E-commerce founder, once earning Rs 20 lakh a day, reveals how he lost business to Amazon

An e-commerce founder, who claimed to have been making Rs 20 lakh a day, allegedly had to shut down the business within a few years because of Amazon. The founder, in an anonymous post, shared the story on social media platform Grapevine. The post was then shared by Grapevine founder Saumil Tripathi on social media platform X.

In the post, the e-commerce founder wrote, "I went from selling Rs 20L of products per day to watching my generational-wealth dream crumble under Amazon."

The founder's home organisers business claimed to be the leader on Amazon and Flipkart – raking in nearly ₹20 lakhs in daily revenue at its peak.



"Today, that business is practically gone, undone by Amazon’s move into private labels. I’m not broke or working a 9–5, but the potential for creating true generational wealth was ripped out from under me before it could fully materialise. This is my cautionary tale," the founder said.

How the home organiser brand began

In 2017, the entrepreneur found that home products were selling at high prices on Amazon India while looking for budget-friendly storage ideas for his apartment.

"I took a leap of faith and spent about Rs 2.5 lakhs to buy 300 products and sold them for Rs 300-500. To my shock, all 300 sold out in roughly 50 hours. Immediately, I reinvested to triple my inventory with about Rs 7.5 lakhs. Same story – sold out fast," the e-commerce founder said.

Within two months, the man was making nearly Rs 20 lakhs a day in revenue across Amazon and Flipkart. "My margins hovered between 15%–25%, which meant I was netting anywhere between ₹3–5 lakhs profit a day. It felt surreal," he wrote.

An offer from Amazon

The businessman said his sudden rise was noticed by Amazon and he was soon given the perks of "top seller" and dedicated account managers offering marketing suggestions.

With this help, he expanded and bought more products to sell. He even travelled to China to make direct deals with manufacturers. Soon after Amazon made an offer to acquire his brand to accompany their in-house brand Solimo.


The entrepreneur said the buyout offer was massive but he turned it down as he felt he was "unstoppable", raking in crores of rupees as monthly revenue.

It all went downhill

A few months later, he said Amazon's Solimo became a direct competitor selling similar products but even cheaper. His daily revenue fell and the storage fees for his large supply of products now became burden. He ended up selling his products at near-cost rate.

"I'm not destitute by any means - I still have personal savings and assets from the peak times. But the potential to scale this brand into a business that could have taken care of me and my family for decades disappeared. The point is, I'm no longer on the cusp of building a long-lasting empire. When you've tasted that kind of success - flying to China, spending a lakh or two on just new samples, dealing in crores - it's a massive adjustment to realize you're back in "planning mode," he said.