Amazon has started telling online merchants that it plans to shut down its Amazon Webstore business, which helps small and midsize retailers create and run their own online shop, according to sources. Amazon is giving its Webstore customers more than a year to find a new vendor before it kills off the service, these people said.

The news has also started to spread on message boards for Amazon sellers. It’s not clear why Amazon has made the decision to shut down this service. An Amazon spokesman declined to comment.

A publicly traded company that helps small merchants sell on their sites and on big online marketplaces, said his company has already started advising some of his sellers on a move off of Amazon Webstore.

“We have about 100 customers using the Amazon store platform and are working with them on a transition plan to one of the other popular e-commerce platforms we support,” he said. “The good news is as an inventory and order hub, we can help make this a seamless and rapid transition for our customers.”

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