The End of BMTick on Amazon - The True Start of the Vapetrix

Well, it finally happened. After 12 years of selling BMTick products on Amazon, I have been shut down. I perhaps shouldn't be totally surprised, the products were borderline for the family friendly Amazon store for sure. But after 12 years, I must say it hit quite hard. 

There's also the logistical nightmare of removing 17,000 units of stock in UK and 28,000 units of stock in Germany. In fact the logistics is easy it's the raw cost in the tens of thousands that will hit hardest. But that's life, I suppose. 

I still have almost 9000 units in the UK despite processing 1000s and 1000s over the last week!

If you were a loyal BMTick customer, well, now you know where to find us! The same Arizer Solo screens, the same glass stems, the same everything - just direct from the source - cheaper, too! No middle man taking a cut, and supporting a small business all at the same time too, what a steal!

Just on a personal note, I've sold on Amazon since my early 20s, I'm now approaching my mid 30s. It has been a huuge part of my life. When people asked me what I did I would literally say "I sell on Amazon". End of conversation. It's sort of like working one job your whole life, one trade, then being fired from it. It did hurt, a little bit. 

Although I mainly felt surprise and shock, plus the realisation that BMTick's main income stream had no evaporated. That has turned to determination, mainly because it has to, that The Vapetrix will succeed. 

I haven't even had the time to touch Amazon DE yet!

It's a very different game. There's no built in audience. There's no 1 day shipping. There's no customer support that's handled for me. 

However, there is freedom. There is ingenuity. There are no 15% Amazon fees. There's no fear I can get shut down and my life 'ruined' just because some algo at Amazon says so. There's flexibility too. I can build, shape and mould my shop as I see fit. It's exciting, slightly worrying, and fun at the same time.

One big upside is not dealing with the endless shit-show which is dealing with Amazon. On shopify if I want to change a listing, I change the listing. On Amazon, even simple things become difficult tasks. Certainly dealing with the ever increasing regulations and burdens of dealing with EU red tape as I had to in Germany was a time sink. I was only spending around 20% of my time actually building The Vapetrix, simply because Amazon was swallowing up so much of my time and frustratingly, in non productive ways too. Sort of like an overly bureaucratic government that focuses on pointless processes over outcomes. 

So, on to bigger and better things! God I wish I had do this 10 years ago instead of learning how to play cat and mouse with Amazon!

Well, one other plus side is I won't need to pay to restock for awhile!