By Senad Karaahmetovic
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) is reportedly considering completely exiting its private label business, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
In the meantime, Amazon is significantly slashing the number of products it sells under its own name. Among other things, Amazon is disappointed with sales generated through its private label business, which was started in 2009.
Moreover, the company was harshly criticized as its own brands compete with other sellers on the e-commerce giant’s platform. Critics said that Amazon favors its own brand while discriminating against other sellers on the platform.
Amazon is now scaling back and not reordering many of these products as senior executives discuss whether to exit the business completely. The company previously said that it generates only about 1% of its total revenue from the private label business.
The company also communicated earlier that it “never seriously considered closing our private label business and we continue to invest in this area, just as our many retail competitors have done for decades and continue to do today”.