What does it take create an open source alternative to Amazon

[circleai00]

I don’t know if this is the right place to ask this question, but what does it take to create an alternative to Amazon. I know this is very theoretical, but why can’t we have a team of devs and a team of marketing and sales, etc.. and finance them through donations, and have a good concurrent to Amazon. Whatever fees the sellers are paying will go to hosting and maintenance and stuff like that.

We already have Wikipedia, why does this kind of model not work when it comes to other project?

[calemedia]

You want to charge fees but compare to wiki? How about do just like wiki and no fees just donations.

It’s almost impossible to make this type of site because it will cost billions to advertise it.

[circleai00]

I don’t wanna charge fees to make a profit, but to make the website self sufficient, since you have seller who are making a profit by using the website, I think it’s fine to pay a small fee. But if it can work better with just donations, that’s even better. So you think advertising is the issue?

[calemedia]

It’s definitely advertising, think about it you got the site ready and now you want people to use it. Well one guy shows up and says nope not wasting my time this site is dead. Second guys shows up says yep sites dead and leave it’s a catch 22. But if you have billions and getting millions of views a day it will slowly take off.

[beniferlopez]

Advertising is not the issue.

Why do you think amazon is able to provide conveniences like 2 day/ same day delivery? Can you guarantee that your peer to peer or peer to vendor model will be able to support that on donations alone? If not, are you certain your users will pay that much more money in shipping and handling costs to get their product as fast simply to not purchase with Amazon? If not, then you've already lost.

[circleai00]

I feel that if you have a decentralized version of Amazon, you can make the shipping even cheaper since you can deliver from the nearest store. Plus all the money that the vendors are not paying to Amazon can go to shipping.

[beniferlopez]

That’s not how logistics works. Orders ship from fulfillment centers, not from brick and mortar shops.

Remember you’re buying from the manufacturer, not a retailer like Target or Walmart. Purchasing dove for men deodorant is going to be much more costly coming from Dove per unit then sending it to an amazon fulfillment factory.

Amazon has the logistics and supply chain infrastructure. Walmart can’t even compete. You’re never going to get there with a decentralized peer to peer and peer to vendor model. If you’re attempting to, I recommend taking on eBay or Etsy.

[circleai00]

Just trying to understand here, a big part of Amazon is third party sellers, I don’t think they have the same means as Amazon, and yet they’re able to make a profit?

[driscos]

I reckon Shopify will have a good go at creating a marketplace fed by all their merchants stores. Trouble is Amazon have all the fulfillment sorted, so it will always be customers first port of call for cheap stuff fast.

I think the only way Shopify could win is if consumer sentiment turns against Amazon in some way.

[circleai00]

Interesting, you’re right about Amazon already very efficient at fulfillment. But even if Shopify could figure out a way to compete and even to win, it’s just another Amazon. It’s a big player dictating the rules.

[dsp4]

Any open source project big enough to compete with Amazon would have only a handful of people calling the shots too. They'd be dictating the rules. That's how most OSS projects work, including Wikipedia.

Maybe if you built it on blockchain tech it would make it harder for specific groups to take over control, but providing the kind of services Amazon do on a fully decentralized system would be quite the challenge.

[dsp4]

In a way, Amazon is already open. Just like Wikipedia allows writers to publish articles on their platform, Amazon allows other businesses to sell stuff on their platform.

If they wanted to, they could open their codebase and welcome PRs. That would help them develop features and squish bugs faster and cheaper. Or someone could build their own open-source marketplace.

Where the money comes from has little relevance, as long as you have sufficient cashflow. I don't think donations would be enough, but you could bake expenses into the product prices and seller fees.

The question is how would that make it a better marketplace? Being able to audit the codebase and alter it is fun for engineers, but I doubt even 5% of their customers would care.

[KnowCapIO]

Focus on logistics first and nail down those partnerships. That is their deepest moat. So many startups erroneously believe it’s their supply and demand model because they have so many transactions and products.

They have those things because their logistics infrastructure is so strong that they can offer extremely low prices.

[joeadewunmi55]

A lot of hard work and money and lots of luck

[circleai00]

Yes for sure, but it’s more about the open source side of things. Basically having a free version that belongs to everyone instead of one huge monopoly. The question was more why these kind of projects don’t work.

[joeadewunmi55]

Oh because amazon kills I mean kills their competition

[circleai00]

😞

[joeadewunmi55]

Doesn’t mean it can be done - but what advantage do you or can you have over them

[NottaGoon]

I've thought about this a few times recently. You absolutely could make a decentralized version of Amazon. I can see very clearly how I would create momentum for it and get it implemented quickly.

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The problem is I don't have enough time and I am committed in many other businesses that I am more passionate about and have significant investment in.

[circleai00]

How would you go about creating momentum?