Why Amazon is now pledging to make good on bad third-party products

Amazon has long contended that it shouldn't be held legally liable for defective products sold by third-party merchants on Amazon.com, maintaining that the liability rests with the seller, not with the marketplace facilitating the sale. It's a legal argument with parallels to those made by Faceboo…

How Amazon could be Earth's best employer: Ideas from a logistics pro turned warehouse worker

Gisela Hausmann had a unique perspective on Amazon when she started a job in 2019 as a front-line worker at one of the company's delivery hubs in South Carolina. A native of Vienna, Austria, she had years of experience as a logistics professional, learning the industry from the ground up at FedEx,…

A fundamental shift in Amazon's business

Direct retail sales are poised to represent less than half of Amazon's business for the first time in its history — a fundamental shift that reflects the e-commerce giant's expansion beyond its roots as an online store. Revenue from Amazon Web Services, Amazon Prime, third-party seller services, o…

Amazon's 'turnover machine' with NYT reporter Karen Weise

Amazon’s direct workforce rose by 500,000 people in 2020 — that's half a million people — to nearly 1.3 million employees. The extraordinary hiring, supporting the rapid expansion of Amazon's warehouse and delivery operations, raised the natural question: what would be the consequences of all that …

Prime Day: What's at stake for Amazon this year

Prime Day is almost here. Actually, it’s two days. But who’s counting? Well, Amazon sure is. Scheduled for June 21 and 22, the annual sales event is closely followed by many Prime members eager for deals.  Overcoming a lackluster 2015 debut and a 2018 online outage, Prime Day has become one of the…

A 15th Amazon Leadership Principle?

Amazon is at a pivotal moment in its history, facing growing regulatory and legal scrutiny just as a new CEO, Andy Jassy, takes the reins from founder Jeff Bezos. Could a new leadership principle help to guide the company in its next era? "Treat others as you'd like to be treated — employees, ven…

Amazon's union battle isn't over yet

Wait, didn't Amazon win its battle with the union in Bessemer, Ala.? Yes, the vote came out in the company's favor, but the story isn't over yet. The  Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union is appealing the outcome to the National Labor Relations Board, citing what it contends were unfair ta…

The antitrust case against Amazon

An antitrust lawsuit filed against Amazon by the Washington, D.C., attorney general Karl Racine this week promises to test the evidence and allegations that have been marshaled against the tech giant by U.S. legislators and regulators. The suit leans heavily on findings from the U.S. House Judicia…

The secrets of Amazon reviews

Customer reviews have become central to online commerce, playing a huge role in determining which products succeed or fail on Amazon and other sites. A study by Northwestern University’s Spiegel Research Center found that nearly 95% of shoppers read online reviews before making a purchase.  But th…

'Amazon Unbound' with Brad Stone

Author and journalist Brad Stone of Bloomberg speaks with GeekWire's Todd Bishop about Stone's new book, "Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire," the follow-up to Stone's 2013 bestseller, "The Everything Store."