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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

#61

Post by ghshephard »

zenlikethat wrote: post #37

No surprise there. This year I did almost all of my shopping on Amazon and it worked out excellently, especially considering that I was having Christmas in another location and just got everything delivered straight there. Our family also discovered something great this year: Wishlists. By creating and sharing Wishlists we were all able to get a much better picture of the specific items and areas of gifts that each f…

Likewise - I wanted to get my mother a new computer - (a NUC PC, SSD, Memory, HD, Anti-Static Strap, CD Drive, USB Keyboard).

I was able to get everything I wanted shipped in 4 days to 100 Mile House British Columbia, including Clearing Customs, from amazon.com, not even amazon.ca. No worries about carrying packages while traveling, was able to specify everything exactly as I wanted.

There is zero chance I would have been able to do something exactly like that in the local computer shop (The Source), and probably wouldn't have been able to do it in Vancouver at the large computer retailers.

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

#62

Post by rpgmaker »

pnwhyc wrote: post #58

This doesn't come as a surprise. Amazon has created fantastic consumer and merchant experiences and brought buyer friction down to almost nothing. I'll be interested to see how they plan to tackle the in-store experience. There are obviously the perishable aspects of grocery store products which, with intense and continual establishment of their current strategies, will eventually present opportunity to become a viab…

Am I the only one who thinks their site is bloated and slow? I mean, it works but it's not that pleasant to use.

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

#63

Post by ars »

colmvp wrote: post #52
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.

After watching Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, I decided to check out Dianetics by L. Ron Hubbard on Amazon. 67% of raters gave it 5 stars.

Is that so strange? The people most likely to buy that book probably already like it before even reading it.

An ordinary person is very unlikely to read it, much less buy it.

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

#64

Post by randycupertino »

chrisparsons wrote: post #5
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 cost of reshipping + cost of wrapping + cost of time of wrapping is probably getting close to $6 an item.

That's a very good point.

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

#65

Post by cookiecaper »

csdrane wrote: post #18
mmmBacon wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My son received the game Operation for Christmas from his grandparents. That game came from Amazon in a blue felt bag.

My girlfriend gave my family presents. All presents (7+ ?) came in felt bags.

Maybe it has more to do with the warehouse of origin than the size of the item. Did they run out of paper and resort to bags? Is there some reason they'd use paper in one warehouse but bags in another? Perhaps one hasn't been fitted with the advanced paper-wrapping robot and it's quick to just drop it in a bag? It'd be really interesting to learn what dictates the wrapping material.

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

#66

Post by cookiecaper »

x5n1 wrote: post #9
cookiecaper wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've only seen the blue felt bag once, when buying my wife some (cheap) jewelry. For items big enough, they use plain blue wrapping paper. That's what I usually see. It seems like a perfectly adequate wrapping job to me -- certainly better than my notoriously uncoordinated self would do. For the record, Amazon charged me 3.95 per item for gift wrapping. I don't know if it changes based on the size of the item, whethe…

For $6/item they should offer more choices on how it is to be wrapped. I would say at least 6-12 different kinds of paper.

I agree. I think a lot of people would feel more comfortable using a gift wrapping service if those same people could pick their own wrapping paper, which, in the end, would mean more $ for Amazon.

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

#67

Post by [deleted] »

manyxcxi wrote: post #55
moultano wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.)

It's not so much manufacturers as the sellers of the merchandise. I've had multiple sellers offer full refunds in exchange for better reviews after I left 1,2 or 3 star reviews of some pretty shitty products.

[deleted]

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

#68

Post by em_wilson »

lkbm wrote: post #53
jedberg wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (overpriced and ugly) My parents bought my daughter a present and got the gift wrapping option and it was this amazing blue velvet gift sack. We saved it so we can use it again it was so nice. In fact, for the $6 my parents paid, we couldn't get a bag that nice ourselves. I guess my point is, YMMV.

Nice. I always assumed they used wrapping paper, but that makes a ton of sense given that time is the cost, a nice looking sack is clearly a much better idea.

I ordered something that came in a large box. I was expecting the sack like I've received in the past. Instead the box was partially gift wrapped with both ends exposed so you could see what was in it.
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