Being a seller in Amazon's marketplace is now a bit of a joke. Like eBay, it's been one round of 'compliance' after another, sometimes due to EU rules treating everyone as potential money-laundering terrorists.
As a seller, I was working for peanuts, as the competition is so great and the 15% commission excessive.
With increasing use of Amazon's FBA (fulfilled by Amazon), I was increasingly failing to win the 'Buy Box' and so losing out on orders, as many people don't bother to compare prices and sellers. Even when I was cheapest and with 100% feedback, Amazon and FBA sellers were just about always, if not always, rewarded with the Buy Box.
From now on, I am going to try to grow my brand without Amazon. For one thing, customer loyalty is almost zero with Amazon marketplace.
The danger for consumers is that, because Amazon has been happy to work for next to no profit for years, they are able to undercut almost everyone. And because of Amazon's vast reach, many businesses feel that they have to sell there, often selling at lower prices than on their own website, despite Amazon's charges.
The consequence could be that in another decade or two, nearly all internet sales are handled through third party sites like eBay and Amazon. Businesses will basically no longer be independent, increasing merchandise will be banned as they are deemed politically incorrect (such as all Confederate flag items, as just one example).
They will be able to set prices by setting their fees and we will only have easy access to the books they think we ought to read and the music and films we should own and the food we should eat.
Join me in boycotting Amazon, as a seller and as a buyer, otherwise we will be at the mercy of these kind of companies and in my experience, they don't do much in the way of mercy.
Hi Stewart, perhaps this review was meant for another company. There is no malware on SourceForge whatsoever. We are a software review and comparison website.