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Amazon Acquires Middle East Ecommerce Giant Souq for $650 Million
Amazon continues to conquer the globe. Now, it appears to be setting its sights on the Middle East. TechCrunch reports that the company is about to acquire Souq.
The price-tag for the biggest regional ecommerce player? $650 million.
Amazon has never had business operations in the Middle East. This acquisition could allow it to hit the ground running in a market valued at $4.9 billion.
How this affects potential opportunities in the region is too early to tell. But it can open potential options for sellers looking to expand to Australia, Singapore, and now the Middle East down the road.
Amazon Delays Entry Into Southeast Asia
After initially planning to launch local e-commerce services in Singapore during the first quarter of 2017, Amazon is postponing its entry into Southeast Asia.
Having taken longer than anticipated, the company plans the entry for ‘later this year’.
There hasn’t been much noise about the Singapore launch. But it’s something you stay on top of. Singapore is a small market, but the country has a lot of elements that favor ecommerce, such as high internet penetration and well developed infrastructure.
And once Southeast Asia opens up, sellers access a vast emerging middle class.
Keep your eyes open. With opportunities already in Japan, selling in Singapore is just around the corner.
Amazon to Expand Counterfeit Removal Program
Care for a pair of Adibos?
Amazon is making further strides in its efforts to remove counterfeit goods from its website. This is in line with the company’s attempts to cement its position as an ally to brands, rather than a threat.
In practice, any brand can register its logo and intellectual property with Amazon. It will take down listings flagged as counterfeit. This might take place as early as next month.
Amazon is also offering brands a program called “Transparency.” It lets them label packages with a code so shoppers can cross-check their purchase against official information.
All in all, Amazon cracking down on counterfeits is good news for serious sellers. Now you can strengthen your brand and further protect yourself against counterfeit sellers.
Scammers Are Hijacking Dormant Seller Accounts
Photo credit: MattysFlicks via Visual hunt / CC BY
Out of scam sellers on Amazon over the last 30 days, 20% come from accounts opened more than a year ago. Some had even been inactive for as much as ten years.
Marketplace Pulse describes this hijacking of dormant seller accounts as a potential trend. And this hurts sellers too.
Potentially, a scam seller changes the deposit bank account to their own. After Amazon deposits money, they disappear.
And once customers complain, Amazon refunds them from the original owner’s credit card. Ouch.
As Marketplace Pulse describes it:
“In case you are wondering how a credit card is still valid for a seller account opened in 2008 – Amazon accounts are shared between selling and placing orders on Amazon.com. So even though these sellers haven’t logged in to their seller account in a very long time, they’ve been placing orders on Amazon.com as customers. And that’s the credit card Amazon used to settle the seller charges.”
Sellers should take any precaution they can. Enable Amazon Two-Step Verification. And if you’re done selling on Amazon, close the account instead of leaving it dormant. Finally, don’t use the same login information for selling and for personal orders. This could hurt you if you get hijacked.
