Amazon is a shopping platform that has truly pioneered the world of online reviews. In fact, some people make a living out of being reviewers for Amazon. Yet, for a business that has helped make and break online reputations, they seem blissfully unaware, or uncaring, about their own. A well-known review management company has tried to identify just why Amazon’s personal reputation is so poor.
Amazon’s Reputation
Amazon seems to be constantly in the news for their poor practices in terms of employment and business relationships. In their latest spat, they are arguing with Hachette, a huge publisher. And Amazon is losing. And that isn’t even the worst of it. It also came out that employees at Amazon are quite literally worked to death.
Amazon is seen as a huge bully. They are a big business, which is fine. There are many other companies out there that are huge and that are worth a whole lot more than Amazon. Google, for instance, is believed to pretty much rule the world. Yet it is only Amazon that is described as the ‘Cthulhu’ of the world.
The strange thing is that Amazon just doesn’t seem to care. Time and time again they are on the news for yet another dispute with a supplier, or yet another employee who ran out screaming while pulling their hair out. And the only response Amazon gives, if they give one at all, is that most services will be unaffected by the current situation.
Amazon is a strange one. Everybody knows that an online reputation is incredibly important and that it can make or break a business. But it hasn’t broken Amazon, perhaps because it is the only one of its kind. But this has made Amazon arrogant and they feel as if they can get away with anything. At the same time, however, nobody seems to be stopping them. Time and time again we hear horror stories, but nothing happens. While individuals picket stores that only offer zero hours contracts and organize sit ins at Walmart because of their working conditions, Amazon can keep going.
Reputation management experts across the globe are considering that this is possible because the power of money continues to reign. After all, Amazon is by far the cheapest retailer around. Unfortunately, we, as humans, have now gained the reputation that we will allow anything for a low, low price.
At the same time however, some of this also rings true for expensive products. One other employer that is notoriously harsh to its employees is Apple in China, where office buildings are now surrounded by suicide nets. Yet everybody continues to buy Apple products, even though these aren’t cheap either.
As such, human beings now have a poor reputation as well: we want things to be super cheap, unless they are branded items that we can show off with.
It may be a sad fact, all things considering, that there aren’t more humans who are protesting their collective reputation.
