Agreed. I actually thought about it a lot lately mostly because I occasionally sell stuff on Ebay and the fees make me extra annoyed each time. Running a big enough market itself is a difficult task ( and if you want to sell in the entire US, this is effectively what you do ). Add to this taxes, refunds, fraud mitigation and all of a sudden you realize it is a big ask.
Still, I keep thinking about it, because I am sure it can be done in a way that does not make me want to start a new online marketplace each time..
I agree with you to a point, but what’s the alternative?
Running your own storefront online is a huge undertaking, even more so if you want to accept international orders. Processing payments securely while also properly accounting for things like taxes, customs, and other laws is a huge undertaking.
This is just not something that would be realistic for most of the people on sites like Etsy to implement properly.
Ideally there should be a few storefronts you can viably choose from as a provider of goods or services.
For example, I can walk to a Tesco, Lidl, Aldi, SuperValu, and Spar from where I live, there are a bunch of clothing shops relatively close, phone shops, off-licenses, computer shops, etc. etc. And all that in a town of ~25,000 people.
It's kind of unusual that for a lot of online stuff there's so little choice, especially from the seller's perspective: it's "Etsy or bust" (or "Amazon or bust", "YouTube or bust", "Android or bust", etc.)
Indeed. I view the risk as being unacceptable. If I had the choice of having to use these services or not go into business, I'd certainly opt for not going into business.
Other people's risk tolerances are different, of course, but I really hope everyone that does business with these companies understands that they are taking risk in doing so.
I sort of feel as if we're collectively deluding ourselves about the extent and number of monopolies in our current economy.