Amazon Needs to Invest More into Trust
I had one of those "WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?" moments regarding Amazon.
They finally established a counterfeit crimes unit. I've said it before: they have the margin and ability to tackle this problem if they devote enough resources to it.
The big question is does Dharmesh Mehta - Amazon's VP of Customer Trust - have the right strategy and backing?
Last year, they introduced Project Zero, which weaponized trust and put it in the hands of brands to take down counterfeits. It's not enough, Amazon is too big.
Project Zero included automated checks, which it seems like this is accelerating.
It's reported they aim for "zero fakes" - which is the right goal.
Jim Ayyad posed an interesting question to me. He weighed in, saying “I think this was the absolute, right move and it can only help the brand. It’s been my belief that the biggest problem Alibaba will have entering the US marketplace is their reputation for not policing counterfeits. Perhaps Amazon sees this as their opportunity to differentiate themselves from Alibaba. Do you think that may be part of the reasoning?”
I think there are a number of reasons:
They need to get better about keeping brands.
They need to be a world leader in this beyond Alibaba and others.
They need to get ahead of the public / consumer marketplace counterfeit/fake narrative.
IMO, Amazon can't invest enough in this effort. Selection is there. Trust is still lagging on the marketplace. Particularly as they push more and more brands away from Vendor Central into Seller Central.
John Peterson shared some thoughts on this: “Amazon Vendor Central is what built their brand and their Seller Market place will be what destroys it. I've seen too many product reviews that tie back either to Seller side problems or problems of commingled inventory at their FCs [fulfillment centers]. Once one counterfeit gets product into FCs the disappointed customer reviews linger on the product page for years. Trust doesn't scale up. Trust only scales down when you lose it...I don't think most companies can meaningfully deepen trust with their customers. Businesses get a certain amount of trust from the customer up front and then it's all theirs to lose from there on out.” The bold type there was my emphasis, because I think this point is really worth considering.
