Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#521

Post by penguin2016 » Wed, Sep 12, 2018, 7:34 AM UTC

Do you guys realise that Amazon just acts as a marketplace now, and the products being sold are from third parties?

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).

Amazon is NOT raising prices, its the merchants who sell on Amazon who are raising prices. The main value that Amazon provides is fulfillment, and driving users to these product pages from third parties.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#522

Post by SmellyGeekBoy » Wed, Sep 12, 2018, 7:48 AM UTC

fouc wrote: post #489

tzakrajs wrote: post #431

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

At least returns are super easy to make

The other comments here along with my own experiences suggest that this is no longer the case.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#523

Post by SmellyGeekBoy » Wed, Sep 12, 2018, 7:49 AM UTC

LinuxBender wrote: post #421

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, Amazon is basically the same gamble as ebay. There is a high chance I will get the wrong product, opened boxes, no box (shipping label stuck on vendor package), opened packages, swapped products, used products sold as new. I would suggest Amazon can't ever be the cheapest, when I factor in the risk factor that I may or may not get what I paid for. The convenience factor goes out the window if I have to return…

I've actually had more luck with ebay recently, in fact I'd say that it's starting to become my go-to for small items.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#524

Post by SmellyGeekBoy » Wed, Sep 12, 2018, 7:51 AM UTC

hef19898 wrote: post #286

ajross wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. That's probably true, but the truth is that situation was an unstable equilibrium in the first place. There's absolutely no reason in a functioning market to expect (or want!) one provider to be the uniform best option at all things. Eventually everyone else starts comp…

Especially the part about everyone else sucks is ao true. At least in Europe there have a ton of opportunities to compete with Amazon that nobody took advantage of before the window closed.

Jungle.com was pretty big in the UK back in its day. Unfortunately issues with supplier confidence due to the original dotcom bubble burst were its undoing (supposedly).

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#525

Post by zimmer688 » Wed, Sep 12, 2018, 7:58 AM UTC

I wonder if there is a way we can block these. This is getting really irritating especially in the electronics category where there is a ton of Chinese off market brands which take up a lot of space and then you get to the ones you need

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#526

Post by SmellyGeekBoy » Wed, Sep 12, 2018, 8:07 AM UTC

melq wrote: post #221

specialist wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doctor's orders. I'm immune compromised. Dr says it's as effective as tamiflu. From my reading, elderberry doesn't prevent infections, but it does minimize the symptoms, which matches my experience.

https://nccih.nih.gov/health/euroelder >Although some preliminary research indicates that elderberry may relieve flu symptoms, the evidence is not strong enough to support its use for this purpose. You may want to find a new doctor.

"Well it may work for you but this study suggests that it might not work for everyone so you're an idiot and you should stop taking it"

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#527

Post by beezischillin » Wed, Sep 12, 2018, 8:07 AM UTC

I live in Europe, in a country without Amazon, however I often travel to the UK so I've had a few opportunities to use their services.

My experiences have been very mixed. The website, in my opinion, is a mess. It's extremely hard to find things unless you know specifically what brand and model you're looking for. Even then you might find that someone decided to sell that item for an inflated price.

Generally when you're browsing for something you want but haven't decided on an exact brand and model yet then discoverability is terrible and listings become irrelevant pretty soon after scrolling down. Even trying to find a gaming laptop for a friend to buy is a useless endeavour.

Shipping within the UK also seems to be terribly implemented: more often than not your packages are going to get lost, misdelivered, forcing you to fight for the goods you've already paid for and potentially get them way too late if you want them by a specific date. In August, when I was visiting, they managed to misdeliver 4 items I ordered and it's always Amazon's delivery team that messes up.

The only reason I really like them is the book market and second-hand book market. It's great to be able to buy so many books at such great prices.

In my own country, however, e-retail seems way more sophisticated: discovery, delivery and reliability are king. They optimise the listings for you to be able to browse and find things efficiently, to discover stuff you want quickly. And it's very rare for the shipping to take more than 1 day, unless there's a seasonal event like Christmas/New Year's. So I buy with confidence and I browse knowing that I'll usually find what I'm looking for. When it comes to buying from Amazon while I'm visiting the UK - I always expect issues. And they always happen.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#528

Post by sam_goody » Wed, Sep 12, 2018, 8:10 AM UTC

Gustomaximus wrote: post #164

cs702 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Their basic underlying assumption appears to be that they're no longer in danger of losing customers and can now act accordingly. Speaking as a longtime customer, I agree: this is what Amazon's behavior feels like to me nowadays. Search no longer works well for me. Reviews and product ratings are no longer trustworthy. The authenticity of products in key categories (e.g., electronics) can no longer be taken for gra…

Does it though? 1) The day Amazon feel threatened they can become the cheapest in the market quickly again. 2) Given purchasing power scale and people like fast delivery there will only be a handful of companies that can complete with Amazon ever, so it seems unlikely there will be a 'started in the garage' business compete with them now the market is maturing. 3) With the extra profit Amazon are making vs a competit…

Maybe not someone in a garage, but Alibaba and Tenecent are coming up behind them, and once they set up fulfillment centers in the States (to solve the fast shipping), Amazon may lose a lot of ground very quickly.

Also ebay and Walmart are hardly unknown, and as people get more fed up with the fakes on Amazon, they know where to look.

Incidentally, I kinda prefer to shop at Alibaba where I know it will be fake then on Amazon or Walmart where I can fall into the trip of thinking it is real (because it might be...).

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#529

Post by danmaz74 » Wed, Sep 12, 2018, 9:02 AM UTC

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…

As a very long time and satisfied-but-worried Amazon customer, I think that prices going up was something to be expected and not a surprise at all. Instead, the way they're dropping the ball with customer satisfaction is really surprising: I recently moved to London and started buying even more stuff online - most of it from Amazon, even if I often try to find alternatives just because I don't want them to become a monopoly.

But the amount of broken or 'wrong' stuff I'm getting is really surprising. From one point of view this is very concerning to me as a customer. From another point of view, it's motivating me to find alternatives much more than just the idealistic worry was doing, so, there's at least a good point here.

Re: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads

#530

Post by exhaze » Wed, Sep 12, 2018, 9:08 AM UTC

azernik wrote: post #476

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…

You're assuming Facebook has actually hit stages 5-7; user numbers indicate that it's plateaued in North America, with slight declines in Europe... after reaching market penetration of around 50% of *total population.

While user numbers have plateaued, I think the story is more nuanced. It seems like the demographics of FB have been changing rapidly - what it indicates to me that their ratio of acquisitions to churn is decreasing, with most of the new acquisitions coming from an older demographic. So, you're both right - young people are leaving/becoming inactive on FB, while being replaced by older people.