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Nike won’t sell directly to Amazon anymore

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Re: Nike won’t sell directly to Amazon anymore

#91

Post by beart »

wufufufu wrote: post #60

So in this world where every retailer does this I get to install N apps, re-enter my payment/shipping information N times, deal with N different return processes, update my credit card info N times when it changes, and have N questionably written systems know all my PII? I honestly much prefer shopping on the Nike app over Amazon, but I'm going to go to Amazon to buy whatever I found on that app.

Isn't this what the internet was like before Amazon and largely the reason that everyone had a paypal account which would prevent having to maintain payment accounts at every retailer?

Re: Nike won’t sell directly to Amazon anymore

#92

Post by ncallaway »

rubbingalcohol wrote: post #17

Amazon sells so many counterfeit Nike products that I've been using Nike and Adidas' online stores for quite awhile. Amazon is so bad when it comes to counterfeits that there are only two conditions that will lead me to purchase an item there anymore: - Either the item is listed as being sold by its original manufacturer and fulfilled by Amazon - Or I just need something and don't care if it's cheap Chinese crap I'm…

Oh, man. I've ordered a couple of pairs of Adidas shoes from Amazon that wore out exceptionally quickly. I had been assuming that Adidas had been suffering from a drop in quality lately.

Now that you mention it, though, I'll bet I wasn't getting authentic stuff. I'm going to purchase a pair from Adidas directly and see if the quality is better.

If it is better quality, I'll be kicking myself. I know Amazon has these kinds of problems, but I just didn't connect it to those shoes before.

Re: Nike won’t sell directly to Amazon anymore

#93

Post by gangstead »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #31
jolmg wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, you want to present the same price to all customers.

Yeah, I don't know why you'd do what they're prescribing. It's just misleading and seems more like a dark pattern. As if "free shipping" will manipulate them to make the purchase. People already understand the price of an object vs the cost of sending that object somewhere in the world. Everyone understands $100 shoes with a shipping fee, not $105-$130 shoes that shape-shift depending on where the person lives that o…

My problem is that for a lot of small sites, especially auto parts in my experience, will have an outsized shipping cost that totally ruins the deal.

One example I found recently was a couple of small brake light bulbs. $4.13 plus $14 shipping from a parts dealer or $5.75 plus free shipping from Amazon. Initially you think the price is great, it's cheaper than Amazon! Then you find out they have a hard time sourcing padded envelopes.

Re: Nike won’t sell directly to Amazon anymore

#94

Post by awa »

dehrmann wrote: post #35
davidhyde wrote: post #3

People don't mind buying from a vendor's site directly but the vendor should do their best to reduce the admin / pain of doing so. Some tips I wish vendors would follow: 1. Don't capture more information than is absolutely necessary for the transaction. 2. Don't force the user to sign up or join anything if they just want to buy something. 3. Don't automatically add the user to your newsletter and send their details…

I'm slightly surprised there isn't room for a logistics company that can give smaller retailers Amazon-level efficiencies, but not have ecommerce ambitions, itself. And it should be branded (like Amazon Prime), not just someone in the backround, so people know it will ship quickly, arrive quickly, and have a good level of support.

Shoprunner tried to be somewhere in that niche, but it kind of has died down after the initial hype, I still see a few sites using it but the big retailers seems to be gone from the program.

Re: Nike won’t sell directly to Amazon anymore

#95

Post by eropple »

W-Stool wrote: post #79
bliblah wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is that Amazon and other 3rd party vendors actually offer deals. I was in the market for some headphones and had a specific brand and make in mind and when I looked in their site they were more than $100 more than Amazon. This has held true for me for a lot of items and even when using price tracker it is pretty much no contest to just buy off any reputable vendor most of the time. I think it's just that th…

What are the chances that the deal you found on Amazon involved counterfeit goods? That’s been a big problem with audio and electronics on Amazon recently.

People say it's a big problem but to date, having bought in the low five digits of audio and video hardware mostly from Amazon, I've had zero (obvious) counterfeits and very little defective gear generally, all of which was manufacturer sourced.

I'm sure that counterfeiting is a real problem, but I don't know how pervasive it actually is.

Re: Nike won’t sell directly to Amazon anymore

#96

Post by gamblor956 »

wil421 wrote: post #66
gamblor956 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless it's sold by Amazon itself. Amazon is quite good at making sure their own inventory is never commingled with FBA inventory due to the risk of counterfeits infiltrating their inventory.

I remember reading an article recently that said Amazon will use FBA products and replace them to make shipping faster. Especially if Amazon itself is out of the product. Does anyone have a link or remember what I’m talking about? Just checked and the only counterfeit product I’ve received was RAM and it was sold by Amazon.com. The box was not similar to the original and contained a foil space blanket.

