The nature of this is actually a bit different here (here being China). Undoubtedly, some of these products are coming from distribution centers. However, man

The nature of this is actually a bit different here (here being China). Undoubtedly, some of these products are coming from distribution centers. However, many of them come from small brick and mortar shops and they use this as a means to augment their business. It's pretty common for product pages to also feature the shops where the products are being sold from. The distribution is generally done by courier companies. It's usually a guy on a bicycle with a bunch of packages that ends up either picking up the package or delivering it on the end. I've seen just about every means of transportation imaginable used to transport packages. Of course, there are still people losing out and there are still distribution centers in the middle. Plus, there are the people working on the factory floors that are making the products in the first place. Ordering online is incredibly convenient and it gives access to such a wide range of products that I can't imagine it going away any time soon. I think that in any system someone is going to end up losing out, but hopefully in the future the losses can at least be minimized through robotics and other technology.