
Amazon, in hunt for lower prices, recruits Indian merchants - ehllo
https://www.postandcourier.com/business/amazon-in-hunt-for-lower-prices-recruits-indian-merchants/article_7392d06c-d3af-11e7-8ef6-c3d41fea071a.html
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kylehotchkiss
My favorite blankets are from Rajasthan. Good choice, amazon! I wish they'd
offer fabindia ([https://www.fabindia.com](https://www.fabindia.com)) products
too.

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puranjay
I'm from Rajasthan. It's strange watching blankets I'd reject for being "not
good enough" being sold for 10-50x their rates outside the state

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happy-go-lucky
It’s probably because you know their occupation really well, how these
blankets are woven, quality of the material used etc. To the user or outsider,
the details are hidden in plain sight.

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cm2187
But mostly because you have no way to tell a fake/low quality from the
original/high quality on amazon.

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happy-go-lucky
Agree. You can't tell until the delivery :)

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chucky_z
Is this a surprise? When I think quality tapestries I always think India and
Pakistan. India is similar to China in that they both have a rich heritage of
wonderful art, and a huge population to carry on that tradition. It's
surprising to me that we don't have _more_ goods from India.

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sergers
Possibly export fees?

The article touches on the merchant advantage is reduced import costs, and
pre-existing logistics network.

I wished alot of Indian ecommerce sites would ship out to North America
easily... But not many of the big ones.

China subsidizes delivery of packages... And why they can hawk an item for
under a dollar including shipping. (Heck in Canada, it's minimum $1.20 to send
a letter to the states)

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Spooky23
It is less subsidy and more abuse of a treaty.

US first class mail customers are actually the ones subsidizing your free
shipping for a counterfeit “Star Winners” Lego minifig.

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markdown
> It is less subsidy and more abuse of a treaty.

Serious question: Why do you call it "abuse"? Are the Chinese taking advantage
of a loophole Americans left in a treaty?

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Laforet
In a strict sense, yes. The loopholes has been there for decades but
widespread exploitation did not start until around 2008-2010 when sellers in
Asia realised that they could send trinkets to US customers for next to
nothing and still make some profit. Additionally it is hard to collect import
duty and VAT on small personal imports, but domestic sellers who buys stock in
bulk are rarely exempt, so the price gap grows further.

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fjsolwmv
It's not a loophole and it was a business deal not a treaty. The USPS exec
thought he was being clever by getting free shipping to China, but he didn't
realize that there is practically no mail shipping US to China, and lots of
mail shipping China to US.

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Laforet
>It's not a loophole and it was a business deal not a treaty.

Participation in the Universal Post Union is a political matter. Countries
cannot simply back out if they think certain terms are unfair.

>The USPS exec thought he was being clever by getting free shipping to China,
but he didn't realize that there is practically no mail shipping US to China,
and lots of mail shipping China to US.

For the same article it still costs China less to send to the US than the
other way around because the former counts as a developing country, though the
unbalanced volume does compound the problem. After all the scheme was not
drafted with many small parcels of personal imports in mind and it will take
decades to fix.

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jwatte
I would much rather have the certainty that I get working high quality
products with no hassle and solid return policies, than save a few percent
extra on price. If Amazon turns into Walmart, or eBay, they have lost.

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jjeaff
You don't think Amazon has been on the exact same lowest price no matter what
path as Walmart?

If anything, Amazon is worse than Walmart brick and mortar stores since their
third party sellers are not vetted.

Imagine the kerfuffle that would arise if Walmart was selling counterfeit
products in their store.

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shostack
No, I don't. They are no longer the consistently lowest price for many items
where they used to be. They rely on Prime subscribers valuing the convenience
of Prime over slight pricing differences elsewhere.

However I absolutely believe they are taking a page from Walmart with regards
to twisting the arm of their vendors and merchants to get the lowest prices
possible and potentially driving down quality as a result. Lower
quality/higher-margin items don't necessarily mean they will sell at a
discounted price.

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bamboozled
Honest question, why are people so attracted to "lower prices"? Is this really
beneficial for the consumer and the economy in the long term?

I have been consuming often slightly higher priced, better quality, ethically
produced goods for some time now. I'm hapier having less stuff and caring for
the things I have.

How do I afford to do this? I just buy stuff and try buy second hand quality
items where I can.

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omarforgotpwd
Low prices are good for the economy, and they are morally good and help human
society progress. You choose to pay more for better, more ethical goods
because it is worth it to you to do so. For others it may not be worth it
because they have a lower salary, or an alternative to consuming that good
that is cheaper (like choosing to bike rather than drive a car). Having a
cheap crappy option in no way obligates anybody to choose that good, and may
even create economies of scale that create cost reductions across the board.
Even though we may not want the cheapest version, for somebody else it might
make a huge difference.

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guiriduro
If lower prices were good per se, then markets for Lemons would not occur[1].
The mixture of downward pricing pressure, asymmetric information and arbitrage
can lead to a state of affairs which is distinctly bad (and arguably morally
bad too) for an economy.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Market_for_Lemons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Market_for_Lemons)

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pvelagal
Well, facebook has done tremendous good to saree/garment makers from India by
removing the middlemen. For eg: some of the best handwoven saris/garments such
as Kanchipuram sarees can be directly ordered by visiting their facebook
pages. Such a boon to the handloom industry there.

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koopuluri
Where are you located, and how did you find out about these pages? Do you know
who handles the burden of shipping to you? Do you know what the difference in
price is b/w buying locally and buying from the US/ wherever you are?

Would love to join some of these groups. There are a few Whatsapp groups that
do these imports as well, but those middlemen slap on a significant fee
leaving the creators with not much more than what they would get selling
locally. Some of the original creators don't know that their sarees are being
sold in the US for much higher.

I've been curious about how a transparent platform would work where the
platform handles the burden of shipping and international trade legalities for
the creator (which can be a huge headache when selling abroad).

