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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

#431

Post by tzakrajs »

taurath wrote: post #365
daveFNbuck wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wasn't just that Amazon was the cheapest in the market. It was that they built up a reputation over the years of being cheap and reliable. There was a long period where I would buy things from Amazon without considering other sources. That's gone now and they can't quickly get it back. Forget about price. I can't even trust that I'll be getting a legitimate product anymore. When possible, I prefer to buy from a mo…

For me my trust is breaking over a couple pairs of socks, of all things. I ordered some socks from amazon which were a larger than normal size. I was actually excited when they arrived and they actually fit perfectly - something thats difficult when trying to find specific styles of socks. I enjoy them so much I decide to order 3 packages for the future. They come in the mail - all of them are the smaller size (but h…

I have a very similar story with ordering Salbakos towels. I reorder them every so often to keep my linens fresh. However, one of the last reorders was delivered with a completely different brand of towels and they didn't even match the pattern of the Salbakos towels. It's so frustrating.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#432

Post by notatoad »

bhandziuk wrote: post #428
NeedMoreTea wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. I…

You simply cannot buy clothes online. It's far too unreliable in every way. Even if they deliver what the advertise it's hard enough determining what size to buy when in person, the amount of work it takes to buy something int he right "size" online is astronomical. Easiest examples are shoes and pants. I can wear size 8.5 to size 11 shoes or 29 to 33 pants. These all fit the same.

I've found the exception to this is first-party webshops. For example, buying Patagonia gear from Patagonia.com is by far the easiest way. Their sizing is consistent across their line, and the website has a much better selection of colors and stock than any reseller does.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#434

Post by 394549 »

Anderkent wrote: post #422
394549 wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But this is exactly why sponsored results are good for the searcher. Products that people are willing to spend money advertising will usually be better for you, especially in a context where repeated custom is likely. No, that's false. Ads are only a way of exchanging money for the eyeballs of potential customers, and both scrupulous and unscrupulous merchants use them. They make no reliable statement about what's…

Of course all companies use ads, including unscrupulous ones. But ads work better for companies with a real product, and therefore you expect the % of good products among advertised products to be higher than among non-advertised ones.

> But ads work better for companies with a real product, and therefore you expect the % of good products among advertised products to be higher than among non-advertised ones.

[citation needed]

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#435

Post by bhandziuk »

scrooched_moose wrote: post #158
Zelphyr wrote: post #111

Has anyone compiled a list of alternatives to Amazon? I’m not expecting a one-stop-shop where I can buy everything like at Amazon. But a list of online retailers who are better than Amazon at specific categories of products. Because I’m at the point where I would rather pay a little extra and get quality products from a not evil company than continue shopping with Amazon.

Just looking at my recent purchases: Electronics - Newegg and Monoprice Board & Table Top Games - Miniature Market Pet Food - Chewy (owned by PetSmart now) Clothing - Depends on your style, but I tend to stick to Eddie Bauer and Duluth Trading Company for good quality, affordable clothes Comic trade paperbacks - InStockTrades Books - Barnes & Noble (new) and eBay (used) The big one I've still struggling to find a rep…

I recommend any locally owned running shoe store for shoes. Just as much (effective) selection as online and you can walk/run away with shoes faster than buying online. I can't wrap my head around buying this stuff online. The exception being people with odd sized feet. But even then it seems very difficult to get something reasonable.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#436

Post by Shoue »

andyv wrote: post #373
nickjj wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The one place where Walmart has Amazon crushed is a physical presence which drastically affects shipping. Instead of having to buy Prime to get 2 day free shipping, I can just shop at Walmart and anything I buy gets delivered to a local Walmart 5 minutes away for free so I can pick it up. Most of the time it's 2-3 days (sometimes same day if they have it locally). This bypasses the $25-35 minimum price rule for free…

I bought a book on Amazon. I don't have Prime, so it took most of a week before the third party seller even shipped it. It never arrived, and the order status only said "left shipper facility". After staying in this limbo for several days past the arrival date, I was credited with a refund. I bought the book again, this time fulfilling through Amazon. They quoted an arrival date of a week in the future. When that day…

