cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/40697282
This is mostly just word-vomit, but I had a random idea while doing a tonne of Xmas shopping and figured you guys might appreciate possibly chewing on it.
What if there potentially was a Fediverse-style alternative / competitor to Amazon Prime, etc. but instead of being one giant marketplace (a la Flohmarkt, etc.), it was made up of independent websites that federate together?
Think something architecturally similar to Lemmy, Mastodon, Peertube, Pixelfed, Loops by Pixelfed, etc, but:
No “instances” in the traditional sense (like Lemmy servers, Mastodon, instances, etc.)
Instead, each shop is its own fully independent website
(e.g.
Gotyka,
Dolls Kill,
Dracula Clothing,
VampireFreaks,
Killstar,
Hot Topic,
Barnes and Noble,
Home Depot,
Everlane,
Kotn,
Pact,
American Giant,
Taylor Stitch,
Outerknown,
plus other shops for books, electronics, home goods, etc.)
The federated layer wouldn’t replace their storefronts. It would just:
Aggregate listings / catalogs
Allow discovery, search, wishlists, maybe reviews
Potentially handle things like recommendations without centralizing power
Function kind of like a decentralized “market index” rather than a single store
In other words: a protocol + shared infrastructure, not a mega-store.
Some half-baked thoughts:
Users might sign in via each individual shop (or perhaps via a shared fediverse identity like ActivityPub / OAuth / something new)
Each store keeps control of branding, stock, payments, policies
The “platform” just connects them into one large, searchable, decentralized marketplace
No single Amazon-style choke point that can enshittify everything
I love this idea in theory, but realistically:
I don’t have the skills, knowledge, or time to build anything like this
I also don’t know if this already exists in some form (OpenBazaar vibes? Solid? Something ActivityPub-adjacent?)
This is more of a conceptual “what if” than a proposal
But the idea stuck with me because:
I hate how centralized Amazon is
I like how the Fediverse decentralizes control
And holiday shopping really highlights how fragmented yet monopolized online commerce has become
So I’m mostly curious:
Is this technically feasible with existing Fediverse tech?
Has something like this already been attempted?
What would be the biggest blockers — payments, trust, logistics, identity, incentives?
Would independent shops even want this, or would it be more attractive to smaller creators?
Is there a protocol or project adjacent to this idea?
This idea honestly came from Xmas shopping fatigue and bouncing between a million tabs, wishing there was a non-Amazon way to do “one stop shopping” without recreating Amazon itself.
Curious to hear thoughts, critiques, or “this already exists and you reinvented the wheel” responses.
Also, feel more than welcome to steal the idea.
EDIT:
Would something like Shops
https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/shops/5354
work?
The company I work for actually already tried it like 20 years ago, got immediately scammed with an expensive credit card chargeback (we’d already passed the money on) and the boss pulled the plug on it.
I think most shops don’t want you to see competitors prices and be able to swap to them with a click. They were like walled gardens and only begrudgingly use Amazon because some people think the rest of the internet is scary and don’t trust it.
Amazon already shows us where that approach goes. It results in a melting pot of the cheapest possible crap.
What about potentially using something like CrowdBucks for payments?
There’s apparently also Shops
https://socialhub.activitypub.rocks/t/shops/5354
I work for a pretty big company and we have our own versions of popular services. And things fail all the time. Last year, we couldnt accept money for a few hours and lost millions. Our POS went down and same.
One of the initiatives this year was for better reliability, and one solution was to use the big monopoly services. And damn it, it works and they never go down. (Or if they do, our services still work)