Amazon's Sellers Are Furious and Mass Merchants move in to do it right

A recent news article by the huffingtonpost.com reveals the brewing conflict between Amazon.com Inc and its merchants over new fee hikes.

View full article here

As Amazon has pushed to bring more products to its site, the fee hikes have alienated many merchants, and some are threatening to defect.  Amazon now seems to be struggling with costs because they too have rising costs associated with transportation, product price increase etc.

New rising stars in the mass merchant internet shopping sites are now taking advantage of amazons obstacles.  One of the newest sites to appear on the internet retailers top 100 list now rises as a better way to shop and a better place for merchants to sell their products.

Shop.com offers a better way to shop online

Shop.com offers a larger selection of products than Amazon.  Shop.com displays more than 3600 retail stores with over 50 million product sku's currently on their site.  This allows users to find the products they want at the absolute lowest price available.  The site also offers an added incentive by paying customers to shop online, from 1-50% cash back.  Customers can create a free account and as they shop by product or by store, the site shows them how much cash back they'll earn.  Customers can cash in once they reach $10 in cash back or they simply can redeem the cash when checking out on shop.com

Win for the Merchant, for the customer and for shop.com.  It's perfecting the art of internet balance - treat everyone as equals in the equation and everyone wins.

Quote from CEO of Market America and shop.com JR Ridinger on his recent blog post:

"Our partner store team does an incredible job working with third party merchants, providing personalized account service to help make sure business runs smoothly. We don’t just see our third party merchants as people we do business with – we think of them as family, and work with them to grow both our businesses – not just collect fees.

We work with them to craft individual marketing programs to promote their products and services, and thanks to our unmatched “People Power,” we have the ability to help promote them in the marketplace and to drive word of mouth marketing to help them sell merchandise.

Better relationships with our third party merchants mean better deals that we can pass on to the consumer, and more ways to help our UnFranchise owners grow their businesses! We believe that we succeed by helping others succeed, and this principle is applied across all aspects of our business – from the consumer to our fellow merchants."

Want to get paid to shop online?

You can experience this new shopping site for yourself.  To get a free account, go to www.cashbackma.com and open a free account by clicking sign in at the top right.  Once you create your account - now you can start to get paid to shop!  Support companies who values taking care of the customers and merchants.  Those companies who choose one over the other will eventually fall out of the market place.  It's all about the good business.

Wealth Inequality in America Video - What this really means

Many people have seen this video flying around social media titled "Wealth Inequality in America."  If you haven't seen the video, you can check it out.

I've read numerous articles and comments about this video and was taken back a bit from what I read.  This video seems to have generated anger as well as a sense of unfairness.  I read a few comments that even suggested that the government needs to take from the "rich" and spread it evenly throughout the "less fortunate".  I was appalled and shocked at the general attitude of people and needed to shed some light on what this video really proves.

I believe the true wake up call that this video shows is that people who have just trusted in average effort, average actions and average thinking are now paralyzed.   That may be brutal to hear but I think being blunt is something people need in order to wake up.  This video implies to the average, that there's a shortage of what most people can have and that it's only reserved for the top.  That's just not true.

Money.  

There is no shortage of money.  Money is printed to the tune of 85 billion dollars a month, thanks to the federal reserve.  The situation would be unfair if there was only "x" amount of money and only a few people had it all and no one else could get more.  But the fact is that there is no shortage of money which means that if you want more - there's more to go around.  You just need to know how to get more of it.

Effort.

There's also no shortage on effort.  As far as I can see, people may not have money to invest for advertising, or capital to create a business but everyone has unlimited effort.  You can produce more effort than the top money earners in the country.  It's not like only so much effort exists and you're out of luck because someone else is using it all. 

Opportunity. 

Right now people are reducing and minimizing while others are looking at this recession as an opportunity to advance financially.  Are you sitting hoping, wishing, praying, being a victim?  Or are you passing by those people because you're looking at this as a huge opportunity to advance.

Action.  

Love this word.  There is no limit to the amount of action you are able to take.  You can sit and take no action like the majority of people (which is why they aren't financially successful) or you can take massive action and smoke the market place and create success. 

Here's what it boils down to.  This chart shows that people are frozen, paralyzed and are waving the white flag.  We have a nation of people who are falling into the victim role rather than taking massive amounts of action.  99% of the country shouldn't wish to be handed more - they should wish to become more.  We need to look at this as a wake up call that the safe middle class is no longer a safe place to enjoy a nice average income - it is a mindset that will create financial ruin.  There is a new class level that has been created and will become the new average - you can choose to find passion, take massive amounts of action and be willing to put in effort and achieve success OR you can choose to hate the rich, wish they didn't put effort into their lives, pray that someone will take care of you and blame the system for your situation.

This is the Middle Class wake up call.  Wake Up!  Don't give in, dust yourself off and take responsibility that average is no longer good enough.  You need to look for ways to create more - your job or lack of job is not good enough any more.  You need to look at this not as a recession but an opportunity to create more.  You have to look for a plan of action and take massive action and don't stop till you have reach your financial goals.  Once you've reach your goals, you need to set new goals and go after those.  This is the new "middle class'.  It's a class of achievers, the doers, the motivated and the motivators.  This is the new America and you can either participate and create your America Dream, or you can play the average card and watch as more income comes out of your household and goes to those who are taking action.  The America Dream is alive - but she's limited herself to those who are taking action, finding solutions and creating more opportunities - not those who are looking for a hand out. 

Start researching opportunities.  How can you earn more money in addition to what you're making?  How can you get more time in your life?  Who can you ask to mentor you and help you.  If you don't know where to start, check out some free info at www.thestackgrp.com.