11–20 of 564 posts
This is one of the reasons I've let my Prime subscription lapse and started doing more shopping at Target. In addition to fewer (or no) ads, I can often pick an item up in an hour instead of waiting two days, and the prices are better.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Their website is garbage for how popular it is. It’s really hard to navigate the sections for controlling your kindle, digital purchases, or settings.
That's true. I still can't quite believe that although family sharing is a thing, and collections are a thing, I can't share a collection. I want to add books to a "Kids" collection and have that collection shared with them in Kindle for Kids. Can't be done. Need to share each book with each kid, one click at a time.
Maybe it is possible but it isn't obvious how to do it.
I think amazon is winning solely based on their physical infrastructure which they keep investing in, and hence the share growth. It has nothing to do with how good their website or customer support is, or how many ads they show or not show. All are this ideas they just trying without anything to loose.
Ebay is also crap and yet it attracts millions. We may preach good practices all day long but the truth is that if your site is useful users will find a way to navigate it. Even if you keep moving things around like Amazon.
I have an idea for some niches, it'll probably be implemented by the major players after it's been validated though.
So do physical stores. Is it really so different from Heineken paying for prominent shelf space in the supermarket?
Unless you know exctly brand/make/model you wan't to buy on Amazon, the search is useless. Hundreds of similar results from dozens of vendors of varying quality. I liked it better when they sold things themselves, now they're just an eBay clone selling cheap knockoffs trying to hide the fact.
I've moved almost all of my online purchases BACK to ebay actually because of this. At least ebay's trust system is easy to understand and harder to game than what amazon has in terms of reviews.
I'm interested to see if this is a trend, or if my circle of friends is an outlier.
Seems like lots of free time to buy and try products in various niches, an easy to use browser extension and an extensive set of affiliate links, and a coupled website (probably not youtube since negatively reviewed companies might just copyright-strike) are all it would take...
Owning the railroads enabled standard oil to price it's competitors more, put them straits, and buy them up cheaply.
Owning the OS, Microsoft can make sure they own the Office Product productivity.
It's why the electrical grid needs to be separate from the energy makers (and regulated).
Amazon and Google as the 'front of the internet' can just suck the surpluses out of every other business; sure, you can still sell 'cereal and gadgets' - but all of your surplus / profit margin will be sucked up by them.
... but I have a sneaking suspicion that something disruptive will come along before they entirely take over.
Unless you know exctly brand/make/model you wan't to buy on Amazon, the search is useless. Hundreds of similar results from dozens of vendors of varying quality. I liked it better when they sold things themselves, now they're just an eBay clone selling cheap knockoffs trying to hide the fact.
>now they're just an eBay clone selling cheap knockoffs trying to hide the fact. I've moved almost all of my online purchases BACK to ebay actually because of this. At least ebay's trust system is easy to understand and harder to game than what amazon has in terms of reviews. I'm interested to see if this is a trend, or if my circle of friends is an outlier.
Now that they've captured 50%+ of US ecommerce, they've also raised many prices, to the point where they're far from the cheapest price in many cases. A random example... the cat litter I just purchased is $17.89 at Amazon, $13.49 at Walmart. Last week I bought a chair mat for $21.95 on Ebay - identical item on Amazon was $33.95 (both including free shipping but Amazon came with an additional 8.25% sales tax).
They can do that because so many people don't price compare anymore before going to Amazon.
Not to mention the issues of buying an expensive brand item and getting a fake instead, as well as the large numbers of fake reviews. Indeed, it is pretty hard to get started in Amazon FBA these days when your competitors all have hundreds of glowing reviews for similar products and you have none.
They've also moved many items to the add-on category (no more free shipping unless you have $25+ in the cart, even with Prime).
My Prime membership expires in a couple months time, and this time I'm not renewing it, after being a member for several years.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's true. I still can't quite believe that although family sharing is a thing, and collections are a thing, I can't share a collection. I want to add books to a "Kids" collection and have that collection shared with them in Kindle for Kids. Can't be done. Need to share each book with each kid, one click at a time.
Or just be able to buy a book for a relative and have it added to their Kindle. Maybe it is possible but it isn't obvious how to do it.