Third-party sellers and Amazon - a double-edged sword in e-commerce

Amazon Marketplace allows smaller businesses access to millions of shoppers but some question whether the benefits outweigh the costs

As the "everything store", it was never going to stop at books. Founded by Jeff Bezos with the aim of being the one-stop shop for the world, Amazon now sells 120m different items.

Alongside the stacks of paperbacks in its warehouses are CDs, DVDs, TVs, iPads, iPods, toys, clothing - but also the less obvious: jewellery, washing machines, garden furniture, windscreen wipers, bonsai trees, doubles basses, boomerangs, pet headstones, inflatable walking sticks, a One Direction onesie.