Oh! I keep forgetting to ask y’all why everybody always hates on Amazon, talking about Bezos and his richness…. Do you ever read those little notes inside your packages? Ever seen the ones that say ‘please give us feedback, and let us know if anything went wrong?’ Or the ones that thank you for purchasing from this small family business? Or the ones that say we’d love it if you reviewed this product on Amazon? You should do it.
Have you noticed that there are “online only” restrictions on some of these sites, like Target, Walmart, Ashley Stewart, etc and you can’t return those items to the store? That’s likely because the current e-commerce climate favors the marketplace setup–a portal run by some company that advertises items and fulfills orders created and produced by other companies, usually small businesses.
Amazon doesn’t make everything. Neither does Walmart or Target or any of the other sites you frequent and spend with daily. It’s like this: If I have a site and marketing setup that already gets traffic (like The Signature Marketplace 👀), I invite you to sell your products there (and I have), you get the exposure you didn’t have (without all the cost), I get a larger catalog of products to sell, and we both profit from it because people love to see options and new, creative stuff. More traffic, more sales, more revenue for each of us.
And who has ever visited any commercial establishment and bought ONLY what they came for that trip? Something unexpected will catch their eye. Then there’s a whole market segment specifically looking for handcrafted things. 🤷🏾♀️ Imagine the possibilities of teaming up.
Small business powers much of e-commerce by providing an array of goods to suit your lifestyle, and your faves use their substantial market presence to attract buyers for said goods, which helps out the million little guys who can’t afford the website, marketing, personnel and other fulfillment costs to get their products to you. You wouldn’t even know their names if not for that marketplace, which means they may not eat, or they lose their homes….
I don’t know what the fees are, or if they’re even fair, but I do know that small businesses everywhere are connecting with clients they would never have if not for that marketplace arrangement. Some even have stores in the marketplace where you can shop all their products in one place.
Why are we hating on them again? Boycott one to go to another, and they’re all doing the exact same thing…. Is it really bad though? I’m just asking.
From the Mind of Tonya D Floyd