Today’s e-commerce is characterized by the dominance of large online retail companies like Amazon, Alibaba, Wayfair, eBay, and others. With Amazon holding over 40 percent of the US online retail, it remains the principal sales channel for small- to medium-size sellers. By virtue of their market share, Amazon and the like own their customers taking a disproportionately high cut of the sales price and imposing their rules. The inequitable treatment results in opportunity costs for sellers.
Realizing it was time to bring justice and more equitable terms to online trade, Aharon Bernal, an active seller on the Amazon marketplace and an avid proponent of blockchain technology, created Safex.Market, a viable e-commerce alternative for small businesses. The fact that Safex.Market is based on blockchain makes it unique; it is able to offer its participants terms that are more benefiсial than those offered by large marketplaces. Moreover, the platform solely uses its own cryptocurrency SafeXcash ($SFX), based on two coins: Safex Cash —the minable currency used for shopping, and Safex Token—used for revenue sharing. By relying on proprietary cryptocurrency and the impenetrable blockchain, Bernal will ensure privacy and speed of transactions. He has set himself a goal to become one of the largest online marketplaces and englobe up to one hundred countries. With this in mind, by the end of 2022, he expects his platform’s turnover to reach $100 million.
Seeing his mission in “giving buyers the opportunity to support and engage with a small business,..creating a healthier transaction that facilitates trust and relationship between buyers and sellers as well as independence for sellers,” Bernal and his partners have given sellers a fair chance to compete with one another on the platform while growing their business in a more competitive and equitable environment. While Amazon, according to Bernal, often tends to please the customer at the seller’s expense, his Safex.Market is equally beneficial for both sides of the transaction.
Bernal is upending the world of e-commerce by bringing an ethical approach to online retail while creating a viable alternative to the established monopolistic online market structures.