> There are zero sellers I want a relationship with on Amazon.

I understand. If we are talking about the 350 FBA sellers listing the same avocado peeler they all get from the same factory in China and private label under 350 different brands. Yeah. Could not agree more.

However, there are categories and products where you probably do want a relationship with the seller. Health and beauty products comes to mind as a potentially obvious one. For example, if there are recalls or any important notices pertaining to the products you bought, you would be well served to be on their email list. In addition to this, it is common practice to offer customers discounts for recurring business. This benefits everyone, the buyer gets the same product for less and the seller creates a subscription-based cashflow stream. Everyone wins.

If you look at it from the perspective of the typical mercenary FBA seller who took a $1,000 course to learn how to sell on Amazon, yeah, again, could not agree more. However, there are tons of sellers who honestly want to build a solid, reputable, caring family business that delivers good products. Most of these people work very hard --much harder than they did when they had a 9 to 5 job-- and it can take years before they turn enough of a profit to pay themselves a decent salary. I would caution anyone from seeing all FBA sellers through the same lens, that would not be an accurate assessment.

While I do understand your take, I'm not sure it's a net positive for consumers. Marketing to previous customers is a very effective marketing strategy. If you prevent that, small companies are losing one of the few ways they can compete with bigger operations. Otherwise they have to keep buying ads on Google and Amazon..

Yes, most mail from retailers is spam. But for a handful of small retailers I actually like their newsletters, because they remind me that they exist, so I remember them next time I order something.