices comply with European law, we worked constructively with the Commission to address the concerns they raised, being mindful of the EU’s upcoming Digital Markets Act. We are making the following commitments:
We will continue to ensure that the criteria that determine the “Featured Offer” on our product detail page are non-discriminatory and treat third-party sellers and Amazon retail equally. Customers can be assured they continue to see the best “Featured Offer” we can provide.
We will also present a “Second Displayed Offer” for some products where there are third-party sellers with offers that differ from the Featured Offer but might be compelling to some customers – for example a slower delivery speed but lower price. As before, all offers from other third-party sellers will also continue to be available when a customer is considering a product.
Sellers participating in Prime may use alternative logistics providers, as long as the customer experience continues to meet the Prime standard and expectations, such as the Prime fast delivery promise.
Finally, Amazon also commits that its retail business will not use non-public seller data to compete with sellers, while ensuring Amazon can continue to run the Amazon Store efficiently and effectively for both customers and sellers.
Across Europe, there are now 225,000 small and medium-sized businesses selling through the Amazon stores. They are a crucial part of how Amazon gives customers the broadest possible choice of products and services that they love. We are proud of all everything we do to support them as they grow their sales on the Store and celebrate their successes in the SME Impact Report.
We look forward to continuing to do everything we can to provide the best possible selling and purchasing experience for European sellers and customers.