Fulfilled by Amazon, but was it sold by Amazon.com?

I've ordered a ton of stuff from Amazon.com, from electronics to foodstuffs, and never received a counterfeit. However, almost every FBA product I've purchased was sketchy.

Re: Nike won’t sell directly to Amazon anymore

#97

Post by bambax »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #39
tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But seeing $100 shoes then seeing $5 shipping fees tacked on separately will make people feel cheated, and abandon the purchase. They made a decision to spend $100, and now you're trying to make them make another decision to spend $105 instead. Disclosing the shipping fees up front helps a bit, but not completely.

That's what I'm saying. I don't think people feel cheated seeing $100 + $5 S/H. I mean, speak for yourself: do you really feel cheated by the transparency? And if people do feel cheated (I'm unconvinced), I still don't believe they need to be manipulated into thinking that shipping doesn't have cost. These kinds of reality-distortion practices are all too common in tech and ecommerce. It's like Verizon manipulating p…

I prefer to pay 120 with free shipping than 100 + 15 for shipping. Not just me: most people. This has been tested repeatedly. Yet, it seems so irrational that retailers don't believe it. But it's true!! And Amazon wins because of this.

Re: Nike won’t sell directly to Amazon anymore

#98

Post by gamblor956 »

realdlee wrote: post #74
gamblor956 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, Amazon segregates its own inventory from FBA inventory for items where Amazon.com is the seller. FBA inventory only gets commingled with other FBA inventory. Supposedly Amazon now maintains separate inventories for each FBA vendor at some but not all of their distribution warehouses (like their San Bernardino facility).

can you provide a source for this? I've read multiple articles on Amazon doing the opposite. https://www.wsj.com/articles/on-amazon-pooled-merchandise-op...

Amazon used to be a client and I've personally visited their San Bernardino facility and seen firsthand how FBA inventory is segregated from Amazon.com inventory.

Note that the WSJ article is from 2014--several years before my visit. I can't speak to what Amazon was doing with inventory in 2014, but it sure isn't what they were doing in 2017 at their SoCal distribution facilities.

Re: Nike won’t sell directly to Amazon anymore

#99

Post by wil421 »

gamblor956 wrote: post #96
wil421 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember reading an article recently that said Amazon will use FBA products and replace them to make shipping faster. Especially if Amazon itself is out of the product. Does anyone have a link or remember what I’m talking about? Just checked and the only counterfeit product I’ve received was RAM and it was sold by Amazon.com. The box was not similar to the original and contained a foil space blanket.

Fulfilled by Amazon, but was it sold by Amazon.com? I've ordered a ton of stuff from Amazon.com, from electronics to foodstuffs, and never received a counterfeit. However, almost every FBA product I've purchased was sketchy.

Sold by Amazon. My comment has been corrected.

Re: Nike won’t sell directly to Amazon anymore

#100

Post by anonforemplyer »

post_below wrote: post #86
bambax wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

4: Whenever possible (which is, in most cases except for huge and/or super cheap items), incorporate shipping costs into the cost of the product. Then you can say: "Free shipping!"

The problem there is that ecommerce vendors are usually offering products on a variety of channels where price is a major factor in the buying decision. The product is going to be listed in Google shopping, it may have the price attached to organic results, it might be listed on a third party clearinghouse, etc.. And in those cases it's going to show up next to other merchants selling the same product. Inflating the…

"retailers with similar physical infrastructure (Walmart, Kroger, et al)"

There's a lot more to direct-to-consumer logistics than there is to "center-to-store" logistics. Distribution-center-to-store logistics can rely on largish shipments of any individual product, very large shipments for any DC to any store, and has a backup mini-warehouse (aka the back of that Kroger's) for each delivery site.

Amazon can't store ten extra "diamond-coated Samsung Makeupsian-2" cases at your house when you order just the 1. Walmart often stores a few pallets of "nobody wants it" at their stores. Amazon doesn't drop of multiple pallets per deliver (usually, that is); Kroger's never gets less than several pallets at a time. Amazon can't predict what you're going to order months in advance; Target knows they need ten cases of "Fresh Bloom"-scented bleach per month, plus-or-minus 10%. Multi-pallet vs. singleton; buffered vs. just-in-time; predictable-load vs. "I want only one, once, randomly".... there are a lot of differences in the logistics that Amazon faces versus what Kroger/et. al. face.

I honestly do not think that most existing distribution systems could support an FBA-style system w/out massive overhaul. That's not to say that FBA is not replicable... it just requires a massive capital investment and a massive rethink of how to do product logistics. Even if they're good at tech, I don't think the old-school organizations could successfully pull it off.

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