Executive Summary
Businesses considering partnership with Amazon face an unavoidable dilemma: form the partnership and risk ceding profits to Amazon, or eschew the partnership and forgo the operational cost savings and access to new customers. Amazon’s platform business model builds on network effects — when sellers join Amazon their products attract buyers to the platform; in turn, the buyers attract more sellers to sell more products on the platform, which attracts even more buyers. It’s hard for businesses to negotiate with Amazon, but there are strategies that help…