It was discovered that Amazon sells products through the 'Big River Services International' division to obtain data on pricing and logistics of competitors such as Rakuten
It has emerged that retail giant Amazon is operating a business called 'Big River Services International' that sells products on marketplaces such as eBay, Shipify, Walmart, and Rakuten Ichiba in order to obtain information such as pricing data on competitors' e-commerce marketplaces, logistics operations, and payment services.
Inside Amazon's Secret Operation to Gather Intel on Rivals - WSJ
The Big River Services International project was born in late 2015. Initially called 'Project Curiosity,' the project involved setting up warehouses in various countries through shell companies and selling products on competitors' websites in an effort to understand the experience of external vendors.
Project Curiosity changed its name to Big River Services International in 2017, reportedly after a project member who was dissatisfied with his work revealed his true identity at a meeting of rival companies.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Big River Services International employees sometimes attended competitors' meetings without revealing that they were Amazon employees, and to keep projects secret, they sent reports to Amazon executives by paper rather than email.
'Big River Services International members were instructed to take screenshots of competitors' pricing and advertising systems, catalogs, and listing pages when accessing their sales systems, and were prohibited from emailing any of the screenshots they took. Based on information provided by Big River Services International, Amazon has made changes to improve the seller experience on our site.
In addition, project members were provided with equipment management documents with advice on how to respond if Big River Services International turned out to be an Amazon project, including instructions to 'answer questions by saying, 'Amazon offers a variety of products to customers through a number of subsidiaries and online channels.''
Big River Services International's goal was to sell products at Walmart, Amazon's biggest rival. However, in order to sell products at Walmart, sellers need to have a track record of selling large quantities of products on other marketplaces, which has been pointed out as a high hurdle for sellers. Therefore, Big River Services International began selling products on Jet.com and Flipkart, which are subsidiaries of Walmart. Finally, in 2019, they started selling products at Walmart.
Big River Services International sells outdoor chairs, woks, commercial-sized food containers, and other items at Walmart under the seller name 'Atlantic Lot.' According to sources, in 2023, Big River Services International made more than $125,000 (about 19 million yen) in revenue from Walmart alone.
Big River Services International also explains on
Below is the company profile of Big River Services Japan, the Japanese team of Big River Services International.
Big River Services Japan LLC launched a fashion brand called '
Big River Japan LLC also operates a shop called '
In addition, Big River Services International's registration documents filed with the Washington State Attorney General's Office did not mention Amazon, but did list the names of a management team made up of current and former Amazon employees, including lawyers. It also listed the address of its headquarters as '410 Terry Ave.', which matches the location of Amazon's headquarters.
An Amazon spokesperson said, 'Benchmarking is a common business practice. Like many other retailers, Amazon has benchmarking and customer experience teams that study the experiences of our customers, including our selling partners, to improve the experience of doing business with us. We believe that our competitors are also studying Amazon by selling their products on our site.'
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