Amazon is taking more than 50% of each sale from its merchants for the first time, as the e-commerce giant battles slowing sales and rising costs. [Amazon Takes a 50% Cut of Seller's Revenue - Marketplace Pulse]
Grappling with slowing sales growth and rising costs, Amazon.com Inc. is squeezing more money from the nearly 2 million small businesses that sell products on its sprawling online marketplace.
According to a study by the research firm Marketplace Pulse, Amazon has taken a larger share of sales from third-party merchants for each of the past six years. Amazon generated the slowest sales growth in its history last year, and last month announced that it would lay off 18,000 workers. “Amazon might be tempted to keep increasing fees because it’s in a tough spot,” Marketplace Pulse’s CEO told Bloomberg, “but you have to reach some kind of equilibrium.”
