Amazon to End Inventory Commingling
Allison Smith (via Hacker News):
Amazon revealed at its annual Accelerate seller conference in Seattle that it is shutting down its long-running “commingling” program — a move that drew louder applause from sellers than any other update of the morning.
The decision marks the end of a controversial practice in which Amazon pooled identical items from different sellers under one barcode. The system, intended to speed deliveries and save warehouse space, had also allowed counterfeit or expired goods to be mixed in with authentic ones, according to The Wall Street Journal. For years, brands complained that commingling made it difficult to trace problems back to specific sellers and left their reputations vulnerable when customers received knockoffs.
[…]
With the company’s logistics network now capable of storing products closer to customers, the speed advantage of pooled inventory has diminished. At the same time, Amazon estimated brand owners spent $600 million in the past year alone through re-stickering products, the process of placing new labels or barcodes over existing ones on products.
Finally.
Previously:
- Amazon Has Ceded Control of Its Site
- What Does “Amazon’s Choice” Mean?
- Amazon to Give Power to Brands to Remove Fakes
- Amazon and Fake Books and Filtered Reviews
- Amazon Kicks Off Unauthorized Apple Refurbishers
- Amazon Is Complicit With Counterfeiting
- Sellers Printing Counterfeit Books and Selling Under Amazon’s Brand
- Amazon Selling Fake Apple Chargers and Cables
- Amazon’s Chinese Counterfeit Problem Is Getting Worse
Update (2025-10-04): Nick Heer:
I had no idea Amazon did this until I complained on Mastodon about how terrible its shopping experience is, and Ben replied referencing this practice, nor did I know it has been doing so for at least twelve years. I am certain I have received counterfeit products more than once from Amazon, and I think this is how it happened.
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I guess that's nice but it's not going to affect me because I'm boycotting Amazon and I'm not going to stop any time soon
Great news! Never understood how supposedly reputable sellers would ship a "defective"/counterfeit memory card, or "mislabled" hard drives, or counterfeit shoes and clothes, until I found out about that inventory sharing system, which made zero sense, even years ago. Just shows the power of Amazon if sellers were willing to eat profit and tolerate these practices. But this is a net good for the consumer and seller, except the China scammers, I guess.
Commingling was definitely a Malicious Business Administration idea. I am sure some people inside Amazon decided to pursue this in their quest for promotions and were duly promoted as well. These so called free market capitalists are all sociopaths at heart, aren’t they?
I am equally sure that Amazon is stopping the practice as it is now somehow beneficial for them to do so. It can nothing to do with protecting seller reputation or customer service.
It's about time.
I've pretty much given up on buying any video content on DVD/BD, because I've received used/returned content sold as new on countless occasions. Sometimes grotesquely so - massive scratches on the media, and on a few occasions with the wrong movie in the packaging.
I've switched all my movie shopping over to deepdiscount.com, where I know that something sold as new actually is new.
When I hear that Amazon has actually stopped this practice, and isn't just making press releases, then maybe I'll consider buying from them again. Maybe.
