The buzz around Amazon got more intense as Prime Day approached with widespread reporting of a JPMorgan analyst’s prediction that Amazon would surpass Walmart as top retailer in the United States during 2022 in terms of merchandise moved.
Meanwhile, as part of ongoing efforts to combat counterfeit and otherwise trademark-infringing goods on its site, Amazon announced it had joined a lawsuit with HanesBrands against Champion rights infringers.
Penalizing trademark infringers often proves difficult as their operations are offshore. Observers have reported concerns about the greater participation of Chinese factories in Amazon’s marketplace and the potential for bad international actors to push additional counterfeit and knock-off goods onto that platform.
For its part, Amazon has touted greater efforts to deal with trademark infringers. In announcing the lawsuits with HanesBrands, Amazon stated that it strictly prohibits infringing and counterfeit products in its store, and has invested more than $700 million and employed more than 10,000 people to proactively protect its store from bad actors and bad products. The company added that it is using effective tools to verify potential sellers’ identities as well as proprietary systems analyzing hundreds of unique data points to verify information provided by potential sellers.
In 2020, Amazon asserted, only 6% of attempted new seller account registrations passed its robust verifications process and listed products so that fewer than 0.01% of all products sold on Amazon received a counterfeit complaint from customers, with those complaints getting investigated for accuracy.
Amazon earlier revealed that its scheduled deals for Prime Day would include emphasis on select home products, including air purifiers, irons, steamers, fans and dehumidifiers from vendors including iRobot, Bissell, Toshiba, Levoit and Black & Decker.
The JPMorgan prediction of Amazon surpassing Walmart in U.S. is based on gross merchandise volume, a measure of products moved, rather than dollar sales. It incorporates products sold through marketplace third-party sellers, as well as those that purchased through its own system.
To keep goods flowing to consumers, Amazon announced plans to open its second robotics fulfillment center in Louisiana. In the new 820,000 square foot Baton Rouge facility (pictured above), Amazon employees will pick, pack, and ship smaller items, including books, toys, electronics and select household items.
Amazon also announced it would support 1,000 new affordable housing units at Metro Stations throughout the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region with $125 million with a below-market capital investment designed to expedite development of affordable homes close to public transit. Amazon said it planned similar investments for housing adjacent to public transportation in metropolitan Nashville, TN and the Puget Sound region, an area that includes Seattle, home to the company’s headquarters.
