For many emerging ecommerce brands, Amazon represents the path of least resistance. The platform's massive built-in audience, streamlined logistics, and powerful search engine make it the obvious first choice. But that convenience comes with a dangerous myth: that being on Amazon is enough to succeed.
Amazon’s ecosystem, while powerful, is not designed to empower brands, it’s built to serve consumers and itself. Over-reliance on Amazon exposes brands to volatile fees, unpredictable policies and zero ownership over customer relationships.
While Amazon remains a valuable part of a healthy channel mix, it should never be your only one. To build a truly resilient and scalable brand, you need a diversified, omnichannel strategy.
Our growth marketing team helps brands move beyond platform dependency to build a growth engine that’s scalable and defensible.
Most focus on Amazon's obvious benefits such as massive reach, built-in logistics and ready-to-buy customers. But the true cost of Amazon dependency extends far beyond monthly seller fees.
The hidden costs driving this gap fall into four categories that every growth-minded businesses must understand.
Amazon's fee structure has become a masterclass in gradual margin compression. While Amazon confirmed it will not raise referral or FBA fees in 2025, the cumulative impact of recent increases continues to devastate seller profitability:
These rising costs cut into already slim margins and complicate long-term financial planning. You might often find yourself trapped in a cycle of chasing sales volume to offset fees, with little left for reinvestment or brand-building.
Sales volume without customer ownership is revenue without equity building. Amazon owns the data, the relationship, and the experience.
This creates several challenges:
Without customer ownership, your ability to scale profitably is severely constrained.
Amazon's algorithm treats your brand as a commodity. Your years of brand building, customer service excellence, and product innovation get reduced to a search ranking determined by factors you can't control.
The platform's structure incentivizes a race to the bottom. When differentiation gets commoditized by algorithm-driven product comparison, price becomes your only competitive lever.
Amazon’s algorithm, policies, and seller rules can shift without notice. A single change can wipe out your visibility or even suspend your account. Examples include:
When Amazon is your only channel, your business is one policy change away from crisis.
Ecommerce diversification isn't about listing products everywhere, it's about strategically building multiple revenue engines that compound rather than cannibalize each other.
Effective diversification operates across four dimensions:
73% of retail shoppers are omnichannel shoppers who interact with 6 touchpoints before making a purchase. Your customers are already diversified, which means your sales strategy should match their behavior.
By spreading your sales across multiple platforms, you insulate your business from:
With multiple revenue streams, your business can absorb disruptions on one channel without halting growth.
Your DTC site gives you the ability to:
You’re not at the mercy of a third-party platform’s algorithm or layout. You own the experience.
Your email list, SEO rankings, and social media following are assets that compound in value over time. These elements:
Each channel has its own audience:
Expanding your presence allows you to tap into different buyer behaviors and demographics.
The most common diversification failure occurs when brands attempt too much expansion too quickly without building necessary capabilities. Multi-channel success requires sequential capability development rather than simultaneous channel launches, combined with proactive investment in systems that handle operational complexity automatically.
Successful implementation prioritizes:
To maintain brand trust, consistency is key:
Amazon can play an important role, but it shouldn't define your business. Long-term growth, profitability and resilience come from a multi-channel approach designed around your brand’s strengths and customer behavior.
Our growth marketing team works with ambitious ecommerce brands to craft and execute strategic channel diversification plans that drive reach, reduce risk, and maximize return on investment.
Partner with Cart.com’s Growth Marketing Team to develop your diversification plan.