Dozens of Amazon sellers have signed a petition asking the e-commerce giant to reconsider its policies regarding its buy box, the entrepreneur who created the petition said.
The petition, which was written and circulated by e-commerce entrepreneur Brandon Fishman on Tuesday, says that since tariffs have forced many brands to consider raising their prices, they’re finding themselves in a tricky situation regarding their Amazon product listings.
It’s all about the buy box, long a source of stress for Amazon sellers.
“Winning” the buy box is key because it means your listing is the default purchase option and has the “Add to Cart” button on it, increasing the odds of beating competing listings to a sale.
Amazon uses a complex algorithm to determine which products win the buy box. As part of that process, it compares listed prices on Amazon to those on the same product at competitors, incentivizing sellers to always have the lowest price on Amazon.
Fishman said the fierce competition to have the lowest price on Amazon and, therefore, win the buy box means that sellers don’t have as much control over their pricing as they would like.
This is especially relevant as businesses look to raise prices to weather the impact of tariffs. Since many brands also sell their products at major retailers, like Walmart and Target, that may require more notice of planned price changes in stores. Sellers can’t quickly raise their prices on Amazon without risking losing the buy box, Fishman said.
“Amazon needs to give brands their own pricing power immediately,” the petition reads.
Amazon representatives declined to comment on the petition but pointed to a 2020 blog post that explains how Amazon chooses which seller gets chosen for the buy box when multiple sellers are selling the same product.
“We don’t want to disappoint customers, so if we or our independent sellers don’t have a good offer that we’re confident will preserve customer trust in our store, we won’t feature an offer at all. We’d rather the customer not buy that product from Amazon than have a poor shopping experience and lose trust in Amazon,” it reads.
“Of course, even when we choose not to feature a particular offer, customers can still view all of the available non-featured offers for that product.”
Don’t sell rather than sell at a loss
Fishman is the CEO of VitaCup, a vitamin-infused coffee and tea brand, and an Amazon marketing agency called Prime Team Agency. He told BI his clients have taken a variety of approaches in response to tariffs.
“Most people I know are just literally removing the product and not selling it because they can’t sell it at a loss,” he said. “People are just not sending in shipments to see what happens here the next few weeks.”
BI reported earlier this month that Amazon employees, suppliers, and sellers were scrambling for solutions as they received little guidance from the company regarding how best to respond to the turmoil caused by Trump’s tariffs.
David Cassarino is the director of Amazon marketing at digital growth firm National Positions. He said he signed Fishman’s petition because it would be in his clients’ best interest for Amazon to allow its sellers to raise prices without risking losing the buy box.
“Businesses need to react quickly to the tariffs, which have been changing daily, and right now they can’t pivot fast enough due to the buy box suppressions from price increases,” Cassarino said.
The global trade situation continues to evolve rapidly. On Wednesday, Trump said he would pause most of his planned tariffs and lower reciprocal tariffs to 10% for 90 days, except those on goods from China, which he raised to 125%. That means Amazon sellers are still feeling the heat from tariffs — A Jungle Scout survey from 2024 found that more than 70% of Amazon sellers source their products from China.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in an interview on CNBC Thursday morning he expected sellers would have to pass on the extra cost of tariffs to customers.
“I understand why, I mean, depending on which country you’re in, you don’t have 50% extra margin that you can play with,” he said.
Bloomberg reported Wednesday that Amazon had canceled orders for products made by vendors in China and several other Asian countries.
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