The $43M seller who walked away from FBA

For almost two decades, Amazon was their world. Until it wasn’t.

What happens when the platform that built your empire starts tearing it down, one fee, one scam, one rival at a time?

Sometimes the biggest risk isn’t staying…it’s leaving. 👋

• Why a $43M seller finally walked away 👋
• Thought of the Day 🍴 
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SELLER CONFESSIONS

An Amazon seller (OP) confessed: For almost 18 years, Amazon was home turf. The platform used to be amazing, but now it feels like a dumpster fire.

Between 2017–2024, OP pulled in 99.1% of revenue there, an eye-watering $43M per year, with about $3.1M in net profit annually. But the marketplace that built their empire slowly turned against them, chipping away at it piece by piece.

⚠️ When the cracks appeared

• Return scams drained cash and inventory.
• Fees climbed like clockwork, storage, selling, you name it.
• Black-hat rivals sabotaged top ASINs.
• Knockoffs from overseas sellers undercut listings with cheap copies.
• Margins crumbled, from 10.7% in 2021 to 6.7% in 2023.

Refusing to double down on Amazon’s “ads-first” playbook, OP made a bold call: cut ties and rebuild outside the platform.

🚪 The road out

In 2023, they poured $650K into revamping a dusty 10-year-old website. That meant covering their own SEO, dropping $65K/month on ads, and hiring three new packers for fulfillment.

By mid-2025, the tables had turned: 

• $18.3M in website sales vs. just $367K on Amazon (no restocks since February)
• Sales dipped 18% year-over-year, but profits soared 230%
• Margins were 17% off-Amazon compared to just 6% on Amazon

Turns out, independence had its price, but also its payoff.

And that wasn’t the only payoff.

🌱 Life after Amazon

• Stress-free operations. Scam returns nearly disappeared, customer reviews improved, and service is now fully under control.
• Real customers, not Amazon’s. The seller now owns the relationship, building loyalty that ads could never buy.
• Competitors collapsing. The China-based knockoffs that once plagued their listings are tanking with terrible reviews.
• Freedom from Amazon’s rules. No more arbitrary suspensions, random “pesticide” flags, or begging Seller Support for fixes.

OP summed it up: leaving Amazon was the best decision they ever made. Even if you don’t plan on leaving yet, start building your website now—you’ll thank yourself later.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

Amazon might still deliver sales, but sellers who control their customer base deliver freedom.

BITES OF THE WEEK

• eTail Connect: Celebrating 25 years of eTail growth, this invite-only event is set for September 15-17.
• Shoptalk Fall: Get ready, Chicago! Senior executives with hands-on workshops and 130+ industry luminaries will confer this October.
• SAP Cloud ERP: Save the date for this live webinar, which will focus on building a resilient supply chain.
• ASGTG Annual: ASGTG is in its 12th year of connecting the Amazon seller community.