GoPro (GPRO) Holding Back Selling at Amazon was Strategic

After opening down nearly 4% on word it is not currently shipping to Amazon, GoPro (NASDAQ: GPRO) has pushed back near break-even as the news is not as dire as it sounds.

Dourgherty & Co analyst Charlie Anderson notes that GoPro has actually voluntarily held back on shipping the Hero 5 to Amazon.com in the U.S.. Thus, the only way to buy a Hero 5 on Amazon is through a third party as opposed to Amazon directly and it is not available for Amazon Prime shipping.

Anderson said GoPro told them they are doing this because of their displeasure over how its products were priced on Amazon recently. Because retailers like Best Buy (GoPro's No. 1 customer most quarters) now price match Amazon.com, the integrity of retail pricing is extremely important.

GoPro told them that Amazon.com is receiving the product internationally (price protection is not allowed in many international markets) and that its other retailer partners have picked up the excess units that would have originally gone to Amazon. GoPro does stock its products at 45K retail locations globally.

Importantly, according to Anderson, it sounds like Amazon will be receiving the products before the important Holiday weeks.

GoPro told Piper Jaffray that it will resume shipping to Amazon by the end of October/beginning of November.

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