Bad news travels fast. Thus, the news about Amazon Webstore closure has flown around the world with speed of light. Started in the early 2010s, Amazon’s e-Commerce solution was a promising shopping cart with an online retailer #1 backing it up. However, if there’s one area where Amazon wasn’t acting with flying colors, it was providing an e-Commerce platform for others.
Amazon Webstore was intended to become a perfect solution for small/middle-size businesses. For $79 a month + sales charges, typically between 2.1% and 2.9%, merchants were offered to create a “quick to design, simple to build and easy to manage full-featured e-Commerce store using Amazon’s technology”.
Apparently, Amazon couldn’t create an appealing product for e-retailers. During its operational years, it gathered only a limited number of active users, while Shopify and BigCommerce alternatives attracted hundreds of thousands.
In addition to that, many users reported less-than-positive experiences of platform’s usage. According to its clients, Amazon Webstore had been way too “amazonish”, expensive and a bit functionally outdated. The result of such a state of affairs became evident by late 2015, with a notice on its official website announcing its closure:
Consequently, following its launch, Amazon canceled the possibility to create new stores and suggested companies to consider moving their businesses elsewhere. Hence, the massive migration from Amazon Webstore has begun. Understanding the challenges and opportunities of such a move is crucial for a successful e-commerce re-platforming.
The Reasons of Amazon Webstore Closing
Generally, the fact of Amazon Webstore failure could be referred to 3 reasons: “amazonishness”, lack of innovations and price.
Amazonishness. Amazon Webstore was way too much connected to the Internet retail giant - the flow, the structure, the user experience and the checkout process were easily recognizable as “amazonish”. On theory, Amazon branding should gain credibility to the store. Instead, it’s been stealing customers. And though Webstore users could maintain the presence of their own brand on the website, the parental logo was always nearby. As a result, customers often decided to buy directly from Amazon instead.
Lack of innovations. Having a robust set of features at its inception, Amazon Webstore, unfortunately, did very little to expand its possibilities over time. Whilst its nearest competitors were actively developing and building more and more compelling features, Amazon just couldn’t compete. Thereby, in recent times Amazon Webstore was often accused of being cumbersome and functionally out-dated, which caused even higher rate of users outflow. This highlights the importance of choosing a platform that continuously evolves and offers what builds a perfect shopping cart, considering the potential benefits of a website migration.
Price. First of all, $79 a month was hardly a competitive price, considering that leading platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce typically offer plans starting around $39 (as well as more extensive options). Secondly, the 2.1% - 2.9% sales charge, which required a tribute to Amazon for EVERY single transaction, made things even worse. Logically, expenses would grow with sales. But was it worth it?
Where to Migrate from Amazon Webstore?
Since the Amazon Webstore shutdown was inevitable, and users are actively seeking appealing platforms for migration, we prepared a list of Top Amazon Webstore Alternatives. Having all main criterias considered, including integration with FBA and Amazon Payments, it’ll become a handy migration guide for every owner of Amazon Webstore. Also, you may take a look at a detailed Amazon Webstore infographic where we compare basic features of 4 most probable alternative shopping carts.
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Migrate nowMeans of Amazon Webstore Migration
When an alternative shopping cart is chosen, it’s time to decide upon the way of migration: manual or automated. The first one would be a good choice for small stores with no more than 50 products. Otherwise, we’d recommend to consider performing automated migration. Unlike manual migration, automated data transfer is paid, however its more reliable and enables to move any quantity of products and other entities in terms of a several hours or less. Our service offers the possibility to migrate from Amazon Webstore to over 250 of the world’s most popular platforms -- and switch from Amazon Webstore to Magento, for example -- with no technical skills required. If hesitate, try out how everything works and perform a free Demo Migration, and learn how to check the results, moving a limited number of products in 10 minutes of time.
Monthly Update – November 2025
As we navigate November 2025, a key trend for e-commerce store owners is the increasing emphasis on headless commerce architectures and composable solutions. Traditional monolithic platforms, while robust, can often limit flexibility and speed to market. Headless commerce, by decoupling the front-end presentation layer from the back-end commerce engine, empowers businesses to deliver highly customized and lightning-fast customer experiences across various touchpoints – web, mobile apps, IoT devices, and even emerging virtual reality shopping environments. This architectural shift allows for greater agility in adopting new technologies and design innovations without disrupting core operations. Furthermore, the rise of composable commerce means businesses can select best-of-breed services (like separate content management, payment, and search functionalities) and integrate them seamlessly, creating a tailored ecosystem that perfectly fits their unique needs. For merchants planning a migration or seeking to optimize their current setup, evaluating the potential of a headless or composable approach is crucial for future scalability and competitive advantage. This strategy minimizes vendor lock-in and fosters a more adaptable e-commerce infrastructure, ready for tomorrow’s challenges.
For more details, explore our FAQ section or schedule a call with a migration expert.
Comment by Douglas Klein
We need to put Amazon out of business for good. Because it’s all Amazon fraught to put all the retailer stores out of business. we need all of the retailer stores stay open.
Comment by Iryna Namaka
Hello Douglas,
Thank you for your opinion. eCommerce is all about competition and dealing with such giants is a daunting task, indeed. Yet we are pretty sure that with the robust shopping carts online merchants will be able to reach the real success.
Waiting to hear more from you!