The FBA acquisition market thaws, rewarding growing brands over fixer-uppers
The Amazon FBA acquisition market has moved decisively past its aggregator boom and bust. Aggregators like Thrasio, Perch, and SellerX raised roughly $29 billion from 2020 to 2022, inflating valuations to record levels; by 2024 the market had contracted sharply, Thrasio was in bankruptcy, and new money raised had fallen to $4 billion in 2023.
A new industry report describes a bifurcated 2025 market. Growing businesses draw multiple offers and premium pricing, with the share of above-asking deals nearly doubling (up 93.5 percent) and below-asking deals falling from 42.42 to 22.22 percent. Declining businesses face lowball offers and complex financing. All-cash deals are rising, SBA financing is down 18.5 percent on high interest rates, and performance-based earn-outs are spreading. Total deal volume fell 18.2 percent, but deal quality improved, and due diligence is longer and stricter. The first half of 2025 is flagged as an optimal window to list a healthy business.
The turnaround potential of expert intervention was on display at a recent think tank: a $130 million Amazon brand with margins crashed to 4 percent flew its executives to an Austin mansion and, after two and a half hours with a curated expert group, reworked its entire business model.
A widely shared list of 30 business truths is also circulating, with themes tailored to premium positioning: solve problems for wealthy clients who are easier to serve, sell before you build, manage energy rather than time, keep systems simple because simple scales, let customers finance growth by paying upfront, delegate with a 10-80-10 rule of guidance, execution, and refinement, value results over hours, and fix processes before blaming people.
In other headlines, Best Buy plans to open a third-party marketplace this year, an investigation is exposing the Honey browser extension's influencer commission practices, and free customer returns are ending at many retailers. A thousand dollars invested in Amazon stock 20 years ago would be worth about $105,180 today.
