Any increase in profit margins from the 2% to 4% range is due to AWS, and earning the commission from resellers (the actual retailers) as a platform.
There really is not much left to juice in the business of getting detergent from Procter and Gamble to an end user.
Possibly, but P&G is big enough to have all its own in house production. One place this CAN really hit is any smaller market or company that's using contract manufacturing for smaller lots. In that area the information Amazon can get is actually better than any of the brands or sellers get because Amazon gets sales info across multiple brands /sellers.
The internet has enabled the smaller company to have access to customers worldwide without the use of any large retailer. The situation has never been better for smaller retail companies, assuming they can differentiate and protect their IP.
Obviously they are going to get killed going up against Amazon, Target, Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes, Best Buy, etc. But there is no avoiding economies of scale.
And is it not easier than ever for a competitor to start a retail business due to the internet? All you need is a website and UPS/FedEx/USPS. Seems like a bad business to get into if your goal is to earn a lot of profits by raising prices after cornering a market.