A report by Senator Bernie Sanders’ office found Amazon failed to adequately staff its warehouses during peak shopping times.
| Photo Credit: AP

Amazon’s popular Prime Day sales event has been “a major cause of injuries” for warehouse workers who pick and pack customer orders at the e-commerce giant’s facilities across the United States, according to a report released Tuesday by Senator Bernie Sanders.

The report, which draws information from a year-long Senate committee investigation into Amazon’s safety practices and relied on internal company data from 2019 and 2020, found peak shopping times — including the holiday shopping period — resulted in the “highest weekly injury rates” for warehouse workers.

The preliminary report from Mr. Sanders’ office was also based on interviews with more than 100 current and former Amazon employees. This year’s two-day Prime Day event started Tuesday.

In a statement, Mr. Sanders said the “incredibly dangerous working conditions at Amazon” highlighted in the report are a “perfect example of the type of corporate greed that the American people are sick and tired of”.

“Despite making $36 billion in profits last year and providing its CEO with over $275 million in compensation over the past three years, Amazon continues to treat its workers as disposable and with complete contempt for their safety and well-being,” said the Vermont independent, who has been critical of Amazon and supports worker efforts to unionise at the company. “That is unacceptable, and that has got to change,” he added.

Labour unions and safety experts have long criticised Amazon, alleging the company’s focus on speed and fast deliveries puts workers in danger. In recent years, some States have passed laws aimed at Amazon to curb the use of warehouse productivity quotas, but Amazon claims it doesn’t employ them.

According to the Senate report, 45 out of 100 warehouse workers at Amazon received injuries during the 2019 Prime Day event. The number included minor injuries the company was not required to disclose to the federal government, such as bruises and superficial cuts, but also serious ones such as concussions that should have been reported, it said.

Amazon denies finding

Amazon disputed the finding.

“The claims that we systemically underreport injuries, and that our actual injury rates are higher than publicly reported, are false,” Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel said in a prepared statement. “We’re required to report every injury that needs more than basic first aid, and that’s what we do.”

While Amazon “might make an occasional clerical error,” a six-month federal investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) found “no intentional, willful, or systemic errors” in the company’s reporting, Ms. Nantel said.

The report also alleged that Amazon had a practice of failing to refer workers for outside medical care because doing so could affect whether an injury should be considered “recordable” and referred to OSHA. Even when injuries were serious, workers often received first aid before being sent back to work instead of to a doctor, according to the report.

Amazon has acknowledged in the past that its warehouse injury rates had been higher compared to its peers. Federal safety investigators levied fines against the company in recent years following inspections at some of its warehouses. Some of the inspections arose from referrals made to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, which is also investigating worker safety at the company through its civil division.

The report also says Amazon failed to adequately staff its warehouses during peak shopping times, which the company disputed. Amazon said in March that it allocated over $750 million to safety efforts for this year.

A New York federal judge has ordered Amazon.com to comply with a subpoena from a U.S. civil rights agency investigating claims that the online retailer discriminated against pregnant warehouse workers.

U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield in Manhattan late Thursday rejected Amazon’s claims that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) subpoena was too broad and sought irrelevant information.

The EEOC is seeking data on requests that pregnant workers at five U.S. warehouses made for accommodations such as limits on heavy lifting and additional breaks, and whether Amazon granted or denied them.

The commission’s probe was prompted by complaints from five women who say they faced pregnancy discrimination while working at Amazon warehouses in New Jersey, Connecticut, North Carolina, and California.

Amazon provided the EEOC with more than 200,000 pages of data in response to the subpoena, but not the specific information requested by the agency, according to court filings.

Schofield in her ruling said the information sought in the subpoenas was necessary for the EEOC to determine whether Amazon engaged in illegal discrimination. The judge gave Amazon until Aug. 9 to comply with the subpoena.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday. An EEOC spokesman declined to comment.

In 2022, a New York state agency filed an administrative complaint accusing Amazon of requiring pregnant and disabled warehouse workers to take unpaid leaves of absence, even if they were capable of working, instead of providing accommodations. That case is pending.

Amazon has denied wrongdoing and said it strives to support its workers, but acknowledged in a statement responding to the New York complaint that “we don’t always get it right.”

The EEOC launched its probe last year and issued a subpoena seeking five categories of information, including data on accommodations Amazon provided to warehouse workers with disabilities. At the time, federal law only required companies to provide the same accommodations to pregnant workers that they gave to employees with disabilities.

A law passed later last year mandates that employers accommodate workers’ pregnancies regardless of how they treat workers with disabilities.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Amazon.com plans to launch a section on its shopping site featuring cheap items that ship directly to overseas consumers from warehouses in China, the Information reported on Wednesday, citing slides shown to Chinese sellers.

The new marketplace, Amazon’s most aggressive response to the growth of bargain sites like Temu and Shein, will offer unbranded fashion, home goods, and daily necessities, according to the slides, and will be delivered between 9 to 11 days to customers, the report said.

