Amazon sellers say they made a good living – until Amazon figured it out | Hacker News Reader

Amazon sellers say they made a good living – until Amazon figured it out

npr.org

28 pointschrisaycock15 comments

I’m really not sure what’s a good outcome here.

In a way, all these sellers even got this opportunity because of Amazon. We have a pure marketplace, eBay, but that rarely moves the needle. Without Amazon these sellers would not even have started, or sold in eBay at a fraction of the volume. So, I doubt Amazon becoming a pure marketplace is a solution.

My personal preference would be for Amazon to go be the single source and close the marketplace, but doubt that’s the solution these folks want. Getting rid of all the scammy products and sellers will really clean it up, for me, and increase my satisfaction as a consumer.

Amazon will always compete better against smaller sellers due to volume.

Don't build your castle in other people's kingdoms

You kind of have to ...

The land for your business is at least in a country that isn't ran by you if not also just owned by a landlord that isn't you.

The materials you use to run your business are almost certain sourced from not you.

The lesson isn't "Don't build your castle in other people's kingdoms" it's make sure you have contingencies for your suppliers.

The article says 40% of online shopping goes through Amazon and 2/3 of US adults have Prime. If you don't sell there, you're giving up most of your business and leaving that opportunity for another seller. It's not optional to do business with Amazon, like it would be if Amazon only owned 10% of the market (still huge!) and there were a bunch of other 10% marketplaces to turn to instead. Instead, it's just like the railroads—what you gonna do, build your own railroad? Good luck with that.

And Amazon is using this monopoly leverage to squeeze its small shippers. Amazon makes them pay to advertise on Amazon, but Amazon's own products get top billing for free. Amazon makes them pay for shipping, but Amazon ships its own products for cheap. Amazon punishes them if they list their products anywhere else for a lower price. And when Amazon sees a seller who has found a successful niche, Amazon can put its own product at the top of the search page for cheaper and instantly shove them out of that niche. "Both a marketplace and a competitor."

It’s a public company. You can just buy shares if you want a piece of the monopoly.

> You can just buy shares if you want a piece of the monopoly.

Holding on to a few shares (as a regular joe), you do not have any influence on the company (re: enshittification). A monopoly that is publicly owned, does not make the situation more palatable.

That doesn't solve the problem of a monopoly whatsoever. And monopoly by definition (even in the fantasy world of Econ 101) is a market failure.

I wonder what level of monopolization it's going to take for people to start figuring out that this is closer to a Soviet-style state economy than actual capitalism.

Kind of difficult when they burn down your entire city

> While Amazon opens up its platform for anyone to sell for a small commission fee

For me that is the root of Amazon's problems that I have now. That is where all the fakes, and counterfeits, and dangerous devices exist.

Instead of encouraging more small sellers, Amazon needs to police them much, much better.

Sadly, I don't see Amazon deciding to turn a profit center into a cost sink

Linked reference 13 in the original NPR article says 6.3% of US adults have Amazon Prime, not 63%.

NPR factchecking is not what is used to be.

The linked article is wrong then, not NPR. Other sources back the 2/3 number.

2/3 of adults do not have Amazon Prime.

Snopes seems to believe they might: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/amazon-prime-adults/

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