I share experiences in a similar vein: a book being cancelled and refunded for being 'undeliverable', a CPU (one of the most important components in a full computer build, rendering it useless) ending up at the wrong facility, new items being sold out until weeks after their release date (Sony WH1000MX3 right now, at least in the UK) while available in other online stores, an item not being what was advertised (Dove soap from a different country with worse ingredients), and worse, them not disclosing this (I happened to check the page myself before picking it up and it had a warning about this). All of this happened in the last month. I cancelled all but the book (which I'm again waiting for now) and got stuff elsewhere with a much better experience. I absolutely do appreciate Amazon when it works, I just wish it wasn't so unreliable.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#437

Post by bhandziuk »

notatoad wrote: post #432
bhandziuk wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You simply cannot buy clothes online. It's far too unreliable in every way. Even if they deliver what the advertise it's hard enough determining what size to buy when in person, the amount of work it takes to buy something int he right "size" online is astronomical. Easiest examples are shoes and pants. I can wear size 8.5 to size 11 shoes or 29 to 33 pants. These all fit the same.

I've found the exception to this is first-party webshops. For example, buying Patagonia gear from Patagonia.com is by far the easiest way. Their sizing is consistent across their line, and the website has a much better selection of colors and stock than any reseller does.

Yeah, that seems reasonable if you're unable to walk into a store. Even if the sizing is internally consistent it still seems difficult for a first time purchase though.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#438

Post by reaperducer »

bonestamp2 wrote: post #393
taurath wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me my trust is breaking over a couple pairs of socks, of all things. I ordered some socks from amazon which were a larger than normal size. I was actually excited when they arrived and they actually fit perfectly - something thats difficult when trying to find specific styles of socks. I enjoy them so much I decide to order 3 packages for the future. They come in the mail - all of them are the smaller size (but h…

This hits too close to home. For years I used Amazon to replenish my sock supply with the exact same ones. Suddenly, one day, they weren't the consistent anymore. Then, a few times I ordered things and they were dropshipped from target or walmart.com where they were %30-40 cheaper! The wool had finally been lifted from my eyes and now I fill my walmart cart first and only order a few things on amazon that I can't fin…

No matter what amazon changes, I can't trust them anymore. Walmart doesn't mess around, they just aim for the lowest price all the time

This is something Amazon is going to have to learn if it's serious about brick-and-mortar.

Selling garbage fakes online is one thing. Selling them in a store is another. There are dozens of regulatory agencies from federal down to the city level just for that sort of thing.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#439

Post by marcosdumay »

aglavine wrote: post #383
bootsz wrote: post #289

In some sense it feels like Amazon is progressing along a similar trajectory as Facebook: 1. Start company with a minimally viable product 2. Hire smart people to iteratively optimize the usefulness of the product to attract as many users as possible. Incentive structure rewards maximizing new users 3. Product reaches "peak usefulness"; seemingly everyone uses it / loves it 4. Re-focus business efforts to maximize re…

The thing is that in 3) the company still doesn't make money.

Oh, going some of the way into 4 is a requirement. The problem is when the company goes into "we did more of X, clients complained but we got paid more in the end, therefore we must do even more of X!" mode.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#440

Post by Discombulator »

Maybe also due to Amazon’s tightlipped PR policy, it is not uncommon to read in comments about some article related to amazon such as this one accusations about systematically increasing and even user-specific “dynamically adjusting” prices supposedly to maximize profits.

I don’t work there anymore since a bit, but I am somewhat annoyed by the unsubstantiated confidence with which these claims are made so I’d like to add my anec-data.

First of all, when I left the pricing system had in fact strong incentives in place to _lower_ prices as much as possible (for Amazon sold items. Third party sellers set their own prices.) Amazon would often make (small) losses on many items, especially the ones shown on the home page.

Moreover, there is definitely only a single price for each offer listing (which equals more or less an ASIN and merchant combination). This is evidently the case for 3P sold items, since as a seller you definitely do not have that infamous “auto-gauging” tick box the last time I checked. (And let’s not forget, most of the growth of Amazon comes through third party sellers). As for Amazon sold items, I invite anyone to actually show evidence that the same offer listing has at the same time a different price for different users/devices, otherwise it is just empty talk.

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