Amazon’s quest for more, cheaper products has resulted in a flea market of fakes

Post by jklinger410 » Fri, Nov 15, 2019, 8:04 PM UTC

toasterlovin wrote: post #63

jklinger410 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Came here for this. Amazon actually buries the cheapest price products in many searches I have done. eBay is not any better at this point. They are all squeezing to show higher priced products so they can make more money, obviously. Hate to say this but Walmart still seems committed to providing the lowest prices.

FWIW, speaking as a seller, the conventional wisdom is that number of separate orders for a given item as a result of a given search term is the primary driver of search result ranking. Not revenue maximization, in other words.

Post by amznthrowaway4 » Fri, Nov 15, 2019, 8:10 PM UTC

AmVess wrote: post #91

AlexandrB wrote: post #11

Amazon's fulfilment has also become shockingly bad. Most items are shipped in lightly-padded manila envelopes resulting in high percentage of damaged goods if you order books[1], CDs/DVDs/BluRays, video games, or anything else where the packaging is part of the product. eBay is a much better experience in this regard. [1] In an ironic twist, I absolutely refuse to buy books from Amazon anymore.

I received two nvme ssd's in a padded envelope. They could easily have been destroyed. They delivered a $500 video card by slapping a shipping sticker on the product box and shipping it that way. On the other hand, I received a $12 box of wet wipes that came in a giant, nicely padded box. The product itself was in a sturdy box. $400 dollars worth of computer storage was shipped improperly, but Amazon made sure I got…

Post by paxys » Fri, Nov 15, 2019, 8:16 PM UTC

Havoc wrote: post #95

habosa wrote: post #77

My favorite Amazon scam is the Amazon Ship of Theseus[0]. You sell a product, normally a cheap electronic, and build up a decent corpus of positive reviews. A good example is a USB-C cable or something. Then you decide you want to sell a new product in a more competitive subcategory, like Bluetooth Headphones. You then take the _existing_ listing and change it piece by piece. First the pictures, then the title, then…

>Until you have a listing for your headphones that comes with 5,000 pre-made positive reviews! Fk. That's possible? How has Amazon not done anything about that? Like I can get keeping fake stuff out is a losing battle, but that seems like a rather significant design flaw if you can "transfer" reviews like that.

Post by caro_douglos » Fri, Nov 15, 2019, 8:26 PM UTC

amznthrowaway4 wrote: post #156

caro_douglos wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've sat in on calls with Amazon Employees where they tell you to do exactly this to boost sales.......and then deny that they ever did it when you are contacted by the IP rights holder. https://brandservices.amazon.com/projectzero

What team did those people work for?

Post by marcosdumay » Fri, Nov 15, 2019, 8:28 PM UTC

uoaei wrote: post #87

Glyptodon wrote: post #64

Forget counterfeits for a second. Even trying to find something like an ultrasonic cleaner on Amazon is like straight going through AliExpress. But wait! Unless you're buying a very very expensive lab model all the "name brands" look to be sourcing the same way and adding a label too. So the name brands are AliExpress with maybe better QC and 200% markup. But wait! Even looking everywhere else it's the same situation…

What could the problem be, then? Do we point fingers at capitalism? As far as I see it, this is the logical conclusion to capitalism and free markets. Manufacturers produce a product and sell it to many suppliers who all rebrand and mark up in their own ways, competing with each other for market share. As consumers, we are presented with basically only this option because the suppliers have all won the race to the bo…