It is no secret that Amazon strives to dominate the entire e-commerce market. It has been spending insane amounts of money making its platform the number 1 choice for millions and millions of people across the globe.
However, Amazon owns a large part of its success to the millions of merchants that are selling their products on the platform. These merchants are the backbone of Amazon and still they will too often get the raw end of the deal.
The double-edged sword
Whenever you decide to sell your products on Amazon, you are not only entering in a world where millions potential customers are at your fingertips, you will also be faced with stiff competition by other merchants, price races to the bottom and stifling rules and fees for your sales.
Adding to that is the fact that Amazon itself can at any point in time decide to become not only the platform you sell your goods on, but also your direct competitor.
Be it in the form of secret brands Amazon has registered across the board or with its very open Amazon Basics program, with which it copies best selling products from its platform only to sell them at cutthroat prices that regular merchants can’t compete with:
The Data-Problem
Amazon owns all the data you generate. They know exactly how much you sell and how large your profits are. On top of that, they will also have access to the buying history and personal information of your customers.
To quote a former Amazon employee:
Amazon has the ability to track both what people are buying as well as what they search for and can’t find, giving the e-retailer a huge edge on smaller sellers.
Amazon holds all the cards:
- it provides you with the real estate to sell your products, for which you have to pay fees
- it limits your access to your customers by setting rules on how the communication has to work
- it handles the transactions so it has control over the flow of money and is wont to withhold it if it suits its needs
- it can change its terms of service at any time, putting merchants in continuous peril
- when it sees a product that performs well, it can just copy it and sell it at a lower price
- it can influence the ranking in which the products are shown in searches, making it easy to promote brands of its choosing (probably its own)
Marketplaces die when the creator becomes the competitor — but there is hope for a more sustainable marketplace-solution for merchants:
GAMB — Building a Leading Decentralized Marketplace
We at GAMB have long realized that the centralization of power in the hands of a few companies will in the long term only benefit those companies.
We think that the vicious circle of centralization has to be broken — by introducing a sustainable and decentralized alternative to Amazon & Co.
GAMB — the Global Alliance of Merchants on the Blockchain is powering the decentralized marketplace of the future, ultimately governed by smart contracts, with no decision making unit other than the owners of the marketplace themselves.
Building the future of e-commerce
We feel that transparency, trust and sustainability will be the hallmarks of a truly decentralized marketplace which will thrive when its merchants thrive.
Our objective is to start building the future of e-commerce today, without a negative impact on performance or user experience. This can only be achieved by carefully analyzing all components of a decentralized marketplace and successfully migrating them to a blockchain environment.
Decisions regarding features and services as well as cost and fee structures will not be forced upon merchants anymore. Instead, they will decide amongst themselves in a decentral autonomous organization (DAO). Merchants across the globe become members of this alliance and thus participate in the decision-making process, simply by owning Gambio tokens.
The GMB Token
The GMB token has been designed to facilitate the initiation or conclusion of a transaction for a good or service on the GAMB marketplace. The token is targeted as the main driving forces of the decentralized organized marketplace ecosystem.
Each merchant, regardless of what e-commerce software is used, can become a member of the merchant alliance, by acquiring tokens. Our strong focus is on merchants who are interested in stability and sustainable operations on the marketplace.
What, specifically, are the advantages of the outlined marketplace?
- the marketplace is run by its merchants so every decision is made by the people who will eventually benefit or suffer from it
- it will never engage in being more than a platform — unlike Amazon it will not become a direct competitor to its merchants
- it will offer transparency both when it comes to the decision-making process and concerning the data generated customers and merchants
- thanks to the technical capabilities of the blockchain transactions will be both safe and transparent
Getting a headstart thanks to strong partners
The project is backed and supported by Gambio, the market leader for e-commerce software with more than 25,000 active merchants generating 2.8 billion USD in annual revenues.
This will ensure that right from the start of the marketplace there will be a wide range of products available for consumers to buy — a key element to generate traffic and initial momentum.
The Team
In order to achieve our ambitious goals, we have assembled a team made up of professionals with vast amounts of experience in e-commerce, finance, technology and business. We are also working with advisors from various fields and can always rely on the strong development team of Gambio.
Where can I get more infos and/or become part of the GAMB project?
For detailed information concerning the Global Alliance of Merchants on the Blockchain you can visit our website or download our whitepaper. You can join the whitelist for the project on our website.
Registration for the pre-sale will start on June 15th and will also be available on the website.
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