Amazon Sellers Seek More Clout With New ‘Merchants Guild’
- Sales tax fears prompt online merchants to begin organizing
- Group aims to offset Amazon’s growing political influence
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The millions of merchants who sell products on Amazon.com Inc. have long craved more leverage over their powerful benefactor. Now some are creating a trade association in the hopes that a unified voice will force Amazon to take them more seriously.
Organizers began pitching fellow merchants on the Online Merchants Guild last week at the Prosper Show, an annual Las Vegas conference that drew 1,900 Amazon sellers. The group is only just getting started but has big ambitions, which include negotiating better terms with Amazon, pushing the company to respond more effectively to sellers’ complaints and lobbying government officials to make sure merchants’ viewpoints are being heard.