Why we don't sell on Amazon (or any marketplace)
We tried it for four months in 2021. The numbers worked. The boxes didn't. Here's why we pulled every listing and never went back.
In the summer of 2021 we ran a four-month experiment. We listed used gaylord boxes on Amazon Business and on two industrial marketplaces. The conversion rate was honestly fine. The fulfillment was a disaster.
The problem with a box that doesn't fit a UPS truck
Gaylords are the wrong shape for any small-parcel network. They don't fit standard belt conveyors at fulfillment centers. They don't ride well on UPS Ground because they're a pallet-class load. They don't survive even mild handling without their carrier knowing they're packaging — which is a contradiction every marketplace creates when it bills them like a regular shipping carton.
Every order we shipped through the marketplace channel arrived with at least one bent flap. Three out of every twenty arrived non-deliverable because the carrier classified them as oversized after pickup. Customers who were used to one-click ordering were not amused.
What we learned
Three lessons from the experiment, none of which surprised us in hindsight:
- Used gaylords are a freight class product, not a parcel class product. The fulfillment math only works on a pallet.
- Marketplaces optimize for parcel velocity and breakage tolerance that doesn't exist for industrial packaging.
- Buyers who order through marketplaces want one-click; buyers who order pallets of gaylords want a phone (or, in our case, an email).
The order-of-magnitude difference
Our marketplace experiment averaged 11 units per order at an average margin contribution after fees and freight of about $3.40 a unit. Our direct channel averages 380 units per order at a contribution of about $4.10 a unit. Same product, same yard, vastly different math.
So we pulled every listing. We're not on Amazon, not on Faire, not on any third-party site. The form on every page of this site is the order channel. It looks old-fashioned. It works.
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