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Amazon announced on May 5, 2022, that it would stop offering Selz as a standalone e-commerce service. It said Selz merchants would receive 60 days’ notice, have associated monthly and annual service fees waived during the transition, and get help moving to another provider. Amazon also said Selz employees were not affected and were working on direct-to-consumer products, including Buy with Prime. The announcement did not give a firm final service date or explain exactly how merchant data would transfer.
What Amazon announced
Amazon’s decision was to discontinue Selz as a standalone service—not, based on the statement reported at the time, to end all work by the Selz team or abandon tools for independent merchants. Amazon said it had initially planned to continue supporting Selz customers, but after a review decided not to offer the product on its own. The company promised 60 days’ notice, waived associated monthly and annual service fees during the transition, and said it would facilitate merchants’ move to another provider. GeekWire reported the announcement on May 5, 2022.
The report did not identify a precise final shutdown date. A 60-day notice period is not enough to establish the date every account stopped working, so merchants should rely on their own Selz notice and records rather than assume a particular deadline.
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What Selz did—and why Amazon bought it
Founded in 2013, Selz was an Australian e-commerce software company for businesses selling through their own online stores and multiple sales channels. Its tools covered storefront creation and product and inventory management; sellers could use it for physical goods and digital products. It was a small, Shopify-adjacent platform, not simply a way to list products on Amazon.com. Running a Selz store meant operating an independent merchant storefront, with its own customers and sales channels.
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Amazon acquired Selz in January 2021. The purchase price and deal terms were not disclosed. At the time, Selz reportedly paused new sign-ups temporarily, while Amazon said existing merchants and their customers would see no immediate change. The acquisition was widely read as an effort to strengthen Amazon’s position in direct-to-consumer and multichannel commerce, but that interpretation should not be mistaken for a detailed statement of Amazon’s acquisition rationale. Retail Dive covered the acquisition and its Shopify context.
Why Buy with Prime matters—but was not a Selz replacement
Amazon introduced Buy with Prime in April 2022, shortly before the Selz shutdown report. The distinction is important:
- Selz helped a merchant build and operate an independent online store.
- Buy with Prime adds Amazon checkout and Prime-related shopping and delivery benefits to eligible products on a participating merchant’s existing website, with Amazon fulfillment services available under its terms.
- Amazon Marketplace puts a seller’s products inside Amazon’s central marketplace.
Buy with Prime is therefore not a complete storefront builder or a one-for-one Selz successor. Its current positioning is about bringing Prime shopping benefits, checkout, and fulfillment to participating merchants’ sites; eligibility and terms matter. See Amazon’s Buy with Prime information.
The timing and Amazon’s statement that Selz staff were working on direct-to-consumer stores and Buy with Prime point to a possible change in emphasis: rather than operate a general-purpose standalone storefront through Selz, Amazon could focus on providing checkout and logistics that plug into merchants’ existing stores. That is a strategic interpretation, not a confirmed account of Amazon’s internal review. The shutdown shows Amazon stopped offering Selz separately; it does not prove the company abandoned merchant services or that it reused all of Selz’s technology.
What former Selz merchants should check
Amazon’s reported promise to facilitate a transition did not spell out a complete migration process. It should not be read as a guarantee of one-click migration, full transfer of payment data, preserved design and URLs, or automatic movement of digital products, subscriptions, or order histories. A careful move starts with the merchant’s specific notice and payment-provider records.
- Save the business records you may need. Export product catalogs, customer and order records where available and permitted, tax and shipping information, and reports needed for accounting. Download original product images, store content, themes, and digital files.
- Make an inventory of dependencies. Record payment settings, shipping rules, tax settings, apps and integrations, subscription arrangements, recurring orders, automated emails, analytics, and advertising pixels. Confirm separately how open refunds, chargebacks, and payouts will be handled with the payment processor.
- Secure the domain and traffic path. Confirm domain ownership and DNS access. Map important product and category URLs to their new destinations, configure redirects where possible, and check metadata, canonical tags, sitemap, and search-console access. A live domain alone does not keep a storefront available.
