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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

#41

Post by sct202 »

Loughla wrote: post #15
maaaats wrote: post #10

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.

I've started to cross check my purchases with Ebay. Recently, I bought a case for my Kindle. A 3rd party company was selling the case on Amazon FBA for $5 more than they were selling it for on Ebay (free shipping, same company name, same product pictures).

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#42

Post by slivym »

village-idiot wrote: post #4
iamgopal wrote: post #2

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.

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.

Whilst their website is terrible, I actually think the specifics of what Amazon does makes it very difficult for the website to be good. They sell a million versions of a million products in a million sectors. What is useful for me to know when buying a hard disk is not the same thing that is useful for me to know when buying a bottle of wine. So they either have 1 size fits all, or a huge cost in building almost custom websites for every different sector.

I'm not sure it's actually possible to do that well.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#43

Post by dsfyu404ed »

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…

If so many people weren't sharing access to my my prime membership I would have cancelled it a year or two ago.

Between Walmart and eBay it's rare for Amazon to be the best price for an item or to be the same price and available with two day shipping.

For stuff that isn't time sensitive eBay is the clear winner because I can buy items at little markup as long as I'm willing to wait a month for them to ship from China/Taiwan/HK whereas you'll pay a large premium to buy the same junk and have it shipped from Amazon's warehouses.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#44

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

maaaats wrote: post #10

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.

Indeed. It has been common practice for PC parts to use Newegg's search and buy from Amazon, but lately Amazon's price hasn't actually been lower so you can eliminate one step.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#45

Post by icantdrive55 »

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.

I don't think it matters to those that can afford the service?

Amazon captured peoples trust, and those with funds buy their counterfeit, overpriced goods. Along with that Prime scam. (I have kept track of their portable AM radios for ten years. Every year the price slowely ticket up.).

I fell for the Prime scam, until I realized I payed $130 in shipping for two items----along with the movies I never watched. (Amazon prime now sends you a reminder when your membership is due. Two months ago, the customer had the ability to cancel the upcoming month in advance. I don't know if they think we don't notice, or don't care?)

Anyhoo, I don't see any competition. Sad? All that VC money being poured into apps that will fail, and no one takes on the beast? Alibaba is not competition for those of us in the states.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#46

Post by pbhjpbhj »

billysielu wrote: post #28
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.

In the UK, getting to a town center to do some shopping is so horrific that Amazon is the only remaining option.

Costs more to take the bus in to town than it does for most (slow) deliveries.

For some things there are no bricks and mortar stores left. I wanted test cables for a multimeter. 20p from China! (takes weeks mind you); I spent about £3 to get some delivered from a company in Europe within 2 days (probably drop-shipped from China) ... I can't think of anywhere in my UK city to buy them.

Bus for me and my toddler in to town and back is £2.80+£1.40 (it's about 3 miles).

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#47

Post by zkms »

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.

> can often pick an item up in an hour instead of waiting two days, and the prices are better.

no counterfeits either, unlike Amazon where counterfeit products run rampant.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#48

Post by greetings »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #43
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…

If so many people weren't sharing access to my my prime membership I would have cancelled it a year or two ago. Between Walmart and eBay it's rare for Amazon to be the best price for an item or to be the same price and available with two day shipping. For stuff that isn't time sensitive eBay is the clear winner because I can buy items at little markup as long as I'm willing to wait a month for them to ship from China…

Not to mention that 2 day shipping is no longer a guarantee. I have had multiple items that have not shipped on time, or had long delays.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#49

Post by NeedMoreTea »

maaaats wrote: post #10

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.

Even then it's borderline useless as when you search for the exact pair of trousers you want you'll now get other ranges, and dozens upon dozens of fake-brand cheap knockoffs.

When you do find the item, you'll find in amongst the "customers also looked at/bought" 4 or 5 other pages containing the exact same item. At different prices and stock levels. None of which showed up in the search you just did for that item.

It's completely broken and absurd.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#50

Post by maxxxxx »

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?

Electronics and photography mainly. https://www.bhphotovideo.com.
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