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Amazon Is Capturing Bigger Slice of U.S. Online Holiday Spending

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Re: Amazon Is Capturing Bigger Slice of U.S. Online Holiday Spending

#41

Post by libraryatnight »

guelo wrote: post #35

Amazon's product search is amazingly bad and the user reviews are getting faker over time. To me it's amazingly hard to shop on there. Feels like the engineering team is focused on their many other businesses and ignoring their retail stores.

I rarely read reviews there and almost never search in any general way. So, I can't say I've noticed this problem. Usually Amazon is where I go for something specific I already know I want -- I've already heard of it, researched it, and just want it at a decent price and shipped fast. Perhaps others are the same as myself and not really noticing. Google, blogs, aggregate discussion sites, friends, social networks, etc I feel like are where I learn about products - Amazon is just where I pull the trigger.

Re: Amazon Is Capturing Bigger Slice of U.S. Online Holiday Spending

#42

Post by pyre »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #24
mmmBacon wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest savings of Christmas shopping on Amazon is not having to go to a physical store to do the shopping. No driving around wasting hours in traffic, waiting in lines, and dealing with cranky people. The added benefit is that Amazon also usually has the thing you are looking for too. So if you add up all that time saved, time spent wrapping is really not that bad.

It's really the biggest saving of shopping online, period. I would pay a great deal more to not have to stand in a line and get stuck behind someone pulling out coupons and a checkbook and doing a price check at a checkout aisle in a store. Physical stores can't even implement the obviously better solution of getting everyone in one queue, and then directing them to the next open register (except for TJ Maxx and Mars…

Target was doing that during the liquidation sales in Canada (at least at the ones I was at). It's worth noting that I don't recall them doing that before they went belly-up.

Re: Amazon Is Capturing Bigger Slice of U.S. Online Holiday Spending

#43

Post by pyre »

gutnor wrote: post #26
chrischen wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People usually would only be paid minimum wage for the hours they work in a day (~8). So just pretend you gift wrap after those hours, where you are paid $0/hr.

It is a way to measure if something is really expensive. Another way to look at it is that $90 is about a regular night out. The choice is between investing 1 evening of your time to save for 1 night out later, or instead invest nothing but lose one night out that you need to spend in front of the TV. YMMV, but probably the tipping point in GP specific situation is that he also had to post them all by himself, which…

That $90 wasn't just put into time spent wrapping. There is the (negligible) cost of the wrapping paper and the cost to re-ship them. If the cost of shipping was more then $6 per item...

Re: Amazon Is Capturing Bigger Slice of U.S. Online Holiday Spending

#44

Post by moultano »

wildmusings wrote: post #39
guelo wrote: post #35

Amazon's product search is amazingly bad and the user reviews are getting faker over time. To me it's amazingly hard to shop on there. Feels like the engineering team is focused on their many other businesses and ignoring their retail stores.

The fake reviews are really frustrating. I try to work around it by focusing on longer reviews that discuss both pros and cons, but fake review writers are probably getting more sophisticated too. It'd be nice to have separate averages for verified purchasers and real name reviews, since those would at least cost more to rig. One could write a script for that, so long as Amazon doesn't throttle/block you. Sounds like…

Right now the practice is for the manufacturer to give people a refund on the product in exchange for their 5 star review. It is infuriating. Amazon should ban these companies from the store or they may lose me as a customer (and I buy nearly everything there.)

Re: Amazon Is Capturing Bigger Slice of U.S. Online Holiday Spending

#45

Post by xirdstl »

jacobolus wrote: post #21
thesimon wrote: post #13

Their return policy is really great during the holidays, which might contribute to it. As a (late) holiday shopper and Prime member, their shipping guarantees are top notch though. No praying that it arrives in time. (Whereas Amazon says, order within x hours for delivery tomorrow, a lot of other shops here just feel like "Usually shipped within 1-2 days, if your hair is green, Tom is working in the office and your o…

Unfortunately I had several things in my Amazon cart which said “order within 8 hours and it arrives December 24” (or whatever), that when I looked back at 3 hours later had lost the guarantee, and now could only promise to arrive by the 26th/27th. Didn’t turn out to be a big deal, but folks shouldn’t take those guarantees for granted.