- Plan for digital goods and subscriptions. Rebuild file delivery, license messages, and customer access before switching the store. Payment credentials are commonly held as processor tokens and may not be portable; recurring customers might have to re-enter payment details or subscribe again. Do not assume either type of data will transfer automatically.
- Test before cutover. Place a complete test order, verify payment, confirmation messages, shipping or download fulfillment, refund steps, and mobile checkout. Keep customer communications and consent records, and make sure the replacement platform’s privacy and marketing settings match your obligations.
These are prudent migration checks, not a claim that Selz supported every export or that Amazon promised each step. The original reporting did not establish Selz’s data-retention policy, exact migration mechanics, or how long account access remained available. For those details, consult the merchant’s notice, Selz support records if accessible, and the relevant payment processor.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Choosing a replacement: compare the whole cost and fit
There is no universal Selz replacement. Compare the products you sell, exportability, payment options, multichannel inventory needs, fulfillment economics, SEO continuity, and the time and technical support required to migrate. Treat the figures below as U.S. pricing-page signals observed August 16–18, 2026, not a quote: location, taxes, billing cycle, plan eligibility, and later price changes can affect the amount. Confirm the price and terms at checkout.
| Option | May fit when… | Costs and trade-offs to check |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify | You want a hosted, general-purpose storefront and broad app ecosystem without managing hosting infrastructure. | The U.S. pricing page showed Basic at $39 monthly or $29 per month with annual billing. Hosting and SSL are included. Payment processing, possible third-party transaction fees, and paid apps can add to the total. Check whether the plan and payment options suit your country and business. Shopify pricing. |
| BigCommerce | You need hosted commerce with built-in and multichannel capabilities and want to compare payment-provider options. | The U.S. pricing page showed Core at $39 monthly or $29 per month annually, Growth at $105 or $79, and Scale at $399 or $299; Performance had custom pricing starting at $1,499 billed annually. BigCommerce’s 2026 changes include plan and GMV thresholds and applicable open-payment-provider fees on self-serve plans. Model your sales volume and payment mix rather than relying on older claims about fees. Pricing and 2026 plan changes. |
| Buy with Prime | You already have an external storefront and want to evaluate Amazon checkout and fulfillment for eligible products. | It is a service layer, not a storefront replacement. Amazon’s pricing page lists a 3% Prime service fee per order, with a $0.30 minimum, plus fulfillment, payment-processing, and storage-related charges. Model these against your current payment, shipping, and third-party logistics costs, including product dimensions, storage time, and volume. Buy with Prime pricing. |
| WooCommerce or another self-hosted build | You have technical support and prioritize control over hosting, data, checkout, and payment providers. | Do not treat the software as a cost-free store. Hosting, security, backups, extensions, payment processing, development, and ongoing maintenance all affect cost. There is no single vendor checkout or verified all-in price to compare without choosing an implementation. |
Wix, Squarespace Commerce, Ecwid, and larger or headless commerce systems may also suit particular businesses, but their fit and costs depend on the store’s requirements. Compare current terms directly rather than assuming feature parity with Selz.
For a fair budget, add up more than the monthly subscription: payment and transaction fees, apps or extensions, themes, hosting, migration labor, fulfillment, storage, support, and the cost of maintaining redirects and customer service. A cheap plan can be expensive if it requires substantial custom work or makes essential data difficult to move.
What is known—and what is not
Amazon’s 2022 statement, as reported, established the standalone-service decision, 60 days’ notice, fee waivers during the transition, transition assistance, and the company’s statement that Selz employees were not affected. It did not disclose the acquisition price, Selz employee count, exact final service date, internal-review rationale, detailed data-retention or migration policy, or whether all Selz code and intellectual property were reused. Nor does the available reporting establish that Buy with Prime was designed as a direct replacement for Selz.
“Employees were not affected” describes Amazon’s statement about the decision at that time; it does not establish that every Selz employee stayed with Amazon indefinitely or that there were no later reorganizations. Likewise, Selz’s closure as a standalone platform is not proof that Amazon could not compete with Shopify or that it exited the market for independent-merchant tools. It is evidence of a narrower choice: Amazon discontinued this storefront service while continuing to develop other merchant-facing products.
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Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
