It's a messy market. If they weren't paying such high fees to Amazon, they would be paying those fees to Google (Pay per click) or other marketplaces that came

It's a messy market. If they weren't paying such high fees to Amazon, they would be paying those fees to Google (Pay per click) or other marketplaces that came and went over the years (those old school price shopping websites - pricegrabber and such) Walmart does offer a 3rd party seller market and its largely junk in comparison - however, I don't know their fees. 0% is an imaginary fee btw... It costs money to staff/warehouse/sell/distribute/ship/package - i'm willing to bet the 30-45% fee includes amazon warehouse sellers who use prime shipping... per the post below, a company like bose knows they only make 50% if even that much selling to any retailer, if they can make 55-65% selling direct on amazon and reach the market of people who just default to amazon then they're ahead of other sellers... Prime now for a speaker company is a godesend considering UPS shipping rates and last mile for heavy items are why they depended so much on brick and mortar retail traditionally. I don't think the system is perfect by anymeans, but Amazon is just playing in a market that was previoulsly dominated by others and a market where fixed 30-45% is much cheaper, than everyone doing payperclick and hopoing for coneversions (googles market)