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Manufacturers selling direct via ecommerce is a very new phenomenon (last 10 years). Before Amazon, there was an entrenched network of distributors and exclusi

Manufacturers selling direct via ecommerce is a very new phenomenon (last 10 years). Before Amazon, there was an entrenched network of distributors and exclusive contracts in both directions of the supply chain. Amazon has busted this wide open. It is important to understand that FBA largely pushes the administration and supply chain overhead down to small time individual resellers, utilizing their willingness to do free labor. Amazon encouraged this behavior, gave blind eye to counterfeiters, and making ecommerce too hard to ignore for mfgs to compete on directly. IP has never been efficient to enforce, old school exclusive/protective contracts masked this, but now the emperor has no clothes.

user5994461 10y ago
Not exactly accurate. There is eBay that is a big player and allows anyone to distribute products. These days 90% of sales are done by professional in fix price format (not an auction). eBay has a proper reputation system, sellers are clearly identifiable and so is the location of the product. Amazon doesn't do any of that on purpose.
- noir_lord 10y ago
  It's ironic, I got burnt a few times with ebay in it's really early days in the UK and swore off them and then Amazon got popular and I was a happy customer for years but recently I've been buying bits from ebay (I prefer Buy it Now, I don't want to maybe win, I'm happy to potentially pay more to know that it's on it's way) and it's improved leaps and bounds since I used it a lot. If Amazon keeps down this track it's going to kill the golden goose for eking out that extra tiny bit.
- bambax 10y ago
  Well sure, but AFAIK eBay doesn't do fulfillment so there's no possible issue of commingling, etc.
  - user5994461 10y ago
    Amazon doesn't do fulfilment either. Or well, sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. It's impossible to figure out where a product will come from.
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- double0jimb0 10y ago
  eBay and Amazon have very little in common in terms of how they area organized. Amazon's "customer facing database" is SKU-based. eBay's "customer facing database" is seller-based. Two completely different worlds.

user5994461 10y ago

Not exactly accurate. There is eBay that is a big player and allows anyone to distribute products. These days 90% of sales are done by professional in fix price format (not an auction). eBay has a proper reputation system, sellers are clearly identifiable and so is the location of the product. Amazon doesn't do any of that on purpose.

noir_lord 10y ago
It's ironic, I got burnt a few times with ebay in it's really early days in the UK and swore off them and then Amazon got popular and I was a happy customer for years but recently I've been buying bits from ebay (I prefer Buy it Now, I don't want to maybe win, I'm happy to potentially pay more to know that it's on it's way) and it's improved leaps and bounds since I used it a lot. If Amazon keeps down this track it's going to kill the golden goose for eking out that extra tiny bit.
bambax 10y ago
Well sure, but AFAIK eBay doesn't do fulfillment so there's no possible issue of commingling, etc.
- user5994461 10y ago
  Amazon doesn't do fulfilment either. Or well, sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. It's impossible to figure out where a product will come from.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
deleted 10y ago
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double0jimb0 10y ago
eBay and Amazon have very little in common in terms of how they area organized. Amazon's "customer facing database" is SKU-based. eBay's "customer facing database" is seller-based. Two completely different worlds.