Why I can’t bring myself to buy from Amazon

I have a confession to make: I’ve never bought anything from Amazon. 

Well, that’s not technically true. When I was 14, my father ordered me a CD (remember those?) from Amazon (Californication by Red Hot Chilli Peppers, if you’re wondering). But when it comes to placing an order myself, using my own money, I’ve never done it. 

The reason I am writing about this now is 1) because Amazon Prime Day took place this week, and 2) because local, smaller retailers need our dollars more than ever. 

My aversion to buying from Amazon comes from close to 14 years of reporting on Australian small businesses, but more specifically, it was the four years I spent working in the book industry as a journalist and news editor at the trade press publication Books+Publishing.

It was in the early 2010s and I had a ticket to the horror show that was Amazon’s destruction of parts of the bookselling industry. It was felt more deeply in the US, but it reached Australian shores too. Amazon’s continued dominance of the global book market has been, accurately, labeled a “death grip”. 

I reported on bookshop closures, on the battle over parallel importation restrictions, and on the real cost of Australians ordering cheaper books from overseas from both Amazon and The Book Depository, which would go on to be acquired by Amazon (there’s a long read on the cost of shipping books to Australia here). 

Most importantly, I met the people running Australian bookshops and publishing houses. I saw their ingenuity, and their perseverance (the threat of ebooks was looming at the time too), and I came to understand how essential their contribution to their local communities was. 

This appreciation has only been fortified during my 10 years at SmartCompany, where I have reported on retailers and small businesses from all sectors. 

These are businesses that are locally owned, often making their products here too. They employ local people and sponsor their local sporting clubs. When they make a sale, it quite literally puts food on the table for their families. 

But they are also under serious threat from a brutal economic climate. And the sheer dominance of global retailers like Amazon, and increasingly, platforms like Temu and Shein, only adds to it. 

Restructuring and insolvency levels among Australian businesses are rising, inflation and higher interest rates are routinely reported as among the top pressures on local firms, and you only have to scroll through Instagram to see more brands announcing their time is up. 

And yet, Amazon Australia’s retail business made more than $3 billion in revenue in 2023 (albeit at a reported net loss of $8.84 million) and it has now expanded its one-day delivery service to key regional centres. 

More than 1.26 million Australians are estimated to be shopping at Temu each month, with a Roy Morgan research estimating its local sales will reach $1.3 billion this year. Meanwhile, fast fashion player Shein is popping up left, right and centre. 

It’s important to acknowledge that Amazon’s physical presence in Australia since 2017 has created jobs, and Amazon is of course an important sales channel for around 14,000 businesses in Australia, including small ones. 

No doubt many of these sellers offered promotions during the Amazon Prime sales event and I hope it helped them boost their sales and find customers who will buy from them in the long term. 

We’ve certainly heard about the ‘halo effect’ these massive sales events have for local sellers, and non-alcoholic drinks brand Yes You Can told SmartCompany Amazon Prime Day helped it triple its monthly sales in July 2022. 

Retail experts have gone as far as describing Amazon as a “critical partner” for Australian brands, particularly in categories such as home, leisure, outdoor and grocery, 

What is less clear is the level of commissions that some businesses need to pay to secure these sales. And a strategy that involves continually discounting your products during big sales events is fraught with danger, as brand counsel Michel Hogan recently explained to my colleague David Adams. 

If I have a choice (and I do) I would buy from these businesses directly.

The cost of living crisis is real and I know I am in a privileged position to not always have to buy the cheaper option. Not all households have that option. 

But when I weigh up the choice of purchasing from an Australian small business or making a man who is building a 10,000-year clock inside a mountain richer, I know which side I land on. 

Because that cliche about a small business owner doing a happy dance every time someone buys from them? It’s a cliche because it’s true. 

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