I've been pondering about how easy it is for thieves to shutter and open stores in the Amazon Marketplace. It seems to happen at the flip of a switch. How do they do it? Did they come up with a software program that automatically populates their stores? Do they have an army of minions that input by hand?
The only good way to answer that was to become a seller. I went to the Amazon website and there it was at the top of the page:
The only good way to answer that was to become a seller. I went to the Amazon website and there it was at the top of the page:
So I click on the Sell link and it takes me to the sign up page. It has all the legal terms and conditions.
I type in my store information, check the box and go to the next page. There is a tab at the top called Inventory which allows me to add a new product. Even more interesting is the option to find an existing product. Out of curiosity I pick one of my stolen designs, a bowling theme pillow. You can probably guess what happened...it appeared on the list of results!
So I click on the pillow and get the option to enter product information. It's not too complicated and fairly easy to complete:
It took maybe a minute to fill out the form and I had one product in my store. And if I spent a day on it I could probably populate the store with hundreds of pillows. And here is where the problem is. I've filed many times to have it removed. Why do they remove the listing from the website but not their database? Once caught, it's so easy for a thief to set up a new shop. This is why my friends, even when you file a take-down request it is easy for a thief to list it again. Amazon needs to do something about this!