I suppose for me it just matters the guarantee at the time of checkout. Many conditions can change between the time I put it in my cart and when I checkout, especially around Christmas.

The precision with which they can tell me when to expect a package at checkout is definitely an advantage over shopping elsewhere.

Re: Amazon Is Capturing Bigger Slice of U.S. Online Holiday Spending

#47

Post by bbarn »

randycupertino wrote: post #2

I shopped for Christmas on Amazon, it was kind of a pain. I had to ship it all to myself, wrap it, put on gift notes and then pack it all up and ship it all to my family across the country. I was going to do their individual gift wrapping but it was $6 PER ITEM. Considering I got about 15 items, that really adds up. I think I'll still do some shopping on there next year, I just wish they had cheaper gift wrapping and…

The replies to this post are all quite analytical and focused on the value proposition gift wrapping gives you.

I know it's more expensive to do it myself, but it's one of the few things I'm truly terrible at, and my family/friends all seem to derive great joy from my lack of skill, so I have begun to enjoy it myself.

I guess if I were concerned about the value of the cost of having someone else gift wrap a present for me, I would be more concerned about why I didn't care enough to do it myself but felt the need to purchase something for them. The only gift wrapping I paid for was 10$, and from Rapha, a high end cycling clothing company - because they give you a fantastic magnetic closing box with special tissue wrapping on everything inside it. (and I still put the entire gift wrapped box in shitty target brand wrapping paper anyway)

Re: Amazon Is Capturing Bigger Slice of U.S. Online Holiday Spending

#48

Post by rconti »

pmorici wrote: post #28
rconti wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering what USPS, FedEx, and UPS charge us plebes without a corporate account, I'm surprised you could even ship 5 packages for under $90 ($6*15), let alone all 15 items. Not to mention the cost of standing in line. I spent 30min at the post office mailing a SINGLE package back in mid-December.. and I thought I was ahead of the christmas game!

Why would you stand in line at the post office to ship something? Buy and print the labels at home using something like Paypal's shipping url[0] if you don't have any idea about the weight use flat rate boxes. Fedex has a similar flat rate box shipping with their "OneRate" rates. Then all you are doing at the shipping place is dropping packages off so there is no line waiting. [0] https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/we…

IIRC I needed some special service.

Once I was already there, and 'only' 10th in line, my time was pretty much sunk anyway.

Re: Amazon Is Capturing Bigger Slice of U.S. Online Holiday Spending

#49

Post by gozur88 »

mmmBacon wrote: post #19
randycupertino wrote: post #2

I shopped for Christmas on Amazon, it was kind of a pain. I had to ship it all to myself, wrap it, put on gift notes and then pack it all up and ship it all to my family across the country. I was going to do their individual gift wrapping but it was $6 PER ITEM. Considering I got about 15 items, that really adds up. I think I'll still do some shopping on there next year, I just wish they had cheaper gift wrapping and…

The biggest savings of Christmas shopping on Amazon is not having to go to a physical store to do the shopping. No driving around wasting hours in traffic, waiting in lines, and dealing with cranky people. The added benefit is that Amazon also usually has the thing you are looking for too. So if you add up all that time saved, time spent wrapping is really not that bad.

I remember just dreading Christmas shopping before Amazon. Sitting in traffic jams on the way to the mall, driving around in circles for an hour waiting for someone to leave, then getting jostled by hordes of rude strangers while looking at products - would my mother like this chrome unicorn maybe not but I need to get the hell out of here before I punch somebody.

Wrapping is a cinch compared to all that.

Re: Amazon Is Capturing Bigger Slice of U.S. Online Holiday Spending

#50

Post by gozur88 »

marincounty wrote: post #16

I went with BestBuy this year, and was pleasantly surprised. I've noticed Amazon is slowly raising prices. I'm not knocking it; just like the competition. Plus--I've always liked Bestbuy. I bought a iPad mini ($under 350.00) at 12:59 p.m. Pacific time, on the 23rd of December. For $12.00 it was delivered to my door at 11 a.m. the next day.

Yeah, you can't just assume Amazon is price competitive any more. I think they're trying to rely more on convenience, like with two hour shipping, to move product.
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