Amazon’s appeal is not mysterious. One account, a vast catalogue and familiar delivery arrangements remove much of the work from online shopping. The difficulty is that convenience can become dependence before you have considered where your money goes, how much choice remains outside the platform, or how easily you could leave.
Reducing that dependence does not require finding a single ethical retailer capable of replacing Amazon item for item. No obvious substitute has the same combination of books, clothes, groceries, electronics and digital services—and recreating Amazon under another logo would not necessarily address concerns about concentrated retail power.
A more practical approach is to replace Amazon by task. Buy books through a bookshop or library, look for refurbished technology, use specialist retailers where their standards are clearer, and keep secondhand purchasing in the mix. This may mean maintaining a few more accounts or accepting less uniform delivery. In return, you can direct spending toward smaller retailers, charities and businesses built around more specific social or environmental commitments.
The recommendations below are drawn from Ethical Consumer’s October 2025 guide. They should be treated as a starting point rather than a permanent ranking: policies, ownership and product ranges can change, and the source does not provide enough information to compare prices, delivery performance or long-term reliability across every retailer named.
Start with the purchase, not the platform
“Shop somewhere other than Amazon” is too broad to be useful at the checkout. A better question is what job the purchase needs to do.
Before opening a retailer’s app or website, decide:
- whether you need the item at all;
- whether you can borrow, repair or buy it used;
- whether a local shop can supply it;
- whether a specialist retailer offers a meaningfully better option;
- what delivery time and returns support you actually require;
- whether the product will tie you to a particular account, file format or subscription.
This order matters. Replacing a new Amazon purchase with the same new product from another marketplace may change the seller without reducing manufacturing, packaging or disposal. For clothing, books and tablets in particular, buying used—or keeping what you have—can be the more consequential choice.
Nor does every order need to carry the full weight of your values. An ethical shopping strategy that is too cumbersome to sustain will probably collapse back into habit. Concentrate first on categories you buy frequently or those where credible alternatives are already easy to find.
Books: the clearest place to begin
Amazon began as a bookseller, but books are also one of the simplest categories in which to shop elsewhere.
The source article says Amazon accounts for more than half of UK print-book sales. It also reports that the number of independent bookshops in the UK and Ireland has almost halved since 1995, while noting a more recent recovery in the UK, where the total has reached its highest level since 2013. These figures are not accompanied by original datasets in the supplied material, so they establish the broad market context rather than a basis for precise comparison.
Use a library or local bookshop first
A library is the strongest no-purchase option when you want access rather than ownership. For books you intend to keep or give away, a local independent bookshop offers a relatively direct way to support bookselling outside the largest platforms. The Booksellers Association maintains a search tool for finding independent shops, according to the source.
Local buying can involve trade-offs. Stock may be narrower, ordering may take longer and opening hours may be less convenient than round-the-clock online retail. On the other hand, a shop may be able to order the title you want, and buying locally avoids creating another retail account.
Online services that support independent bookselling
Where an online order is more practical, the source recommends:
- Bookshop.org
- Hive
Both offer mechanisms through which a small payment can go to independent bookshops. Before ordering, check how the current scheme works, whether you can choose the beneficiary and whether the delivery and returns arrangements suit you.
Other options named in the source include:
- Better World Books
- Biblio
- World of Books
- Oxfam Bookshops, particularly for secondhand books
- ebooks.com for ebooks
- xigxag for ebooks and audio
These services do not all perform the same role. Biblio is not interchangeable with a local charity shop, and an ebook purchase is not equivalent to owning a printed book. For digital editions, check format compatibility and whether your purchase can be read outside the seller’s app or ecosystem. The practical ethical question includes not only who receives the money, but what control you retain afterward.
General shopping: accept a smaller, more deliberate basket
The hardest Amazon habit to replace is the miscellaneous order: stationery, cosmetics, jewellery, food and a gift added to one basket. A specialist ethical retailer may cover some of these categories, but it is unlikely to match Amazon’s breadth.
