According to a story broken by The Information, Amazon has been miscategorising sellers as “Small Business” or “Black-Owned Small Business” even when they are not.
While Amazon had launched such badges with the claim that it was a way to “help customers who want to support small businesses”, facts uncovered in this report raise the question if this was just a way to exploit public sentiment to drive up sales.
The story has been picked up by other media outlets. This report in Business Insider says:
“Even though not all businesses say they’ve seen a boost from the badges, the badges could have the potential to increase sales. An IBM study found that product downloads rose by 64% after the products were given digital badges, showing that badges can help some sales professionals ‘achieve sales quotas.’”
Read the original report published by The Information here. Read Business Insider‘s coverage of the story here.
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