The Shadier Side of Amazon 🛍️

Operating in cities like Seattle, London, Tokyo, Munich, and Bangalore, Big River strategically embedded itself in platforms such as Shopify, Walmart, and Flipkart to extract invaluable data on pricing, logistics, and vendor strategies. The findings were fed back to Amazon’s executives, shaping its strategy to e-commerce dominance.

Big River’s success hinged on one thing, its ability to remain undetected. To maintain secrecy, the team adopted a multi-layered strategy that’s pretty fascinating:

🛍️ Covert Identity:
Big River employees used non-Amazon email addresses (@bigriverintl.com) for external communications and represented themselves as independent sellers. Internally, strict protocols ensured only a select group within Amazon knew about the operation.

🛍️ Minimal Paper Trail:
Sensitive data was rarely shared electronically. Employees captured screenshots of rival pricing systems and ad platforms but presented them in in-person meetings with Amazon teams. Reports were printed, numbered, and collected after discussions to avoid leaks.

🛍️ Custom Brands:
To deepen its cover, Big River operated brands like Crimson Knot and Not So Ape, selling products on platforms such as Flipkart, Jet.com, and Shopify. These brands were often rebranded or dissolved after completing their missions.

🛍️ Specialised Training:
Employees were coached to deflect suspicion and had prepared statements to use if their affiliations with Amazon were uncovered.

Targeting Walmart and FedEx

Walmart emerged as a key focus of Project Curiosity. Despite the retailer’s stringent seller requirements, Big River found alternative routes, infiltrating Walmart’s marketplace through acquisitions like Jet.com and platforms like Flipkart in India. This access allowed Amazon to gain insights into Walmart’s pricing models and seller strategies.

Many articles about this topic (linked below) debate the ethics behind something like this. My take; I don’t care. In this newsletter I aim to find cool nuggets you can tell your buddies about at lunch, with a beer, or in a Slack thread. It’s certainly not to challenge the biggest fish in the pond.

Does this fit the cool nugget criteria? Certainly. I love to see big entities showing they can still get their hands dirty. A little rough and tumble never hurt anyone, and it’s even better as a spectator.

If you zoom out a little, it gives an interesting insight into Amazon’s mindset. To be the best, at every turn, no matter what. Although this seems foundational, it’s easy to push it aside in favour of something else that seems more important from a zoomed-in point of view.

"Business is war. I go out to beat the other guy, to dominate the market. This is my battlefield."
– Larry Ellison

_{Links to do further reading: WSJ, QZ, BS, TDG.}

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