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Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

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Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#31

Post by hef19898 »

mtgx wrote: post #26
arbuge wrote: post #19

Their basic underlying assumption appears to be that they're no longer in danger of losing customers and can now act accordingly. 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 Eb…

Amazon hasn't had the cheapest prices for a few good years now. They're taking advantage of the fact that they have what I like to call "brand inertia". The problem is brand inertia is not infinite. If you no longer do the things that have given you that inertia to begin with, eventually you'll run out of it. When a worthy competitor appears, your customers, who by then will have little loyalty to you, will switch.

One could almost come to the conclusion that Amazon running a global experiment on price elasticity on their complete customer base.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#32

Post by chanandler_bong »

m-p-3 wrote: post #3

Is there an addon of some kind that exists to make those ads more obvious (some kind of highlights) without outright removing them?

I am not a developer, but something like AdBlock or uBlock Origin should be able to at least highlight the "Sponsored" text to make it more prominent?

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#33

Post by thecatspaw »

slededit wrote: post #14
phobosdeimos wrote: post #8

So do physical stores. Is it really so different from Heineken paying for prominent shelf space in the supermarket?

When you ask for help finding Corona the staff doesn’t ask if you’d like Heineken instead. No it’s not the same.

Sure, but if you ask for a beer, you usually get the sponsors beer without question, even if they have different beers.

edit: talking about bars here

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#34

Post by eganist »

arbuge wrote: post #19

Their basic underlying assumption appears to be that they're no longer in danger of losing customers and can now act accordingly. 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 Eb…

Apologies in advance for the self-referential commentary:

I've put down a long list of reasons for why I've cancelled prime after almost ten years of consistent use.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16937290

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17568320

If you-the-reader need good reasons to quit prime, I hope these help.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#35

Post by dgacmu »

thieving_magpie wrote: post #22
justinph wrote: post #7

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.

Amazon (and prime as well) is a godsend for those of us that don't live within a 90 minute drive of a Target or Wal Mart.

Target and Walmart both have pretty reasonable delivery. I shop them together through Google Express (to be able to price compare), and the delivery prices still often beat Amazon. Particularly for heavy stuff.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#36

Post by ljcn »

laurent123456 wrote: post #30
Loughla wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

I've switched to other independent online shops as I can usually find what I want. I just search for "buy 'something' uk" on duckduckgo and can always find a few good non-Amazon sellers. I avoid Amazon as much as possible now since it's no longer possible to rely on their reviews and there are way too many results to be able to find one that's not fake or of extremely poor quality. I'm starting to appreciate going to…

Try "r:uk" instead of "uk" to set the region.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#38

Post by falcolas »

thieving_magpie wrote: post #22
justinph wrote: post #7

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.

Amazon (and prime as well) is a godsend for those of us that don't live within a 90 minute drive of a Target or Wal Mart.

FWIW, Target and WalMart offer online shopping and competitive shipping prices as well.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#39

Post by sairahul82 »

In the details page of the product, they used to show people brought this product also brought this list. Now that is replaced with sponsored products in most of the pages. They moved that list to bottom of page. IHMO this is deceiving users. There used to be lot of product recommendations and I find it useful. Now most of these recommendations are gone and they are replaced with sponsored ads. Not good for users.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#40

Post by BugsJustFindMe »

jasonkostempski wrote: post #29
maxxxxx wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. I either go to eBay or B&H. In eBay I can see at least quickly the seller rating. Amazon has just turned into a big mess.

What's B&H?

An electronics store in NYC that delivers nationally and has a strong reputation for reliability and competitive pricing.
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