We need a decentralized Amazon.

Amazon has increasingly moved to abusing sellers with advertising costs. I spent a year and a half trying to cater to the algorithm and build a brand. I kept my costs down by importing raw materials direct, building packaging and labeling the product myself. I have trademarks and have done everything right. Reviewing my year it’s costing me $1 in ad spend to generate $1.20 in gross sales. In addition they charge 15% commission, storage fees, FBA fees based on item weight size and category and the seller is responsible for returns and damaged/lost products.

My material costs are 25% of the sales price. Add it all up and I’m selling at a significant loss. I would have stopped earlier but I built significant inventory to support the additional volume and there was no other sales channel for me to move the volume. It would have been cheaper to throw it all away, but I reasoned that with time and reviews it might start to improve. I have over 50 5 ⭐️ reviews and haven’t seen any boost. I answer every customer question and follow best practices on the platform.

Amazon is designed to extract money from entrepreneurs. If we build a decentralized version we can pass the savings to customers and improve the customer experience. Vendors would flock to it but it would be difficult to compete at scale without a “hook”. Ideas?