> I'm all for competition. If amazon is the best, then more power to them.
I'm seriously wondering what about Amazon (the store) is so great. They are just a shop. They may have a little more inventory than anybody else. Their ordering system works fine. They have good user reviews. But all that does not justify the enormous negative effect they have on competition. And they also have problems, e.g. with counterfeit products.
In other words, saying "more power to the best" does not make much sense if "the best" is only marginally better than everybody else.
Where Amazon absolutely kills it is in their logistics.
As a store they're... frankly terrible. Search is complete garbage. Filtering is clunky. The product categories are an absolute disaster. And it's often impossible to tell genuine product from counterfeit (a fact that, by the way, has me terrified for folks inadvertently buying fake solar observation glasses for use during the 2017 solar eclipse) It's honestly a terrible shopping experience in almost every way imaginable.
But through direct supply and their fulfillment program they can get products to consumers insanely fast for zero cost (edit: to the consumer). IMO, that is what puts Amazon above the rest. With Prime I'm honestly dismayed when I see an arrival date that's more than 2-3 days out... that's the level of expectation they've set in the market.
Of course, competitors are starting to match them. Walmart, for example, is really advancing in this space. But IMO Amazon is still the king of logistics.
Amazon UK sends me tons of counterfeit products, and their stock of many items I like is extremely unstable. That is, many products or supplies I need often get discontinued.
That said, almost everything is 1-day delivery on Prime. I often order at 10 pm and have my products at 9 am. Sadly, they now use contractors to deliver on their Amazon Logistics, instead of good parcel companies. And the quality of service is going down.
They still use DPD for expensive items (that's how much they trust their own Amazon Logistics), which is cool as they offer a 1 hour delivery slot. When they used DPD for everything it was awesome.
You mention "fake solar observation glasses". do you mind elaborating a bit: how do you tell if they are fake? Is there something missing in the knockoffs? What is the effect of a fake?
They claim certifications and safety ratings they do not have.
If they're not actually suitable, the result can be severe eye damage.
As for identifying the "real thing", I found the specific brand NASA recommends, and then tried to find a reputable supplier through Amazon with reviews indicating, by people who've tested them, that they were genuine.
It's still not foolproof, but at least it's something.
At minimum, if you're in the market for glasses for the eclipse, if you can see anything other than the sun when you put them on, they're not dark enough. Solar glasses are REALLY dark.
> But through direct supply and their fulfillment program they can get products to consumers insanely fast for zero cost.
What do you mean zero cost? They still have to pay for mail, right?
When I order a product from a random small internet shop, it also arrives usually within 1-3 days. I don't see the difference with Amazon, except that I have to find that small shop through a Google search, whereas I can order on Amazon directly.
What do you mean zero cost? They still have to pay for mail, right?
I had a feeling that would be confusing.
Zero cost to the consumer.
When I order a product from a random small internet shop, it also arrives usually within 1-3 days.
Well, maybe this is unique to Canada, but that's absolutely not my experience. Not even close. 7-10 days is optimistic for smaller retailers. 14-21 is not unexpected.
I do think competitors are catching up with shipping. I honestly find the reviews helpful. I could be completely wrong but the reviews on amazon seem superior to most other e-commerce sites. I could read the reviews and buy somewhere else but I rarely do that.
These competitors are catching up with shipping because of the way Amazon's demands changed the entire shipping economy. UPS offers entire categories of delivery products now available to Amazon's competitors because they developed them originally for Amazon.
Their search is pretty terrible. Everything else (the ordering process, delivery options, delivery time, returns system, etc.) is pretty fantastic. From my phone, I can order, say, another batch of my favourite kitchen towel brand in about 5 seconds. It will be in my hallway the next day. I don't know of anyone else that does that.
Amazon is scary in that way, because the ease of which you can magically manifest goods through its app means it becomes ingrained your routine, even to the point where you're itching to order something, even if you don't need it. They've really nailed the worst of consumerist culture, too.
It's also scary in the sense that they're slowly becoming the source of everything I buy. Whether I want household stuff, electronics, a suitcase, some hardware tool -- I invariably reach for Amazon unless it's something I know that Amazon doesn't have. (Amazon is still pretty useless for high-end, quality home decor and furniture, for example.)
As for the search, I suspect it works fine from Amazon's point of view. It's designed to offer you products that Amazon thinks you will buy, not what you searched for, and it tries very hard not to return "no results found". It is very frustrating for "power users", though.
The single source payment system is pretty nice too... I don't like entering my CC on random sites, and given Paypal's reputation, they're far worse than Amazon from what I can tell. My bigger issue is the spammy/counterfeit products.
As they've focused more and more on third-party resellers and rebranded/white labeled products their store experience has gone down-hill.
Search for something specific like "white nike hightops" and maybe 30% of the results will be what you are looking for. Even if you navigate through their categories to "Clothing, Shoes & Jewelry : Men : Shoes : Athletic : White", 20% of the results are not white athletic shoes for men.
The relevance tanks even further if you're searching for specific computer components -- I have fled to NewEgg or NCIX for this purpose.
<Search for something specific like "white nike hightops" and maybe 30% of the results will be what you are looking for.>
While I understand your frustration, there is an explanation. You are thinking of search & filtering as some sort of mathematical / boolean algebra process (hey, it's ok, I'm a CS grad).
Amazon is thinking about it as, "what does our show show that customers who have searched for [white nike hightops] have actually purchased in the past?" This is their search fitness function and they don't think they are wrong.
I agree on the broader point that 3p sellers and counterfeit products along with spam listings are a mess.
I think Google is failing here really. They should be able to find the exact product. I should be able to click on an image, and select "Find stores in my area selling this product", or they could find a nearby internet shop so shipping is fast. They should be able to replicate the same experience as Amazon, and make it better, and apply it to the whole internet.
I don't understand what is taking Google so long to figure this out. This is where the money seems to be.
(Otoh ... maybe they are afraid of becoming too large.)
>I think Google is failing here really. They should be able to find the exact product. I should be able to click on an image, and select "Find stores in my area selling this product
Google already does that. At least in my area. Type in a search. Click "Shopping" and it shows stores nearby that could have the item. It's not 100% perfect because it'll be decades before retailers allow Google to monitor their inventory in real-time, but it at least gives me leads, especially when I'm in an unfamiliar city.
The ordering systems works fantastically given the volume, Prime shipping is huge, and their inventory really is broader.
The combination of (a) not needing to log in again to place an order (b) most things I'm interested in ordering being in their inventory (c) receiving most orders within 48 hours (and many within 24) is really potent. I've placed maybe a half-dozen non-Amazon orders online in the last six months, and apparently 163 with Amazon.
When possible, I avoid anything that's not fulfilled by Amazon due to point (c) above -- I'll find alternatives or even pay slightly more to get prime shipping.
Most people already have Amazon account, and the lock-in effect is huge. I also have one, though I buy occasionally (few items per year max).
Recently I wanted to buy some electronics, and I found a good offer on a non-Amazon website. But when I wanted to proceed with the purchase, they asked for so many of my personal data (all of it required) that I decided I prefer to pay slightly more and buy from Amazon, than to hand my personal data to yet another third party.
I'm seriously wondering what about Amazon (the store) is so great. They are just a shop. They may have a little more inventory than anybody else. Their ordering system works fine. They have good user reviews. But all that does not justify the enormous negative effect they have on competition. And they also have problems, e.g. with counterfeit products.
In other words, saying "more power to the best" does not make much sense if "the best" is only marginally better than everybody else.