How Amazon pushes up prices all across the Internet

本文为原文前 6,000 字符的节选翻译，完整内容请查看原文。

Not-Ship turns one next week!! To mark it, I’ll be kicking off a campaign for new members. I won’t spam you; free subscribers will only get three extra emails on top of the weekly edition.

Not-Ship 下周就满一岁了！！为了纪念这一时刻，我将发起一项针对新会员的活动。我不会向你发送垃圾邮件；免费订阅者除了每周一期的内容外，只会额外收到三封邮件。

But first, can I ask for a small birthday present? Hit reply and finish this: I read Not-Ship because…

但在开始之前，我能要一份小小的生日礼物吗？请回复并完成这句话：我阅读 Not-Ship 是因为……

Last week I wrote about how Amazon’s search page is designed to screw you over: the top row trap, the swamp of ads, the discount-washing. Today, I’ll explain what’s going on behind the scenes, and how Amazon’s rules make sure prices stay high not just at Amazon, but everywhere you shop.

上周我写了亚马逊的搜索页面是如何设计来坑你的：顶部的陷阱、广告的泥潭以及折扣洗白。今天，我将解释幕后发生了什么，以及亚马逊的规则是如何确保价格不仅在亚马逊，而且在你购物的任何地方都保持高位的。

In a nutshell, here’s what I’m talking about:

简而言之，我所说的就是：

This isn’t just my theory. This system is at the heart of the US Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) upcoming antitrust case against Amazon.

这不仅仅是我的理论。该体系是美国联邦贸易委员会（FTC）即将对亚马逊提起的反垄断诉讼的核心。

Amazon relies on independent sellers to populate its online marketplace, and it charges them to be on the site. Amazon takes a big cut. In 2014, this was about 19% of sales. But today, many sellers hand close to half of every sale to Amazon. Half!

亚马逊依靠独立卖家来充实其在线市场，并向他们收取入驻费用。亚马逊从中抽取了很大一部分利润。2014 年，这一比例约为销售额的 19%。但如今，许多卖家将每笔销售额的近一半交给亚马逊。一半！

Amazon’s basic commission (15% of the sale price in most categories) is in line with what eBay and Walmart charge. What pushes Amazon’s cut higher are the other fees stacked on top.

亚马逊的基本佣金（大多数类别为销售价格的 15%）与 eBay 和沃尔玛的收费标准一致。推高亚马逊抽成比例的是叠加在上面的其他费用。

Based on an apparel seller that opts for Amazon fulfillment, storage, returns and advertising.

基于一家选择亚马逊物流、仓储、退货和广告服务的服装卖家的情况。

There’s the referral fee, which is the commission Amazon takes on every sale. The fulfillment fee is the cost to have Amazon pack and ship items from its warehouses. Then there’s advertising: those sponsored spots in the top row we saw in last week’s article.

其中包括推荐费，即亚马逊从每笔销售中抽取的佣金。配送费是让亚马逊从其仓库打包和运送商品的成本。然后是广告费：即我们在上周文章中看到的顶部赞助位。

Of these costs, only the referral fee is mandatory. Sellers can choose to ship orders themselves, for example, or forgo advertising. But in practice, the choice isn’t actually much of a choice.

在这些成本中，只有推荐费是强制性的。例如，卖家可以选择自行发货或放弃广告。但在实践中，这种选择实际上并没有太大的余地。

Here’s what it looks like for a seller considering these so-called options:

对于考虑这些所谓选项的卖家来说，情况如下：

In other words, the real choice for sellers isn’t between paying for extras or not; it’s between making sales or not. The FTC calls Prime eligibility, which effectively requires Amazon’s fulfillment service, “a virtual necessity for doing business on Amazon.” It says the same of advertising.

换句话说，卖家真正的选择不是付不付额外费用，而是卖不卖得出去。FTC 将 Prime 资格（实际上要求使用亚马逊的配送服务）称为“在亚马逊上做生意的必要条件”。对于广告，他们也持同样的看法。

Here’s where the fees are passed on to us consumers. When sellers give roughly half of their sales to Amazon, the other half isn’t profit. That money has to cover making the product, shipping it to Amazon’s warehouses, paying staff and everything else. So even if they wanted to absorb Amazon’s fees on your behalf, most companies can’t afford to. They have to raise their prices.

这就是费用转嫁给我们消费者的地方。当卖家将大约一半的销售额交给亚马逊时，剩下的一半并非利润。这笔钱必须用于支付产品制造、运往亚马逊仓库、支付员工工资以及其他一切开支。因此，即使他们想替你承担亚马逊的费用，大多数公司也负担不起。他们必须提高价格。

Don’t forget, Amazon’s biggest single fee — the referral fee — is a percentage of the price. So when prices go up, Amazon’s cut goes up, too.

别忘了，亚马逊最大的一笔单一费用——推荐费——是价格的百分比。所以当价格上涨时，亚马逊的抽成也会随之增加。

Now here’s where it gets really crazy. Amazon’s Fair Pricing Policy lets it remove the Buy Box (the “Add to Cart” button), or even suspend a seller, if they’re offering their item cheaper elsewhere. So, a seller who raises prices on Amazon to cover the fees has to raise them everywhere else too — even on their own website! — or risk losing their Amazon sales.

现在，疯狂的事情来了。亚马逊的公平定价政策允许其移除“购买框”（“加入购物车”按钮），甚至暂停卖家的销售权限，如果卖家在其他地方以更低的价格销售商品。因此，为了覆盖费用而在亚马逊上提价的卖家，必须在其他所有地方也提价——甚至在他们自己的网站上！——否则就有失去亚马逊销售额的风险。

The consequence is clear: We pay Amazon prices, even when we’re not shopping on Amazon.

