Jack Benzaquen

Amazon DD+7 is a payout policy introduced by Amazon that means sellers receive their funds 7 days after the confirmed delivery date (DD+7) of each order. Under this system: •Payment is triggered by delivery confirmation •Funds are held for 7 additional days •Sellers no longer receive disbursement immediately after shipment •Cash flow is directly tied to delivery timing •DD+7 effectively extends the working capital cycle for Amazon sellers.   This policy start on March 23.

Amazon is raising its fee in 3 different ways recently: 1. As correctly predicted below, they will be adding a 3.5% surcharge on shipping and fulfillment (this means the work they do in the warehouse) fees, which will of course be passed to consumers 2. Amazon is no longer allowing advertising to be paid for with a credit card. That's a ~2% increase for a fee that many sellers pay millions for yearly. 3. Amazon is paying sellers more slowly. Unclear what the reason is but this does allow them to make money on the "float". They can keep that money in interest bearing accounts while they wait to pay because they get paid by their customers before they pay their sellers. In October 2024, I made a whole presentation about how Amazon would continue to squeeze its sellers to increase its profits. Not only that, but I said that it would do it in increasingly creative ways. The more complicated the fee increase, the longer it will take sellers to pass these fees onto the consumer, but they will be passed. Sellers are mostly low or negative margin (actually) businesses, so there is mostly no room to absorb cost increases.

HOT TAKE: Vibe coding is video games for adults. You are excited because you can vibe code a product that used to cost millions to develop. But you don’t live in that world anymore. Your neighbor, and soon your 10-year-old nephew, will also be creating apps in a night. Software is no longer a moat. Success will go to those who understand that the value will come from the company building around the vibe-coded software you create. And that’s hard work. And 99.99% of vibe coders won’t do it.