Is price gouging a myth?

[whohit]Is price gouging a myth?[/whohit]These days, during the global coronavirus crisis, many people and organisations outside of the Amazon platform unfamiliar with how it all works are getting outraged seeing how the prices of essential products offered by it’s third party merchants are exceeding the ones available in large brick and mortar stores such as Costco, Tesco or Walmart.

In addition, Amazon with it’s draconian policies is deactivating listings or suspending entire seller accounts once it’s automated bots detect a price higher than the retail average under the Marketplace Fair Pricing Policy, which is another tool used to damage the businesses already strugging to keep up with it’s constantly strictening sets of policies.

However, the truth is that those criticising sellers for allegedly “price gouging” are failing to realise that there are additional expenses which need to be considered in order for them to make any profit.

This social media post by user “Reezy Resellers” which went viral within the online Amazon Seller Community perfectly illustrates why a product which retails for $10 in physical stores fails to bring any profit to a third party Amazon merchant even if sold for as much as $20:

We at Seller Union believe that each Amazon merchant should be able to choose prices at which products will be offered for sale, covering it’s actual expenses instead of just stubbornly matching the lowest price while losing money.