The source recommends Ethical Shop and Shared Earth for products including gifts, cosmetics, jewellery and food. It presents them as more ethically oriented options, but the supplied article does not set out a current category-by-category assessment of their labour standards, environmental performance, prices or delivery policies. Treat the recommendation as a shortlist to investigate, not a blanket guarantee covering every product sold.
A sensible check takes only a few minutes:
- Identify the seller. On any marketplace, establish whether you are buying from the platform itself or a third party.
- Read the returns terms. A retailer’s values do not remove the need for workable support when an item is unsuitable or faulty.
- Look at the product, not only the shop. A retailer with an ethical positioning may still stock goods with varied materials, origins and durability.
- Combine orders where practical. Fragmenting one basket across several shops can add delivery charges and packaging.
- Keep the exit easy. Avoid subscriptions or account commitments unless they solve a recurring need.
The source notes that eBay is Amazon’s largest competitor but also criticises its record on ethical issues. More importantly, a move from one enormous general marketplace to another does not by itself answer questions about the individual seller, product or supply chain. Marketplaces can still be useful for used goods, but the condition, seller identity, returns process and buyer protection need separate attention.
Clothing: secondhand before specialist new
Amazon sells clothing, but the source assesses it poorly on supply-chain worker protections and carbon-reduction commitments. The wider clothing sector offers many alternatives, although labels such as “ethical” and “sustainable” still need to be translated into specific practices.
The source highlights:
- Patagonia, which it says uses organic cotton and is working on issues including plastic pollution;
- THTC;
- Brothers We Stand.
It describes the latter two as specialist brands that put fair pay and environmental practices at the centre of their business models. The underlying material does not provide garment-level evidence, current pricing or a complete account of each company’s supply chain, so verify the claims relevant to the item you are considering.
More fundamentally, changing brands does not eliminate the material cost of making new clothing. The source’s preferred option is secondhand, alongside repair and upcycling. That leads to a useful order of decisions:
- Keep and repair what fits the task.
- Alter or repurpose an existing garment.
- Buy secondhand through a charity shop or resale channel.
- If buying new, choose a specialist retailer whose practices you can inspect.
Durability should remain part of the calculation. A garment that meets a stated material standard but wears out quickly is not necessarily the better long-term purchase. Care requirements, repairability and how often you expect to wear it matter too.
Tablets and e-readers: escaping one ecosystem takes planning
Hardware is more complicated because the device, store, file formats and account can be intertwined. Replacing an Amazon tablet or e-reader is therefore not only a matter of choosing another manufacturer.
The source recommends buying a secondhand or refurbished tablet where possible. For new tablets, it identifies Acer, ASUS, HMD and Nokia as companies that score comparatively well in its assessment. That is not the same as evidence that every model from those brands is durable, repairable or suitable for a particular workload.
Before switching, check:
- whether the device supports the apps and file formats you already use;
- whether books, documents or media can be transferred;
- how long security updates are promised for the exact model;
- whether batteries and screens can be repaired;
- what warranty and returns arrangements apply to refurbished stock;
- whether accessories you own remain compatible.
The supplied source does not provide model-specific support periods, repair scores or independent performance tests. Those details should decide the purchase, not a brand-level ethical recommendation alone.
If your existing device still works, keeping it may be preferable to buying a nominally better alternative. For a failing device, compare repair with refurbished replacement before buying new. An ethical switch that strands a functioning library of content or forces premature hardware replacement deserves particular scrutiny.
Food: local and specialist options come with logistical costs
The source says Amazon is closing its Amazon Fresh high-street shops while planning greater involvement in online groceries through Whole Foods Market. It recommends looking at conventional supermarkets and specialist online food shops instead, with attention to animal welfare, workers’ rights, palm oil, food waste, packaging, taxation and climate policy.
No individual grocery retailer is recommended in the supplied text, so there is not enough evidence here to name a universal alternative. Food shopping also exposes the limits of one-dimensional rankings. A specialist online shop may have stronger policies in one area but higher delivery charges, a limited range or packaging that does not fit your priorities.
The useful comparison is your actual basket:
- Can a local grocer, market or cooperative cover regular staples?
- Is a delivery service practical without encouraging over-ordering?
- Are substitutions clearly controlled?
