In the latest interview with China Central Television, Cindy Tai, an Amazon VP, has confirmed that the company had banned over 3000 merchant accounts on the platform. These accounts were tied to over 600 Chinese electronics brands, including popular names like Aukey and RAVPower.
Amazon has recently received many complaints of cheating and fraudulent activities by the merchants associated with the platform. As a result, Amazon has undertaken a strict initiative to clean up fake accounts and eradicated garbage on its platform.
The latest ban is part of an effort to clean up fake and incentivized reviews on the Amazon platform. However, news reports indicate that after the imposing of the ban most of the brands are facing significant monetary challenges. One such example is Shenzhen Youkeshu Technology, which claims that the e-commerce giant has frozen over US$20 million of its funding.
Just a few months ago, Amazon received a new issue in its hands and it was related to the false and incentivized review and it came to light when a WSJ journalist wrote a column about their experience ordering a RAVPower charger.
When Amazon initially started a ban of the incentivized reviews, RAVPower went a step ahead by including a “gift card” in the package, redeemable only if the customer submitted a product review. This was the final nail in the coffin and the deal was sealed.
Since then, Amazon did what it does the best and has reportedly started the crackdown on tens of thousands of merchants. This latest wave of bans, however, is particularly relevant because relatively well-known brands and their sellers were caught.
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