Amazon Marketplace Launch

Marketplace turned Amazon from a retailer into a platform, and third-party sellers now account for more than half of the units sold on Amazon. Putting outside sellers on Amazon's own product detail pages meant they competed directly with Amazon's retail teams on price and delivery, and monthly marketplace sales more than tripled in the first four months. That seller base later became the customer base for Fulfillment by Amazon, launched in 2006, which lets sellers store inventory in Amazon warehouses. Brands selling on Amazon today choose between fulfilling orders themselves, using a 3PL or using FBA, a decision shaped by fees, Prime eligibility and inventory limits.

• Fulfillment by AmazonFBAAmazon stores and ships your orders
• Fulfillment by MerchantFBMYou ship your own Amazon orders
• Multi-Channel FulfillmentMCFOne inventory pool for every sales channel

• Jeff Bezosb. 1964 · Founder of Amazon
• Marc Loreb. 1971 · Founder of Diapers.com and Jet.com

• Amazon.com Launch1995 · Jeff Bezos opens an online bookstore to the public
• eBay Launch1995 · AuctionWeb opens and sells a broken laser pointer
• Shopify Launch2006 · Snowboard shop software becomes a hosted store platform

• Marketplace Facilitator Law2018, in all sales tax states by 2023 · State laws making marketplaces collect sales tax
• INFORM Consumers Act2022, effective 2023 · US law making marketplaces verify high-volume sellers

1. Amazon Marketplace a winner for customers, sellers and industry (Amazon press release) press.aboutamazon.com
2. Amazon Marketplace (Wikipedia) en.wikipedia.org