Online marketplaces have often got many varied objectives for brands – sales growth, brand awareness, incremental sales, testing new markets etc… but rarely does this come without a caveat on the amount of profit required.

Direct-from-manufacturer listings on marketplaces like on Amazon are the holy grail of online buying as they pass the cost of added margin directly on to the consumer…right? As it turns out, this hasn’t happened. And it’s not only retailers and experts noticing—consumers are beginning to as well.