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The Anti-Amazon Alliance

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Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#3

Post by tinyhouse »

Good article. There are a few unknowns still.

1. Is Google really all in on product search? Their product search is pretty bad at the moment and it's a very challenging search space, esp when you work with tens of thousands of retailers. Going directly to retailer/niche-platform sites usually works better for me. For example, for music related I go to reverb.com, for outdoor to rei.com, etc. I then to Google and Amazon for reviews if needed.

2. Distribution and fast shipping is something Amazon has invested in for decades. I still need to wait longer than a week to receive items from retailers such as REI and others. Not an easy problem to solve.

3. Competing with Prime. Amazon ships everything including groceries. That's a big plus of Prime. Not only you get fast shipment, but you get everything you may need so you rarely need to use a different service. And with a credit card from Amazon you get 5% cash back on purchases. Everything is included.

Disclaimer. I own Amazon stock.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#4

Post by softwaredoug »

As a consultant, I see companies struggling to compete with Amazon (or Amazon-like companies). Most companies struggle for a couple of reasons

- They are ego driven, with legacy execs & others relentlessly protecting their status - whereas Amazon is relentlessly data-driven

- They have poor incentive structures and are feature factories. They value velocity over outcomes. Amazon, by being more data driven, is focused on being extremely outcome oriented

- Because of the first 2, Amazon can give people and groups a tremendous amount of autonomy, whereas other orgs heavily micromanage or have structures that create more politics than value

- There's little place to hide at Amazon (which means you might work your ass off!)

To compete with Amazon, you have to learn from them, and be prepared to adopt their practices as the new industry norm. Not just dismiss them as some relentless and heartless evil empire.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#5

Post by wpietri »

I know Google's doing this for their own reasons, but I'll take the help. I've been an Amazon customer since 1997, but their recent anti-worker actions [1] were the straw [2] that broke the camel's back. I canceled my Prime account, and have decided to start my product search elsewhere. Google's product search has been long neglected, so it's great they're giving it some love.

[1] E.g. from many: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/amazon-fires-two-empl...

[2] Previous straws including the steady decline of their website, increasing fraudulent goods, and so, so many bad customer service experiences.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#6

Post by elorant »

tinyhouse wrote: post #3

Good article. There are a few unknowns still. 1. Is Google really all in on product search? Their product search is pretty bad at the moment and it's a very challenging search space, esp when you work with tens of thousands of retailers. Going directly to retailer/niche-platform sites usually works better for me. For example, for music related I go to reverb.com, for outdoor to rei.com, etc. I then to Google and Amaz…

Furthermore Amazon has warehouses all over the world. I see a product on the US site, I order it while in Greece, it ships from Germany or UK. Ordinary e-commerce can't provide that. If I order a product from a US based e-commerce firm I'll end up paying custom fees. Google's intervention doesn't provide any facilitation in this aspect.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#7

Post by wpietri »

tinyhouse wrote: post #3

Good article. There are a few unknowns still. 1. Is Google really all in on product search? Their product search is pretty bad at the moment and it's a very challenging search space, esp when you work with tens of thousands of retailers. Going directly to retailer/niche-platform sites usually works better for me. For example, for music related I go to reverb.com, for outdoor to rei.com, etc. I then to Google and Amaz…

I generally agree, but 3 is in abeyance right now; I'm getting faster delivery times from other places. And regarding 2, Amazon has been training me for a while (via slow-ship discounts and the Amazon Day thing) that I don't need everything right away. I don't know about everybody else, but that has definitely made it easier for me to try out other vendors.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#8

Post by ardy42 »

tinyhouse wrote: post #3

Good article. There are a few unknowns still. 1. Is Google really all in on product search? Their product search is pretty bad at the moment and it's a very challenging search space, esp when you work with tens of thousands of retailers. Going directly to retailer/niche-platform sites usually works better for me. For example, for music related I go to reverb.com, for outdoor to rei.com, etc. I then to Google and Amaz…

> Is Google really all in on product search? Their product search is pretty bad at the moment and it's a very challenging search space, esp when you work with tens of thousands of retailers.

Honestly, Amazon's own product search is pretty terrible too, unless you're searching for a specific name-brand product. Google might not even have to be very good to be competitive.

The best product search I've actually found is NewEgg's (for computer parts, specifically). They're the only one who's collected enough accurate product metadata to facet their results effectively.

Re: The Anti-Amazon Alliance

#10

Post by btmiller »

wpietri wrote: post #5

I know Google's doing this for their own reasons, but I'll take the help. I've been an Amazon customer since 1997, but their recent anti-worker actions [1] were the straw [2] that broke the camel's back. I canceled my Prime account, and have decided to start my product search elsewhere. Google's product search has been long neglected, so it's great they're giving it some love. [1] E.g. from many: https://www.nbcnews.…

You might not want to hear it, but those that were fired recently were using their company email address to organize union discussions. You just can’t do that, no matter how justified one is to pursue unionizing.
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