后果显而易见：即使我们不在亚马逊上购物，我们支付的也是亚马逊的价格。

It’s been documented again and again. In 2024, Amazon sellers told CNBC they lost the Buy Box after Target put their products on sale. In an ongoing lawsuit, California’s attorney general alleges Amazon pushed brands to get Walmart, Target and other retailers to raise their prices. And when progressive media outlet More Perfect Union reported on this, they even found an Amazon seller who was suspended over a one-cent price gap with Target.

这种情况已被反复记录。2024 年，亚马逊卖家告诉 CNBC，在塔吉特（Target）对其产品进行促销后，他们失去了“购买框”。在一场正在进行的诉讼中，加州总检察长指控亚马逊迫使品牌商要求沃尔玛、塔吉特和其他零售商提高价格。当进步媒体 More Perfect Union 对此进行报道时，他们甚至发现了一位因与塔吉特存在一分钱价格差而被暂停销售的亚马逊卖家。

Ideally, market competition would sort this out. High prices send shoppers elsewhere and force fees down. But when sellers can’t charge less anywhere else, there’s nowhere cheaper to go.

理想情况下，市场竞争会解决这个问题。高价会促使购物者转向其他地方，并迫使费用下降。但当卖家在其他任何地方都不能降价时，也就没有更便宜的地方可去了。

For sellers, this is frustrating. So, why don’t they just leave? Because Amazon is where the shoppers are: it accounts for about 40% of all US online retail sales. For many sellers, not being on Amazon isn’t an option.

对于卖家来说，这令人沮丧。那么，他们为什么不直接离开呢？因为亚马逊拥有庞大的购物群体：它占据了美国所有在线零售额的约 40%。对于许多卖家来说，不入驻亚马逊根本不是一个选项。

At least regulators have noticed. In 2023, the FTC and 17 US states sued Amazon, arguing that it illegally maintains its monopoly power by, among other things, punishing sellers who offer lower prices elsewhere, effectively forcing them to use its warehouses and charging ever-higher fees. Amazon denies any wrongdoing, and the case is set to go to trial next year. In Europe, Germany ordered Amazon to stop controlling its sellers’ prices earlier this year, though the decision isn’t yet final.

至少监管机构已经注意到了这一点。2023 年，FTC 和美国 17 个州起诉亚马逊，认为其非法维持垄断地位，手段包括惩罚在其他地方提供更低价格的卖家，实际上强迫他们使用其仓库并收取越来越高的费用。亚马逊否认有任何不当行为，该案定于明年开庭审理。在欧洲，德国今年早些时候命令亚马逊停止控制其卖家的价格，尽管该决定尚未最终生效。

After last week’s piece, a Not-Ship reader wrote to say none of this is new: plenty of online stores push ads and fake discounts. That is true. But what’s different about Amazon is its reach. When prices increase on Amazon, they tend to increase elsewhere too. You can, of course, choose not to shop on Amazon. But if the FTC is right, you may be paying Amazon’s prices anyway.

在上周的文章发布后，一位 Not-Ship 的读者写信说，这些都不是什么新鲜事：许多在线商店都会推送广告和虚假折扣。这确实是真的。但亚马逊的不同之处在于其影响力。当亚马逊上的价格上涨时，其他地方的价格往往也会上涨。当然，你可以选择不在亚马逊上购物。但如果 FTC 是对的，你可能无论如何都在支付亚马逊设定的价格。

Not-Ship’s data dispatch. In your inbox, weekly.

Not-Ship 数据快报。每周发送至你的收件箱。

No spam. Just lots of charts. Unsubscribe anytime.

无垃圾邮件。只有大量图表。随时可取消订阅。

I spent two years working at the Washington Post, which Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns. During that time, he was busy dismantling the publication, so he wasn’t well loved in the newsroom.

我曾在《华盛顿邮报》工作过两年，该报由亚马逊创始人杰夫·贝索斯拥有。在那段时间里，他忙于拆解这家出版物，因此他在新闻编辑室里并不受欢迎。

In August, I saw Cory Doctorow speak at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. His enshittification concept — the process by which online platforms shift from serving their users to squeezing them — inspired this two-part series on Amazon. If you want to understand it all a lot better, I highly recommend his book Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It. Somehow it makes antitrust issues both accessible and entertaining!

八月，我在爱丁堡国际图书节上听了科里·多克托罗（Cory Doctorow）的演讲。他的“垃圾化”（enshittification）概念——即在线平台从服务用户转变为压榨用户的过程——启发了这篇关于亚马逊的两部分系列文章。如果你想更深入地了解这一切，我强烈推荐他的书《垃圾化：为什么一切突然变糟了以及我们该怎么办》。不知何故，他让反垄断问题变得既通俗易懂又充满趣味！

Here’s what I found interesting, important or delightful this week:

以下是我本周发现的有趣、重要或令人愉快的内容：

Life after death? Alvin Chang’s latest masterpiece has dropped! It’s about what people around the world believe happens after we die, drawn from surveys of nearly 130,000 people in 23 countries. (Proud to count Alvin as a Not-Ship subscriber 💙.)

死后的生活？Alvin Chang 的最新杰作发布了！它探讨了世界各地的人们认为死后会发生什么，内容基于对 23 个国家近 13 万人的调查。（很自豪能将 Alvin 列为 Not-Ship 的订阅者 💙。）

Stunning embroidery. If you haven’t seen the work of Irene Saputra, get yourself over to Instagram. E

令人惊叹的刺绣。如果你还没看过 Irene Saputra 的作品，快去 Instagram 上看看吧。E