The e-commerce giant in a recent closed-door meeting told Chinese sellers it would start signing up merchants this summer and begin accepting inventory in the fall, according to the Information.

Amazon did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment on the report.

Sellers joining the bargain site can determine their product selection and pricing, and can produce in small batches to test the demand for any new products they plan to launch, the report added.

It is not clear if these shipments will be made using a U.S. trade provision that exempts individual packages worth less than $800 from US customs duties, Information reported.

E-commerce powerhouse Shein, which is trying to expand its market share before going public, and PDD Group-owned e-retailer Temu, depend on the expedited clearance process, which is available for direct-to-consumer shipments valued at $800 or less.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington, United States:

Finnish telecom giant Nokia said Tuesday it is suing Amazon in five global jurisdictions, including the United States and India, over patent infringements on video-related technologies. 

Nokia said it is also suing HP, formerly known as Hewlett-Packard, in a US court, also for using Nokia video technology without its permission.

“We’ve been in discussions with each of Amazon and HP for a number of years,” said Arvin Patel, Nokia’s chief licensing officer, in a blog post.

“But sometimes litigation is the only way to respond to companies who choose not to play by the rules followed and respected by others,” he added.

Suits against Amazon were also lodged in Germany, Britain and at the EU’s patent court.

The company said the cases involved Amazon’s Prime Video service as well devices that were in violation of Nokia’s patents on “video compression, content delivery, content recommendation and aspects related to hardware,” the blog post said. 

Nokia said the streaming market is estimated to reach $300 billion by 2027, but decried what it saw as a mismatch between those who invested in developing the technology “and those who benefit the most.”

The company said it had successfully reached agreements on such technology with Apple, Samsung and other device makers.

“Our preference is to reach amicable agreements with the companies who rely upon our technology, and our door remains open for constructive, good-faith negotiations,” Nokia’s Patel said.

Nokia earlier this month said it would cut up to 14,000 job as profits fell on weakening demand for its 5G equipment in North America.

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Washington:

Amazon’s first pair of prototype satellites for its planned Kuiper internet network were launched to space on Friday from Florida, the company’s first step before it deploys thousands more in orbit to beam the internet globally.

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If you spend much time online you’ve probably seen one of Temu’s colourful ads – punctuated by its catchy tagline: “shopping like a billionaire”.

Temu specialises in selling various everyday items, including clothing, toys and household goods, for extremely low prices. Shanghai-based company PDD Holdings launched the online marketplace late last year (initially in the United States) to cater to overseas customers.

Since then, Temu’s reach has skyrocketed. The total value of products sold went from US$3 million in September last year, to US$400 million in April. At the time of publishing this article, Temu was the most popular free iPhone app in the US, United Kingdom, Australia and Germany.

Why has Temu been such a massive success? It’s safe to say the platform has some winning strategies that keep consumers coming back. But beyond that, similar to other e-commerce platforms, using it isn’t entirely risk- or guilt-free. Here are some things to consider if you’re thinking of giving it a shot.

What are Temu’s secrets to success?

1. Value

Many Australians might associate “made in China” with cheap price tags and low quality. However, Temu’s consumers are beginning to view it as offering affordable products that do not necessarily compromise on quality. In some cases, 10-20 products will only set you back US$20-30.

Temu claims it can offer these prices as a result of cutting out the middlemen in the supply chain. While the manufacturers provide the product details and the products themselves, Temu handles everything else – from customs processing to international shipping. This streamlining helps reduce unit costs.

Nonetheless, achieving such value doesn’t come without a cost. Concerns are rising that Temu and its suppliers may be operating at a loss. However, it’s common for startups to experience negative cash flow in their initial years due to heavy marketing investments, including offers of competitive prices and marketing campaigns – all of which is done to build brand awareness and gain acceptance.

This is especially true in the fast-paced e-commerce sector, where success and failure happen swiftly. Temu and its suppliers, who are mainly from Temu’s sister e-commerce platform Pinduoduo, are likely aware of this dynamic.

2. An effective marketing strategy

Unlike other e-commerce platforms that focus on functional benefits such as saving money, Temu caters to consumers’ emotional needs. It overlays the shopping experience with the idea of “shopping like a billionaire” – which also aligns with its value-based strategy.

Temu entered the market at a time when consumers were grappling with global inflation, leading them to seek “value”. In the first month after its launch in the US, Temu invested some US$200 million in advertising and planned a US$2 billion budget for the year.

Given China’s leadership in live-streaming influencer marketing, Temu is now recruiting social media influencers, suggesting it might leverage its Chinese expertise to explore a social-commerce strategy. Social commerce harnesses a sense of “friendship” conveyed by influencers, making the online shopping experience more engaging and product recommendations more convincing. It also works especially well with sales promotions.

Sales promotion tactics

While Temu employs common sales tactics seen on other e-commerce platforms, it uses what is arguably the broadest array of these techniques. Here are just some examples:

• Gamified experiences. Gamified advertising hinges on two core elements: challenge and reward. Interacting with Temu’s spinning wheel is a minor challenge, but the substantial discount offered is a major reward. Such “games” create the illusion of getting lucky, and therefore generate positive emotions in consumers – while the reward gives them an incentive to engage more seriously with their browsing, increasing the likelihood of spending.

