I've been selling handmade pottery on Etsy for three years, and last month my sales dropped 30% after a new competitor undercut my prices by half. Is it still possible for small sellers to thrive on big ecommerce platforms like Amazon and Etsy, or do these marketplaces inevitably favor whoever can afford the cheapest production and best ads? I've seen some sellers succeed by building their own email lists, but that takes time and technical skills most artisans don't have. Maybe the real question is whether niche products with loyal followings can survive algorithm changes, or if we're all just renting customers from these platforms until they decide to squeeze us out.