Sourcing, payments, shipping, and the operational realities behind the products.
Issue No. 40. We looked back at a year of coverage to ask what's genuinely different in this market now versus when we started — and what hasn't moved at all.
Sellers lose ad accounts and social pages on a recurring cycle. The pattern behind it says something about how major platforms actually classify this entire category.
We talked to three small sellers about their actual margins, after testing, packaging, payment-processing fees, and the cost of staying banked. The numbers are thinner than buyers tend to assume.
When a merchant account gets terminated, some sellers quietly shift to consumer payment apps instead. It's a workaround with its own real risks — for both sides.
Most of what's sold in this market is manufactured in a small number of overseas facilities, then relabeled and redistributed by domestic sellers. That concentration has consequences buyers rarely see.
It's one of the least-discussed structural facts about this industry: a meaningful share of sellers are operating with no product liability coverage at all, and it's not because they haven't looked.
The research-compound retail market has far more brands than manufacturers. What that actually means for buyers trying to compare options.
One buyer’s timeline of a supplier relationship that ended without warning — and the questions it left behind.
Most degradation happens between the lab and your doorstep — not in it. A look at where shipping actually breaks down.
A rare look inside the process that decides whether an international shipment clears — or doesn’t.
The single biggest operational risk for a small research-compound seller right now isn’t sourcing or shipping. It’s staying banked.