Millions of people use Amazon everyday, and lots of them search “Amazon Workout Gloves” before deciding to by their new pair of gym gloves.  I’m happy to be a featured merchant on Amazon and work very hard at maintaining my exceptional Seller Performance ratings buy exceeding Amazon’s expectations.

As GymPaws® becomes more popular and my Brand starts to make it’s mark in the world of Gym Gloves and Fitness Accessories, I’m finding that I am becoming a target for some of my larger competitors.

Twice this month a competitor, who will remain nameless (for now) launched an attack on GymPaws® on Amazon.  Specifically on my Customer Reviews.

They attacked last winter as well.  Basically what they do is hire guys overseas that offer to sell Amazon Reviews and Votes.  Until last week I didn’t even know this existed.  Think of a call center in India, but instead of operating hundreds of telephone lines they operate hundreds of computers and IP addresses.  These guys have thousands of fake Amazon accounts set up as well as Yelp, Google, and you name it.  Then they offer to “pad” a merchant’s listing with Customer Reviews or Votes.

Unfortunately my competitor felt the need to resort to these tactics to TRY to raise their product rankings with Amazon… and lower mine.  Evidently they don’t feel that focusing on producing a quality product is as important.

Hundreds of GymPaws® Customers (like you) have been kind enough to leave reviews for me. My competitor will hire these hack jobs overseas (in this case Bangladesh) to go in and “vote” positive reviews down, and negative reviews up.  I’m not the only merchant that they try this with.

Amazon’s search algorithms update hourly.  When you search for a product on Amazon, (Amazon workout gloves or anything else) the search algorithms determine which listings to show first based on many factors such as Best Selling, Top Reviewed and so on.  What my competitor does not realize is that by attacking other merchants like this, they are actually sending MORE traffic to those products.  Clearly their knowledge of eCommerce and SEO is amateur at best.  While traffic may increase, the “validity” of the Customer Reviews suffer.

My web team and I have spent an extraordinary amount of time the past couple of weeks identifying and confirming the source of these attacks.  Hundreds if not thousands of merchants on Amazon were being effected by these Amazon pirates.  Just this week,  Amazon has taken efforts to delete and ban these fake accounts and undo their malicious efforts!  Yea! 

Your Reviews Matter!

When you support a Merchant on Amazon by leaving a positive review, you can further the impact of your review by simply sharing it with friends or family.  Just find your review on Amazon by going to “My Reviews” and you’ll see a Permalink.  That is the unique URL for your specific review.  You then can share the link and ask people to “like” or vote Yes on your review.   The more “yes” votes you get on your reviews in general, the more helpful your opinion is to Amazon and merchants who sell there.   The same theory applies to ANY site that has reviews… be it Yelp, Google, Walmart or YouTube.  These sites will even extend special offers and product discounts to reviewers who’s opinions are popular!

As a small business owner I know that I don’t have the resources or man power that some of my big competitors may enjoy.  The best weapon I have in my arsenal is to produce the best quality gym gloves possible and offer the best customer service I am capable of.

I don’t believe we have to cheat to win!   The sandbox is big enough for everyone to play in!

Maybe it’s a business ethic unique to me or my Mid Western upbringing, but I believe customers will respond to businesses that are honest and real.

I appreciate your patience this past couple of weeks.  Thanks for supporting GymPaws and thanks for supporting Small Business!

Christopher

Owner, GymPaws Inc.

Note:  For Amazon Customers, you can now you Pay With Amazon on the GymPaws website.  It’s safe and secure just like PayPal.  Simply choose this option when checking out.  You’lll use the payment you have on file within your Amazon account to complete your purchase.  It’s super easy.