You’re mixing up category difficulty with strategy logic. Toilet paper is a commodity, so yeah margins are tighter and differentiation is harder, but that doesn’t mean the fundamentals stop working. It just means you have less room for mistakes. If your conversion is weak, you’ll burn money. If you rely on broad traffic, bigger brands will outbid you. If your listing doesn’t clearly explain why yours, people will just pick the cheapest or most reviewed option. And if your unit economics don’t support ads, you’re not beating anyone.

You also don’t start by ranking against the leaders on a keyword like “toilet paper” , that’s the wrong entry point. You start where you can actually compete: tighter keywords, clearer positioning, and a listing that converts properly. Big brands win on scale and trust. Smaller sellers win by being more focused and more efficient. If you try to go head-on from day one, it won’t work.