Amazon Let Us Build a Brand. Then Protected the People Who Copied Us.

What follows is a deeply honest letter from one of our founders about the reality of selling on Amazon in 2025—and why we’re scaling back.

It’s long. It’s real. And it might help you understand why brands like ours—who care about ethical sourcing, quality, and values—are so often pushed off the map.

 

We didn’t set out to leave Amazon. But after a decade of doing almost everything right, we finally had to ask: at what cost?

Ten years ago, my wife and I launched Kishu Baby with a single product and a lot of heart. Our 4-way reversible bib was simple, thoughtful, and different. We grew through boutiques in LA, thanks to a great rep and word of mouth—until Amazon swallowed the foot traffic.

Then COVID hit. We pivoted to face masks and were stunned when CNN Underscored featured our Fairtrade & GOTS Certified organic masks, generating 800+ Etsy backorders overnight. For a moment, our values cut through the noise.

But long-term? That traffic didn’t last. It never does when you're up against what came next.

💣 The Seller Who Took Over Everything

Enter Konssy, a Chinese seller operated by SHANGHAI HF INTL TRADE CO., LTD.

They launched on Amazon in the bib category using terrible Photoshopped random pics of white babies, with their bibs clumsily pasted on. The editing was so bad it was laughable—and yet somehow, they still ranked #1 for nearly every major bib term within weeks.

Example of the kind of Photoshopped imagery that once dominated our category. This is not an actual Konssy product image.

To be clear—Konssy isn’t the only one, and this isn’t just about China. Plenty of U.S. and international sellers also game the system—through fake reviews, keyword manipulation, and black hat tactics. But in the baby category, China-based sellers have mastered this at scale, and Amazon consistently lets it slide.

Their tactics? It’s evolved over time—but the cheating hasn’t stopped.

Konssy almost certainly used Search-Find-Buy when they entered the bib category a few years ago. That tactic helped them manipulate keyword rankings without running ads—leapfrogging to #1 practically overnight.

And today? Many China-based sellers still exploit:

• CTR/CVR manipulation (bots, click farms, or paid traffic spikes)
• Fake and incentivized reviews
• Review hijacking (merging bad products into well-reviewed listings)
• Duplicate listings to reset poor ratings or hide low performance
• Abuse of product variations to steal review totals
• External traffic tricks (fake influencer promos, fake TikTok traffic)

This is what a click farm in China looks like — one of countless operations manipulating reviews and rankings on Amazon.

These tactics aren’t isolated. They’re routine. And Amazon does little to stop them—because the sellers doing it help Amazon keep prices low.

Once they took the top spots, they held them. They now dominate nursing covers, too—a category we also sell in. Their SKUs rise the same way: fast, frictionless, unchallenged.

And yes—Konssy looks like a real brand now. Their aesthetic is beautiful. Their listings are polished. Their assets are A-class. Their copy is still terrible though 😬.

But they didn’t start that way.

They led with manipulation—fake images, algorithm tricks. Only after dominating did they invest in the extras: influencers, polished photography, and branding that speaks to U.S. consumers.

That’s a hard pill to swallow for brands like ours. And not just us—legitimate, much bigger sellers on Amazon like KeaBabies, Copper Pearl, Parker Baby, WeeSprout, and Milk Snob have all taken hits from this system. Brands that build community and play by the rules, but weren’t given the same shortcut to the top.

And Amazon? It Knows.

Amazon has received Konssy’s inventory for years. It knows where they ship from. It sees the price points, the velocity, the listing behavior.

But Konssy:

• Prices lower
• Converts better
• Never runs out

And that’s all Amazon cares about.

📉 What Happened to Us (and So Many Others)

We were selling 500 units/month of one bib SKU (this style👇). That was a lot for our small brand.

Then the copycats came—not Konssy, but dozens of other Chinese sellers. Same design, same function, and in some cases, they literally stole our photos. We had to get Amazon to take them down.

Eventually, they flooded the market so badly that they killed the style completely—for everyone. Even they don’t sell it now. We’re lucky to move 50 units a month today.

🌿 Our Response: Go Ethical—All the Way

We went GOTS certified. We went Fairtrade certified, working with a vetted factory in Southern India—intentionally avoiding sourcing from places like Bangladesh and China, which are notorious for labor issues and human rights concerns.

