They probably run everything through different subsidiaries in different jurisdictions and make the capital intensive retail business as bad as possible, and shift losses or depreciation around to write down any earnings in the US or Europe.
If the commerce division owes a big commission to Amazon Isle of Man, LLC, they “lose money”.
They lure in 3rd parties to the marketplace with relatively low fees before the third parties realize no one sees their product unless they buy ads. By that point amazon has a bundle of their merchandise and a relationship so instead of pulling out they just buy the ads.
That's not really 100% true. I sell a single product on Amazon (USB oscilloscope I designed a couple of years back), and have no discovery issues at all.
It's the top product when you search for "USB Oscilloscope", and on the front page if you just search "Oscilloscope". I don't pay a cent in ads.
That said, I did notice a huge rankings boost when signing up for FBA (as opposed to shipping the goods from overseas).
Yeah, EspoTek. Interesting to hear that from you - Siglent appears third for me, and that's using an incognito window too (so it would be safe to assume any personalisation is off?).
Just for a data point, in a private tab, when I search Amazon for "USB Oscilloscope" my first three results in order are: EspoTek, Hantek, and then Siglent. It lists EspoTek as "Amazon's Choice".
Same results as when I'm signed in. I'm in the US.
I may be slow here, but couldn't they just instead have raised the percentage they charge for sales? (Are those "external sales" really that large?)