>The sale wouldn't exist without anyone in the pipeline (Amazon, manufacturer in China, shipping merchant, etc.)

I think it's actually worse than that. The merchant is the only party that is not needed.

In fact, calling a lot of these folks "merchants" at this point is probably a little too generous. Amazon is the merchant. Many of these other guys are sourcing and marketing "partners" for Amazon and the manufacturers.

Yes -- They even ship the products directly from China to Amazon, who handles all the logistics of importing.

https://www.sellerapp.com/blog/how-to-get-your-shipments-fro...