- How much packaging arrives?
- Will delivery fees or minimum orders make the arrangement unsustainable for your household?
- Can occasional specialist orders complement, rather than replace, a workable local routine?
For many people, the realistic answer will be a mixture rather than a single “ethical supermarket.”
Gift vouchers: convenience with an expiry and an ecosystem
Amazon vouchers are convenient because recipients can choose from an enormous catalogue. The source notes that several recommended bookshops and online retailers issue their own gift vouchers.
A more targeted voucher can direct money toward an independent shop or specialist seller, but it also narrows the recipient’s options. Check the expiry date, geographic restrictions, delivery charges, refund rules and whether the recipient genuinely uses that retailer. Cash, a direct gift or a voucher for a local shop may offer a cleaner exit than credit trapped in an unfamiliar account.
This is particularly important for workplace rewards and survey incentives, where the buyer’s administrative convenience can become the recipient’s limitation.
Digital services need their own exit plan
Amazon’s reach extends beyond parcels into video, music, ebooks, cloud services and delivery infrastructure. The source points readers toward alternatives in TV streaming, digital music and delivery, but does not name or assess specific services in the supplied article.
The same task-by-task method still applies. List the Amazon services attached to your account, then record:
- what you pay for;
- what is bundled with Prime;
- what purchased media or files you might lose access to;
- which devices depend on the service;
- whether family members use shared benefits;
- what must be downloaded, transferred or replaced before cancellation.
Cancelling a membership before mapping these dependencies can create avoidable friction. Conversely, a bundle may look economical only because it encourages you to treat services you rarely use as free. Assess each component separately.
Why shoppers may want to reduce their reliance
The source’s case against Amazon includes alleged unsafe working conditions, criticism of its relationships with fossil-fuel companies, concerns about market power, and tax practices it characterises as avoidance. Ethical Consumer says its own research estimated that Amazon’s tax avoidance may have cost the UK public purse around £433 million in 2023. The supplied material does not include the calculation or underlying tax documents, so that estimate should not be treated as independently verified here.
The article also says campaign groups are boycotting Amazon over the role of Amazon Web Services in relation to Israel’s war in Gaza. This is a serious and contested area, and the supplied source does not provide the documentation required to assess the precise services, contracts or causal claims involved. Readers for whom this is a deciding factor should examine the campaign groups’ evidence and Amazon’s response directly.
You need not resolve every allegation to reconsider concentrated dependence on one company. The narrower consumer concern is straightforward: when shopping, media, reading and household services accumulate under a single account, leaving becomes harder. That lock-in is not automatically disqualifying—bundles can be genuinely useful—but it should be visible.
A workable way to shop less through Amazon
Trying to replace everything at once creates unnecessary work. Begin with one category where the alternatives are already credible.
For books: use the library, a local independent shop, Bookshop.org, Hive or a secondhand seller.
For clothes: repair first, look secondhand, then consider a specialist brand.
For tablets: keep the current device if it remains supported; otherwise compare repair, refurbished models and model-specific update policies.
For general purchases: use specialist retailers when their range fits, while checking product-level claims and returns.
For gifts: choose a voucher only when the recipient will value the narrower choice.
For digital services: inventory your files, devices and subscriptions before cancelling.
The aim is not consumer purity. It is to replace an automatic habit with a set of choices you can understand and reverse. Amazon may remain the practical option for a particular item, deadline or accessibility need. But once books, clothes, technology and entertainment are considered separately, its apparent indispensability often becomes a series of smaller decisions—and those are much easier to change.
Sources & methodology
This guide is a source-based rewrite of Clare Carlile’s article “Ethical alternatives to Amazon,” published by Ethical Consumer on 31 October 2025. It uses only companies, statistics and claims included in the supplied source article.
No hands-on product or retailer testing was provided. The source refers to Ethical Consumer’s wider shopping guides and ratings, but their underlying tables, scoring methods, original datasets and URLs were not included. Consequently, this article does not reproduce rankings or present the named retailers as universally superior. Prices, delivery performance, current ownership, product availability, repairability and model-specific software support should be checked before purchase.
