“Some guy we had never talked to gave us a call and was like, ‘We have changed the rules,’ ” said Charlie Cole, who runs Tumi’s online business. He pushed back, but wasn’t successful.
“It was like talking to a brick wall,” he said. “They want to be able to control everything.”
Companies struggling to navigate Amazon’s growing chaos fill Facebook groups, private message boards and industry conferences. One session at a leading retail meeting next year is called “The Big Question: Is Selling on Amazon Worth the Hassle?” More than 12,000 people signed a petition on Change.org asking Amazon to alter an arcane rule on counterfeit products that they said could “destroy” an entire business.
Many sellers and brands on Amazon are desperate to depend less on the tech giant. But when they look for sales elsewhere online, they come up short. Last year, Americans bought more books, T-shirts and other products on Amazon than eBay, Walmart and its next seven largest online competitors combined, according to eMarketer, a research company.
“The secret of Amazon is we’re happy to help you be very successful,” said David Glick, a former Amazon vice president who left the company last year. “You just have to kiss the ring.”
Amazon says that its operation is so massive, the rules are necessary to give customers a quality experience. The company said the health of sellers was a top priority, and that it had invested billions of dollars to support them. It said that about 200,000 sellers surpassed $100,000 in sales in 2018, roughly a 40 percent increase from the year before.
“If sellers weren’t succeeding,” said Jeff Wilke, the chief executive of Amazon’s consumer business, “they wouldn’t be here.”
Jack Evans, a spokesman for the company, said that Amazon only succeeded when sellers succeed, “and claims to the contrary are wrong.” Merchants can choose the products they sell, how they are priced and how they fulfill the orders, he said.