I have no official source, only experience. My company has been selling on Amazon for over 6 years (we're medium-ish volume, 200+ orders a day on Amazon alone).
We're found majority of customers have no idea who they're buying from. Majority assume it's always Amazon, and often contact us about other orders they've recently placed, etc.
If you browse around Amazon, you'll notice items that have many "offers", clicking this link will show you the seller's who are listing that product. You'll notice how few Amazon.com is actually listed as a seller. Typically they're listing the top 10 items in any given category, but there's millions of products on Amazon, and very few they actually carry. When they are listed on an item, they're not always the best deal anymore.
We don't worry about competing with Amazon.com anymore, we worry about competing with our Chinese manufacturers (sometimes the same ones we source from!), who get USPS/US Gov't subsidized shipping (free shipping from China, and product costs ~1/2 of a US seller).
Amazon is transitioning into a seller platform, not a seller themselves. All the warehouses they keep popping up everywhere are mostly for FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) warehouses, where 3rd party sellers send their products so that Amazon can warehouse them and ship them when there's a sale.
Amazon FBA is a fairly competitive fulfillment cost, sometimes beating our own internal fulfillment costs (we're stepping up our FBA game because of this, but unfortunately will ultimately result in fewer warehouse staff in our company).
Another secret - Amazon is rarely the best deal for any given item. Officially, policy says you must offer the "best deal" on Amazon, but this is never enforced in our experience. Amazon takes a commission of up-to 30% (depending on the item category), so unless you already have very healthy margins, you end up baking in an additional 30% to the retail price. Customer's pay your commission fees. So, if you find a product you want, see who the seller is, and try to find their website outside of Amazon.com. Chances are, the item will be up-to 30% cheaper (sometimes more!). Of course, this isn't an always guarantee, but it pays to check.
I'm very aware of who I buy from on Amazon, so hearing that people are confused is both surprising and not surprising. I've also done FBA integrations so I know about how all of that works as well.
I guess I can see some merit in your assertion if I consider it the long-tail of online sales. That likely explains why I never notice it as I don't hit that segment often and if I do I venture to other retailer sites.
As an insight into an Amazon customer though, I'm ok paying Amazon slightly more than a third party seller or other website. The reason is fairly simple. Trust. I've almost never had a situation where after contacting Amazon customer service I've been unhappy with the resolution. The only times it has happened are with third-party, non-FBA sales. There is little that Amazon can (or will) do to help you in those cases. Eventually if your are REALLY upset they try will try to make things right, but the initial process falls back to you and the random retailers. So, I really don't mind if Amazon's price is higher (slightly) as long as I know they have such liberal customer satisfaction procedures. This is obviously my experience. I've read of others that had bad experiences as well.
> There is little that Amazon can (or will) do to help you in those cases
Oh how I wish that were true!
As a buyer, your most powerful weapon is the A-Z Guarantee process.
Filing an A-Z is an almost guarantee you'll get your money back, or a new product for free (unless you're obviously at fault or provably pulling some sort of scam).
A-Z's significantly impact sales. They impact search visibility, "Buy Box" share time, and can even get your account(s) flagged for review (during which Amazon freezes all sales). A-Z's can be downright scary.
Sometimes Amazon pulls funds from the seller's account to refund the customer... and sometimes when the seller is obviously not at fault but the customer is still very unhappy, Amazon covers the refund themselves. Both impact the seller.
> So, I really don't mind if Amazon's price is higher
The real advantage Amazon has is the convenience. You can buy groceries, electronics, and clothing all at the same time, from the same website (even if it's multiple sellers you're actually ordering from). You can't get that really anywhere else.
It does pay to check the seller's website if they have one. You'll save money most of the time... but you lose convenience, and it's a hassle for some folks to shuttle around multiple websites.
> I know they have such liberal customer satisfaction procedures
True - but you really should try to support sellers off-Amazon. There's little risk if you checkout with a Visa/Mastercard/AMEX/PayPal. If you're not happy, all of these systems will get you your money back, most of the time (so long as you don't have a large history of chargebacks, etc...). Majority of sellers are out to help customers, not screw them over. Most will bend over backwards to help out a reasonable customer. It's a lot cheaper to keep you as a happy repeat customer than it is to acquire new customers.
We're found majority of customers have no idea who they're buying from. Majority assume it's always Amazon, and often contact us about other orders they've recently placed, etc.
If you browse around Amazon, you'll notice items that have many "offers", clicking this link will show you the seller's who are listing that product. You'll notice how few Amazon.com is actually listed as a seller. Typically they're listing the top 10 items in any given category, but there's millions of products on Amazon, and very few they actually carry. When they are listed on an item, they're not always the best deal anymore.
We don't worry about competing with Amazon.com anymore, we worry about competing with our Chinese manufacturers (sometimes the same ones we source from!), who get USPS/US Gov't subsidized shipping (free shipping from China, and product costs ~1/2 of a US seller).
Amazon is transitioning into a seller platform, not a seller themselves. All the warehouses they keep popping up everywhere are mostly for FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) warehouses, where 3rd party sellers send their products so that Amazon can warehouse them and ship them when there's a sale.
Amazon FBA is a fairly competitive fulfillment cost, sometimes beating our own internal fulfillment costs (we're stepping up our FBA game because of this, but unfortunately will ultimately result in fewer warehouse staff in our company).
Another secret - Amazon is rarely the best deal for any given item. Officially, policy says you must offer the "best deal" on Amazon, but this is never enforced in our experience. Amazon takes a commission of up-to 30% (depending on the item category), so unless you already have very healthy margins, you end up baking in an additional 30% to the retail price. Customer's pay your commission fees. So, if you find a product you want, see who the seller is, and try to find their website outside of Amazon.com. Chances are, the item will be up-to 30% cheaper (sometimes more!). Of course, this isn't an always guarantee, but it pays to check.