There's a growing issue in modern retail that we believe deserves much more attention: the shift towards direct-to-consumer sales, and the impact this is having on independent businesses, competition and employment.

At Itemdrop, we've spent years adapting to a changing market. We've diversified our ranges, invested in our website and continued to grow. But there's a difference between adapting to change and being progressively shut out of the opportunities available to larger businesses.

Some manufacturers and wholesalers sell directly to customers through Amazon, eBay and other marketplace platforms, while restricting the independent retailers they supply from selling those same products on those marketplaces.

We invest in the stock, premises and staff. We help customers discover products, answer questions and build demand. Yet we can be prevented from completing sales through the same channels our suppliers use themselves.

We believe these restrictions deserve much greater scrutiny from a competition perspective. But the issue goes further than marketplace rules.

What is the long-term future of an economy in which businesses increasingly try to eliminate the third parties that help it function?

Think about the video game industry. Our video game department has been an important part of Itemdrop, but the move towards digital-only distribution threatens the role of independent physical retailers. If console manufacturers increasingly control the entire route from game creation to the customer's console, independent retailers lose the ability to participate in that market.

The same wider trend is visible elsewhere. Manufacturers increasingly sell directly to consumers. Large platforms centralise sales and distribution. Technology allows businesses to handle enormous volumes of transactions with relatively few employees.

From the perspective of an individual company, these changes may make commercial sense. But what happens when we look at the economy as a whole?

Independent retailers, distributors and other third parties aren't simply unnecessary middlemen. They employ people, create opportunities for smaller businesses, introduce customers to products and allow companies to specialise in what they do best.

Not everyone can afford to manufacture their own products, develop a brand or build a direct-to-consumer operation. Nor should everyone have to. Trade works because businesses can specialise and sell to one another.

If that network is progressively dismantled, commercial activity may become concentrated in fewer, larger businesses. Those businesses can generate enormous revenues without necessarily creating employment on the same scale as the wider network they replace.

And that brings us to a fundamental question.

If fewer people are employed, and more economic value is concentrated in fewer hands, who will have the money to buy the products those businesses are selling?

Consumers aren't just customers. They're also workers, and their ability to spend depends on having an income. An economy cannot thrive indefinitely by treating employment solely as a cost to eliminate while treating consumer spending as something that will always take care of itself.

Efficiency and innovation are valuable. Digital distribution has genuine benefits, and businesses should be free to develop new ways of operating. But we should also be asking what kind of economy these changes are creating, who benefits from them, and what happens to the people and businesses left behind.

We believe third parties have a vital role in a healthy economy. Independent retailers, wholesalers and distributors create jobs, provide choice, spread commercial opportunity and help keep markets open to businesses that could never compete with the largest platforms on their own.

We're not asking to be protected from change or competition. We're asking for a fair opportunity to participate in the market, rather than having our opportunities restricted by the very businesses we depend on.

We've written more about the marketplace restrictions facing independent retailers, why we believe they raise serious competition concerns, and why we think this issue deserves wider attention.

Because this isn't just about one shop, one industry or one sales channel. It's about the future of independent business, the distribution of economic opportunity and the role that ordinary working people will have in the economy of tomorrow.