There are malls, markets, things like that. These are just the front end for the customers to buy things, the retailer.
As you said there are centralisation behind. Either through the same company managing all those different malls, or through Wholesalers working in the background selling to a lot of retailers.
I don’t know about the privacy in UK, but privacy on Lemmy is… Pretty much inexistent.
Tho maybe the email Adresses could maybe be stored privately somehow.
My instance compuverse.uk runs most of the time. Tho the servers are not giant, and there was already an issue where the storage filled up completely before an upgrade had to be made.
Tho now it would be running on a separate storage dedicated server which may allow for more storage.
Also the rules on this instance makes it pretty much compatible with every other instance and so would avoid the defederation by other instances. (please just don’t put porn or gore in the all).
And the WiFi router has to not be configured as a bridge device. It has to be it’s own DHCP provider.
Not entirely true for LCD. Some LCD displays have zones. And each zone with it’s back-light.
If a zone is completely dark (not grey or without even a single white pixel), the back-light will shut off.
However on phones, it is mostly a single zone.
Amazon is as you said extremely efficient on their warehouse and shipping because of their centralization and size. They can build extremely expensive warehouse to keep being efficient and surpass the competition.
There would maybe be possible to get an “enhanced” activity pub in order to protect privacy and financial informations. There is already something similar but without activity pub : a multitude of website where it is possible to buy things.
But there still needs to be some centralization, either through the postal service for small companies, or through centralised warehouse companies, with spzcialized equipments. And both of these things are already in place.
However if the OP wants a decentralized Amazon like efficiency, it won’t happen. The costs will increase and it will take more time, because the way the shipment will work will heavily depend on the seller.