Tushy finds little sales cannibalization between its DTC site and Amazon because they serve different customer archetypes. Instead of forcing an 'Amazon shopper' to a .com site, brands should meet them where they are, focusing on mental and physical availability across all relevant channels.

Referencing the failure of bookstores against Amazon, iCapital's CEO argues that hoping a new technology wave will pass is not a strategy. Incumbents must adopt new technologies, even if it forces a difficult change to their business model and compresses margins, to avoid extinction.

Major retailers often dislike when a single large company, like Zen in nicotine, dominates a category. This gives the incumbent too much leverage on pricing and placement. Consequently, retailers are often receptive to new, high-potential brands that can introduce competition and shift the power dynamic back in their favor.

B&N's CEO argues that in bookselling, qualitative judgment is superior to quantitative data for creating an inspiring store. Data might show board books sell well, but over-allocating space to them creates a poor customer experience. True curation involves making judgments that sometimes run counter to the data.

Citing Jeff Bezos, a more effective business strategy is to identify and serve fundamental, unchanging human needs—like the desire to be informed and entertained. This provides a stable foundation, whereas constantly reacting to the latest technological change is a less reliable approach.

For his second book, author Ramli John drove 77% of sales directly, bypassing Amazon. While Amazon offers volume, direct sales provide higher margins and, more importantly, invaluable customer data (like emails) that enables direct communication, feedback loops, and long-term community building.

Jane's strategy avoids direct competition with Amazon by digitizing existing brick-and-mortar retail inventory. This creates an "Amazon-like" online experience for consumers but funnels value back into local economies, a model applicable to groceries, alcohol, and other regulated goods.

Instead of competing on commodity products, Shopify aimed to create a 'monopoly on all products that are actually interesting.' This strategy focused on empowering creators of unique goods, disintermediating Amazon's dominance.

When Adobe Acrobat made his document software obsolete, Jim McKelvey pivoted. He started charging his competitors to include their marketing materials on a trade show CD-ROM, turning a failing software company into a profitable publishing service.