THE LAURA SULTAN® Digital transparency — mentoring, training and policy

Digital transparency for marketplace sellers

Most small businesses are operating inside systems they can’t see. That is starting to change.

Rankings shift, listings get suppressed, revenue moves — and the explanation, if one comes, explains nothing. I work with small businesses selling on Amazon, Etsy and other online marketplaces, and the organisations that support them: teaching how these systems actually decide, how to document what happens inside them, and how to build a business that isn’t at their mercy. The same work is going into changing the rules themselves.

Currently

  • Written submission to federal consultation on marketplace transparency
  • Speaking with MPPs at Queen’s Park as part of Better Way Alliance
  • Upcoming workshops at the Centre for Social Innovation, Toronto — 2 December

Mentoring and workshops Book a discovery call

Laura Sultan, founder of Designs by Nature Gems and digital transparency advocate
Laura Sultan — founder, Designs by Nature Gems

Thank you for contacting us. After reviewing your account, we are unable to provide further detail on this decision. We appreciate your understanding.

A marketplace reply, 2023

Where this started

No notice, no reason, no appeal — a decision that moved real money, explained in a sentence that explained nothing. I could not get an answer, so I went and learned how the system worked. That is what I teach now, and what I am arguing should change.

Why work with me

Lived it

Amazon filmed my business as a success story in 2022. A year later an algorithm change erased a substantial share of that revenue overnight.

Built through it

Rebuilt across owned sales channels, wholesale and export into the U.S. and U.K., while keeping Toronto artisans employed at living wages.

Took it further

Now writing on platform accountability and speaking with MPPs at Queen’s Park on seller protections.

Who I work with

Founders and online sellers

Selling through platforms you don’t control, and tired of finding out after the fact. One-to-one e-commerce mentoring on diagnosing what happened, documenting it properly, and building the channel mix that makes you harder to knock over.

Organisations

Incubators, BIAs, associations and chambers whose members depend on marketplaces for revenue. Workshops built around your members’ actual channels, not a generic curriculum.

See mentoring options and pricing See upcoming workshops

Book a discovery call

Fifteen minutes. We’ll work out whether mentoring, a workshop or neither is the right fit — and I’ll tell you if it’s neither.

Get in touch