Yes, we know it's Prime Day. We know you're being bombarded by marketing emails. Maybe you're not sure where to spend your money?
A few things to consider: in 2023, Amazon made approximately $13 BILLION during their July Prime Day. For a small business like ours, we would have to be in business for 1,300 years to reach those sales. We sell on Amazon, not because we want to, but because we have to. Amazon's web traffic eclipses our yearly traffic in just a few seconds. Small eCommerce businesses are exploited by Amazon and are subject to their metrics and draconian rules.
Amazon has made operating online incredibly difficult. Their "free shipping" is both a misnomer and an unfair advantage of their monopolistic stronghold on eCommerce. Shipping is never free. Our average costs per shipment is in the range of $15-$50 depending on location (not including shipping supplies like ice packs, dry ice, insulation, etc). Amazon can subsidize these costs through their Prime program and through their massive footprint with warehouses all over the United States. They can offer "free" shipping with zero regard to how impacts small businesses.
Corporations like Amazon are bad for almost everyone. Their customer service is atrocious. Their requirements of sellers are based solely on profit motive and have nothing to do with work-life balance. Amazon wants ALL sellers to ship 6 days per week, but only requires it of Seller fulfilled Prime sellers. Those Seller Fulfilled Prime sellers are also subject to shipping 1-2 days across the United States even though Amazon does not hold themselves to those standards. 1 day shipping from our Redford facility to a customer in California is often more than $100. How can we sell an item for $50 and then pay $100 for shipping simply to meet an arbitrary metric? Amazon does not care. They also have an advertising platform that coerces sellers into spending even more money with them in order for products to be seen.
The customer experience isn't great either. If you have noticed recently, many Prime shipments take 5-10 days to reach you. While that is perfectly reasonable, it is not what Amazon advertises, but as the saying goes, "rules are for thee but not for me." Interestingly, we received an email from Amazon that said customers who ordered from us were receiving their orders TOO QUICKLY. Exceeding expectations is something Amazon doesn't like either.
What's the solution? We really don't know. The current state of commerce in the United States is bleak. Costs are very high due to unchecked corporate greed. Amazon is a prime (pun intended) example of this. About 40% of every sale we make on their platform goes back to them in the form of seller's fees, shipping costs, and advertising. How many small businesses are able to charge for shipping and advertising?
Our goal here is provide some context to how Amazon operates on the seller side. We are not going to stand here and tell you to stop shopping on Amazon. Unfortunately, that is very difficult. We can tell you that if you are considering purchasing from a small business on Amazon, do a little Googling (that's another email topic), and buy directly from the small business' website. The prices may be higher and they may not offer the same free shipping threshold or maybe they cannot offer free shipping at all, but the sale is going to the small business and not enriching a massive corporation.