• Lightning deals and limited-time offers. One commonly used promotion tactic involves creating the illusion of scarcity through supposedly “exclusive” offers that are time-sensitive and won’t come by again. This can trigger a fear of missing out in consumers.

• Discounts and free shipping Offering simple price reductions and very affordable sales is a time-honoured way of securing a loyal customer base. In addition, Temu has the allure of offering free shipping on orders with a very low minimum spend.

• Loyalty program. Consumers can opt in to Temu’s marketing emails in exchange for receiving more promotional content, including email-only promotions. E-commerce companies often have access to your personal information (such as your name, address, age and phone number) and behavioural data (such as from your search history and online sessions). With this data, the company can build your user profile and target you with personalised promotions and content to encourage spending.

• Search engine marketing. Many consumers will see Temu ads at the top of their search results on Google (in the form of “sponsored” posts) when they search for a product.

• An AI-powered promotional strategy. Temu’s sister company operating in China, Pinduoduo, is renowned for its AI-driven recommendation system. It’s likely Temu uses similar AI algorithms, drawing on users’ browsing and purchase history to provide personalised recommendations (a practice Amazon also partakes in).

Defending against manipulation

Temu’s greatest benefit to consumers lies in its offer of value. It may still have lower-quality items, but this is common among all e-commerce platforms.

Also, Temu’s business model is built around emphasising top-selling products, which helps filter out low-quality products. Its 90-day free return policy further acts as a buffer for unsatisfactory purchases.

Nonetheless, Temu’s value-oriented approach may not be a good thing for consumers on all fronts. Exposed to such a wide array of marketing tactics, users might become more prone to overconsumption – which leads to environmental waste and post-purchase regret.

It’s worth considering your actual needs before using an e-commerce platform such as Temu. You should also familiarise yourself with the sales promotion tactics being used. Research suggests understanding these tactics, as well as advertisers’ intentions, can even empower young children to be sceptical and form a cognitive defence against them.

Also, in light of Temu’s gamified advertising strategy, consumers ought to temper their enthusiasm for rewards. Moving forward, one useful approach may be for schools and governments to introduce educational programs or social marketing campaigns that teach advertising tactics, and recommend coping strategies.

Temu didn’t respond to The Conversation’s request for comment.

Shasha Wang, Senior lecturer, Queensland University of Technology and Xiaoling Guo, , The University of Western Australia

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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New Delhi:

E-commerce major Amazon on Monday said it will make an initial investment of $3 million in nature-based projects in India. The allocation is part of the company’s $15 million fund it has allocated for nature-based projects in Asia Pacific (APAC).

“The first USD 3 million from the fund’s APAC allocation will support nature-based projects in India.

“For its first project, Amazon will be working with the Centre for Wildlife Studies (CWS) to support communities and conservation efforts in the Western Ghats, which is home to more than 30 per cent of all of India’s wildlife species, including the world’s largest population of wild Asiatic elephants and tigers,” the company said in a statement.

Amazon will provide $1 million to help CWS establish the “Wild Carbon” program, which will support 10,000 farmers in planting and maintaining one million fruit-bearing, timber and medicinal trees, according to the statement.

“The Asia-Pacific region is home to vast forests and rich coastal environments, but it is also highly vulnerable to climate change, biodiversity loss and land degradation.

“To protect the region from the impacts of climate change and preserve biodiversity, we will need both large-scale and local action – and we are committed to investing in both,” Amazon’s Global VP for Sustainability, Kara Hurst said.

The $15 million allocation draws from Amazon’s $100 million Right Now Climate Fund, which was created in 2019, to support nature conservation and restoration projects that enhance climate resilience and biodiversity, while driving social and environmental benefits in communities where they operate.

“Amazon’s support enables us to plan and build a program that is self-sustaining in the long-term. The farmers will receive upfront support to select tree types that serve both their livelihoods and the wildlife, whilst also receiving technical assistance, agroforestry training, and support for replanting failed saplings,” CWS Executive Director Krithi Karanth said.

In 2019, Amazon co-founded The Climate Pledge, committing to reach net-zero carbon by 2040 — 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement.

The Pledge now has more than 400 signatories across 55 industries and 38 countries including nine Indian companies — BluPine Energy, CSM Technologies India, Godi, Greenko, HCL, Infosys, Mahindra Logistics, Tech Mahindra, and UPL.

In 2022, Amazon launched six utility-scale projects in India, and the company claims to be on track to power its global operations with 100 per cent renewable energy by 2025 — five years ahead of the initial 2030 target.

The projects include three wind-solar hybrid projects located in Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, as well as three solar farms in Rajasthan, representing a total renewable energy capacity of 920 megawatts.

Amazon India has also committed to deploying 10,000 electric vehicles in its delivery fleet by 2025.