Decentralized marketplaces will put Amazon out of business

[Ladysmith]

It is the middlemen who currently run this world.

Easiest way to make money.

1. Find a product that's valuable.
2. Buy the same thing at a lower price by purchasing in large quantities.
3. Sell individual units at a profit.

The giants Amazon, Alibaba, Costco, Walmart, ETC. all exploit this tried and true method of creating value.

I also sell products wholesale on Amazon and can tell you from experience this works. Anyone can do it.

The thing is, once people can make transactions directly from the warehouse or the seller without the need of a platform or place at the best price and with great shipping, security, trust etc. won't all forms of middlemen become obsolete?

Everything would be cheaper and more accessible.

[BrewMaster]

maybe someday but i believe we are very far a way from that day.
we already have bitcoin, which is the decentralized currency that you can use for purchases. then we also have openbazaar which is the decentralized marketplace for people to buy and sell anything they want in a decentralized manner. but neither of them are mass adopted, not to mention that usage of them is not easy specially openbazzar. and that is a big obstacle that we need to overcome before wanting to see it replace big corporation giants such as Amazon.

[Jet Cash]

Amazon is a real cancer in society. It appears to have been the cause of the demise of Toys'R'us, and it is destroying many local shops. It is starting to move on supermarket chains, and this will allow it to further its globalist initiative. We know that the banking/globalist elite are promoting eugenics, and Amazon's take over of the food chain and drug distribution could be a great help in furthering this initiative.

[damberg]

The problem is that centralization and scaling up enables low prices for end customers and quick delivery times. Peer-to-peer marketplaces (e.g. OpenBazaar) will definitely take place next to the giants of e-commerce, but putting Amazon "out of business" is highly unlikely.

[thirsten]

And how do you see decntralised marketplaces overtakeing these giants?
Ebay and Amazon is there because there is need for middle men which gives security to purchase.

Because they would provide the security necessary without having to pay higher prices. Amazon markups always calculate the Amazon fees and same with Ebay.

Evolving delivery methods (ai drones etc.) would provide the same cheap and fast delivery for peer-to-peer purchases so both sellers and buyers would save money.

[SoiledDove]

The strange thing is, I would have thought that companies like Amazon were made by the Internet, but in time to come, with Blockchain technology etc., the middleman will effectively be cut out and we'll be able to buy direct from source. This is because of decentralization, basically. It may be true. But it's going to take time. A lot of time.

[timotron]

I think you are right, somehow this innovative alternative will affect the big players out there,

I believe OpenBazar or Particl annon market will have a big impact on how we (we) do business online.

To see some creative creators selling goods over there will be amazing!! Soon I want to sell some homemade tables there but still waiting a while till it gets popular.

[jackg]

There are some things that are good to buy from reputable companies though and I don't think this will go away.

Some good producers don't want to take orders that are quite small (lke if you're buying an ssd or a computer component or something) os goign to a retailer like amazon to be a middle-man for if there's an issue is a great idea to implement I think.
Unless of course we get to a point where these large producers of stuff decide they will accept orders of smaller numbers of units than the big buld buys that allow people to start buying up what they'd usually have a pay a premium for from the likes of amazon and similar stores.

[dothebeats]

Cutting the middlemen off will certainly cut the costs of the items and remove unnecessary fees that can be incurred by the end-user, however, middlemen serves as a security and guarantor of the end-user in case the seller wants to scam the buyer. Most people would certainly avoid decentralized marketplaces even if it offers cheap items and would better be buying expensive ones on reputable marketplaces since they are less likely to be scammed and protection is there for them. There's some sort of psychological factor attached into buying from reputable marketplaces and companies that can never be addressed by decentralized marketplaces, so there's that.

[BitHodler]

Amazon provides a service and platform that's useful to people on both sides of the market. If it was that horrible as people here think it is, they wouldn't be doing well, but they are and their revenue and profits speak for them.

Average joes want convenience, and that without thinking about the privacy that they no longer have when they allow a company as Amazon in their life. As long as it works they'll go as far as they need to keep using it.

I'm don't say it's good or bad, but I'm solely looking at what the average person thinks and does. They don't see the threats we see in these companies, and as long as they aren't confronted with these threats, they won't change.

People change and aim for alternatives once the companies and financial institutions start to work against them.

[proTECH77]

In reality, if this happen; it will displace Amazon and other giant in the middleman business. A decentralize market place will put the middleman into check which is unavailable at the moment but with the help of the Blockchain technology there will be a freedom for all. The advent of Blockchain acceptance and adoption will put all the big wings out of the business.

[tenebriscaelum]

One good thing that I see in the middle men like amazon, ebay, alibaba or any other ecommerce platform is the competition from the sellers that are selling on these platforms. The idea that the warehouse would just replace these platforms might eliminate competition as the are the one that have the items that need to be sold.

[avikz]

It is the middlemen who currently run this world.

Easiest way to make money.

1. Find a product that's valuable.
2. Buy the same thing at a lower price by purchasing in large quantities.
3. Sell individual units at a profit.

The giants Amazon, Alibaba, Costco, Walmart, ETC. all exploit this tried and true method of creating value.

I also sell products wholesale on Amazon and can tell you from experience this works. Anyone can do it.