We also invested early in high-end lifestyle photography—we were the first brand in the category to do it. Now, most top sellers have followed our lead, but at the time, it set us apart. It helped communicate the values and care behind our products before anyone else in the space was even thinking about that level of quality.

We went Fairtrade & GOTS for two reasons:

1. Because it was the right thing to do.
2. And yes, to stand out from the noise.

We couldn’t out-cheap the copycats. So we chose to stand for something better.

🇺🇸 And Still, We’re Likely Done

By the end of this year, we may close up shop—and it’s heartbreaking.

When we started selling on Amazon, they took 15% of every sale. Today, it’s often over 50% when you add up referral fees, FBA fees, return fees, shipping placement fees, long-term storage fees, AWD fees, and PPC advertising, which has long been a requirement just to be seen—unless you’re driving massive off-Amazon traffic or happen to be an established brand.

According to the FTC’s 2023 antitrust lawsuit, many sellers are now forced to give up nearly half their revenue to Amazon—and that aligns with what I hear daily in seller forums and my own network.

Amazon buries these fees deep in Seller Central, making it nearly impossible to see your true margin. Meanwhile, Chinese sellers are favored, because their rock-bottom pricing helps Amazon win its bigger battle: against Walmart and Target.

Even Mark Cuban — billionaire investor and Shark Tank star — has publicly criticized Amazon’s seller fees, calling them 'insane and unsustainable,' and warning founders not to rely too heavily on the platform. He’s right.

We're now frantically trying to rebuild our brand off-Amazon, but it’s probably too little, too late. We're doing everything we can, but Amazon trained customers to expect cheap, fast, and familiar—things that don't pair well with ethical sourcing and sustainable pricing.

And with crippling tariffs—26% on Indian goods (where we source) and 125% on Chinese imports—the numbers no longer make sense for brands trying to do the right thing.

We can’t imagine what it’s like for small U.S. sellers still producing in China. We don’t blame them. We feel for them. They’re just trying to stay alive inside a system that stopped working.

Just to Be Clear

And for the record—this is not a “pro-tariff,” anti-China, MAGA rant. I'm not a Trump supporter, and I don’t align with that worldview. This isn’t about nationalism. This isn’t about politics.

This is about a system—Amazon’s system—that is structured to reward manipulation, punish transparency, and crush small brands that try to do things the right way. It's about a platform that incentivizes price over principle and lets real companies with real values get run off the field.

I’m not angry at Chinese sellers for doing what works. I’m angry that Amazon built a system where cutting corners is rewarded—and building something honest isn’t.

Why I’m Sharing This

Not for sympathy—but to say the quiet part out loud.

Amazon let us build a brand. But once we did?

• It didn’t protect us.
• It didn’t reward us.
• It didn’t care if we were replaced.

And here’s what stings even more:
It didn’t protect the customer either.

Amazon claims to be the most customer-centric company in the world. But the system it created—one that buries real brands, rewards manipulation, and floods categories with lookalikes—doesn’t serve the customer at all.

It hurts them.

It denies them the chance to discover better brands. Better products. Better values. It favors the cheapest option with the most reviews, regardless of how they got there. And in doing so, it pushes brands like ours completely out of view.

And Finally

I also want to thank a few people I’ve learned from over the years—people who’ve helped me compete smarter, stay in the fight longer, and try every ethical strategy available in a game that rarely rewards playing fair.

Mina Elias, Steven Pope, Destaney Wishon, Kevin King, Kevin Sanderson, Bradley Sutton, Dr. Travis Zigler, Ritu Java, EcomCrew, Brian Johnson, Adam Runquist, and Jon Derkits—thank you.

As Steven Pope puts it: “It’s all of us against Amazon.” He’s not wrong. At times, it feels like the only way to win is to stop playing.

🎁 One Last Thing

I said earlier that I’m done with Amazon. I am. I’ve lost—for now.

But if I’m lucky, maybe in 10 years I’ll get a class action lawsuit check in the mail.
Something like: “Dear seller, enclosed is your $68.32 settlement for a decade of platform abuse.”

I’ll take it.

Ken Jones
Co-Owner, Kishu Baby
Down, but not done.