321–330 of 466 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Amazon the marketplace isn’t terribly innovative. It’s a marketplace supported by fantastic logistics, and most of it is backed by USPS anyways. There’s only so much you can do to remove the pains from buyers, sounds like we’re there.
> and most of it is backed by USPS anyways Amazon does not do business in US only
Thought exercise because I legitimately struggle with this. Is this fundamentally different than Costco using sales data to choose which Kirkland products to launch/sell? If so, how? If not, then why do we not pursue Costco with the same gusto as Amazon? To me this behavior by Amazon seems worse, but I can't figure out why.
But perhaps one way to resolve this dissonance is to consider that Costco's behavior is anti-competitive too. They are a beloved brand, but that doesn't mean our emotional attachment to Kirkland products is an accurate reality-based moral stance.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This just isn't really true. It depends on what type of product you're selling, but there are a huge number of independent ecommerce stores that do extremely well. I sell dog treat mix (coopersdogtreats.com) - I do much better both in terms of margins and overall sales on my own website (with traffic coming primarily via paid FB ads) than on Amazon. That's not even including other huge marketplaces like walmart.com,…
I'm happy to read what you are saying, and stand corrected. I wonder, though. Do you think your experience is typical? Am I wrong to think that your product is more niche and premium than the most products that are sold via the Amazon marketplace? Do you think that you might get more repeat business than most products sold on Amazon? It's been a while since I've looked into pricing for FB ads, but my sense is that a…
You are 100% right that my products are niche and premium, and that definitely makes a difference. But on the other hand, if you're a startup selling a commodity product, you're in a bad position for a whole lot of reasons other than Amazon.
From an advertising standpoint, you're right - I have the advantage of selling a product that has a high repeat rate, and that's helpful. On the other hand, my AOV is fairly low and my margins are okay but not extraordinary.
I think that the points you're raising here are what matter - not Amazon. If you're in a business that is one of: high AOV, high margin, subscription/frequent repeat customers then you're okay. If you're in a low margin, commodity business and you aren't operating at a huge scale, you're not in a great spot.
Ultimately, I think the actual value added by Amazon for startups is trust - I know that if I order from them, your product will arrive on time, and if there's an issue it'll get fixed ASAP. All of the other stuff, like two-day shipping and customer-friendly return policies, is doable off of Amazon. Even trust is achievable in other ways, though - my company was featured in an Associated Press article that was broadly syndicated, and when I slapped "AS SEEN ON USA TODAY, FOX, KTLA AND MORE" on the top of every product page and the top of my FB ads, it made a huge difference immediately.
And actually now that I've typed that I'll add one more thing in Amazon's favor - ease of use. If you don't know a lot about ecommerce, it's pretty easy to get set up and ship them product. It's also easy to advertise, simply because their advertising is much, much simpler than Facebook. There's no copy and limited ability to use creative outside of your product images, so you don't have to constantly test stuff. While my sales on Amazon aren't high margin, they're also extremely low effort.
Thought exercise because I legitimately struggle with this. Is this fundamentally different than Costco using sales data to choose which Kirkland products to launch/sell? If so, how? If not, then why do we not pursue Costco with the same gusto as Amazon? To me this behavior by Amazon seems worse, but I can't figure out why.
In contrast Amazon takes on zero risk. It snoops on the data of transactions, and then launches competing products.
Amazon should be nationalized. All these 3rd party companies want is a "farmers market", a stall to sell their wares. Give them the municipal software infrastructure they need to do so and maintain it as a public good.
For one, large government software projects are almost always disastrous, even in developed countries. Secondly, that isn’t what sellers want. Many sellers use Amazon to fulfill their orders. Amazon is far more than just a “market stall”.
I find that UK and USA governments are worse at IT than Russia and Czech Republic. Maybe it's age of the lawmakers, or over-reliance on old sustem, I dont know
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It really feels like you're twisting reality. Amazon went 2 years without paying _income_ tax, not 4. Amazon paid $3.5 billion in taxes in 2019 (some of which was differed, but still owed). That is over 25% of their income that year. Their federal income tax rate came out to 1.6%, but its borderline lying to say "they paid a measly 1.6% in taxes". Amazon is an awful company. There is no reason to bend the truth to tr…
I misread the article, and I'll correct the 4 to 2 years now. Income is income though, not sales or payroll which are the expected and manageable operating costs of overhead and human resources. If I win the lottery, almost 50% of my winnings go back to the state, and I haven't even bought anything with those winnings. What's different about Amazon having a banner year?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
2nd sentence in the article: >“I can’t guarantee you that that policy has never been violated,” 4th sentence in the article: >identifying one case in which an employee used the access to improve sales. So only violated once...
That they are telling us about.
The most interesting part of the HN discussion is not about the definition of what Amazon is doing, but the occasional misunderstanding of how large brick and mortar retail businesses operate at scale (see: buying shelf space/payment dependant on sales/etc). There are lots of folks on here that understand what Amazon is doing, less who understand retail businesses mechanisms. I'm not sure what Amazon is doing is lega…
Amazon is both a retailer in the sense that they sell products, but also owns the entire marketplace as well.