The thing is, once people can make transactions directly from the warehouse or the seller without the need of a platform or place at the best price and with great shipping, security, trust etc. won't all forms of middlemen become obsolete?

Everything would be cheaper and more accessible.

If this is your definition of the middleman, then every businesses and stores you see around, are all middlemen! Every manufacturer sells their product to the wholeseller first. The wholeseller then sells it to the retailer from where we buy the products. As per your your definition of middleman, these wholeseller and retails businesses, are all middlemen. That's how exactly the a trade functions!

And due to this same reason, there is a healthy competition in the market. If everything goes to the hand of the manufacturer, this competition will turn ugly and we will become the victims of their cartel the way Banking system is showing off their power now!

If you think that decentralized marketplace will let you connect directly with the manufacturer, you're wrong! It's mainly a marketplace that allows peer to peer transactions without the need of having a third party to verify the activities for both buyers and sellers.

There are both pros and cons for the decentralized marketplace. A big challenge is the dispute resolution area. Lets assume, you purchased a mobile phone from a seller of a decentralized marketplace but the when the product arrived, you found manufacturing defects in it. Without any centralized authority, how will you get resolution or get the refund? That's a very practical challenge in today's scenario.

So more research and ideas are needed to overcome such obstacles. Decentralization is a very new structure to us and we will need more time before we can actually think of competing with the behemoths like Amazon, Walmart etc.

[1Referee]

I believe OpenBazar or Particl annon market will have a big impact on how we (we) do business online.

It would if the demand was there.

OB lacks in more fields than just one with how there is nothing behind it with a profit model to fund further development and more importantly, marketing. I think the development side is pretty solid even though it's somewhat slow, but the marketing side is where they can book most of the gains, which is the only thing that actually matters here.

The more use OB generates, the more motivation there is behind the scenes to work on it, and it may even lead to large crypto businesses to fund marketing out of goodwill.

On top of that, I think OB needs a web based interface to actually become more mainstream, because average joes aren't going to bother installing software to get things up and running.

[M4NDELL]

Amazon is a brilliant and super successful project that has become a leader in the field. I look forward to when they and other large resellers join the cryptocurrency market. Such a merger in my opinion would be mutually beneficial.

[buharikx31]

It is the middlemen who currently run this world.

Easiest way to make money.

1. Find a product that's valuable.
2. Buy the same thing at a lower price by purchasing in large quantities.
3. Sell individual units at a profit.

The giants Amazon, Alibaba, Costco, Walmart, ETC. all exploit this tried and true method of creating value.

I also sell products wholesale on Amazon and can tell you from experience this works. Anyone can do it.

The thing is, once people can make transactions directly from the warehouse or the seller without the need of a platform or place at the best price and with great shipping, security, trust etc. won't all forms of middlemen become obsolete?

Everything would be cheaper and more accessible.

It would be really complicated to create decentralized market, as mentioed there was couple of those decentralized stores but some of them illegal, but if we talking about legal products it can possibly happen, but it requires a lot of things. Also I would better wait for lightning network

[Reid]

It is the middlemen who currently run this world.

Easiest way to make money.

1. Find a product that's valuable.
2. Buy the same thing at a lower price by purchasing in large quantities.
3. Sell individual units at a profit.

The giants Amazon, Alibaba, Costco, Walmart, ETC. all exploit this tried and true method of creating value.

I also sell products wholesale on Amazon and can tell you from experience this works. Anyone can do it.

The thing is, once people can make transactions directly from the warehouse or the seller without the need of a platform or place at the best price and with great shipping, security, trust etc. won't all forms of middlemen become obsolete?

Everything would be cheaper and more accessible.

True. It is like a Value added tax with another tax. People dont see it but it is just a platform for people to posts what they want to sell. They dont really have an item or if they did, it may be just a little than all the people who have posted their items.

Ebay is just the same right?
They wont even assure the buyer that it is a legitimate seller. So what are we really paying them for? The web page? Maintenance?

Facebook got a lot of seller right now. Maybe I will just stay there and add all those online sellers.

[Harlot]

But not all can do what you could possibly do. Aside from it what Amazon is offering to its sellers is convenience. They don't need to go to anywhere as the could easily buy what they want right at their fingertips through their phone or laptop. These tech giants are also adapting to change the e-commerce business is just one part of their business. Amazon is really a large company and is more like Apple or Google now where they are venturing out of their main business and diversifying their income streams.

[hatshepsut93]

If this is your definition of the middleman, then every businesses and stores you see around, are all middlemen! Every manufacturer sells their product to the wholeseller first. The wholeseller then sells it to the retailer from where we buy the products. As per your your definition of middleman, these wholeseller and retails businesses, are all middlemen. That's how exactly the a trade functions!

Exactly, selling is pretty complex, there are many things involved like advertising and delivery, for example. It will take many many years for decentralized marketplaces to get to the level of centralized marketplaces, and it's not clear if they will ever become a serious competition. I think it's always better to keep expectation realistic so you'd never get disappointed.

[LoyceMobile]

Amazon is a real cancer in society.

By that definition, a decentralized marketplace that beats Amazon on price will be even worse for local shops an than Amazon is already.