” 2015, Amazon recorded sales of $107bn but net profits of just $596m, a margin of barely 0.5%”
But one of the reasons is the millions upon millions (if not billions at this point) of dollars Amazon has and continues to spend on distribution infrastructure.
There is a sizeable component of Amazon that is mom/pop-like vendors selling through Amazon. I guess some of that profit goes to them, too.
I get emails from vendors (filtered through Amazon for protection) like these asking me to review them, their shipping, packaging and customer service. As a courtesy I respond and rate them because I want more individual vendors taking part in that “big on-line.” If it happens to be Amazon that facilitates that, then that’s just the way it is.