Amazon Promotes Own Products, Customers Pay More

Total Retail’s Take: Amazon sells products directly itself and it encourages brands to use its platform as well. The company insists that its algorithms don't favor itself, but rather products are picked to go into the “Buy Box” based on a range of factors like price, seller rating and geolocation. However, this ProPublica report found that an astounding 94 percent of sellers who were selected for Buy Box placement, but who didn’t have the cheapest listing, were either sold by Amazon itself or by companies paying Amazon. The e-commerce giant uses hidden algorithms to govern consumers’ online interactions — just like Google and Facebook.