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Retail, search and Amazon’s $40B ‘advertising’ business

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Re: Retail, search and Amazon’s $40B ‘advertising’ business

#221

Post by animal_spirits »

skizm wrote: post #208

Buying things these days: Go to amazon search for product. Find something that looks reasonable. Confirm review section has a reasonable distribution of stars and check out a few 1 and 3/4 star reviews (hope they're written by a human) and see if there are any deal breakers. Go to google and enter " reddit reviews". Go to reddit read reviews and hope they're not written by astroturf accounts, bots, or chatgpt (have t…

Something I heard recently on the cortex podcast is that Amazon is changing customer's understanding of how shipping works. While it is easy to set up a direct to consumer platform for a shop to sell their own goods, the shipping costs surprise the users because they are used to free shipping through Amazon.

Re: Retail, search and Amazon’s $40B ‘advertising’ business

#222

Post by freejazz »

Zetice wrote: post #218
freejazz wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not aware of any but okay, if you insist

You're not aware of other online retailers?

Amazon is more than an online retailer...

Amazon sells ads on its marketplace. It also sells ads that integrate within its marketplace listings in a fashion that can be difficult to discern. It offers a fulfillment service that is integrated with its marketplace. It offers an integrated third party marketplace. These, are of course, facts. Whereas my initial response to was just the hypothetical point that you misunderstand how anti-trust law is applied. I don't think this has been much of a conversation seeing as how you are just being purposefully obtuse. It's clear you are making no efforts to come at this with good faith and I'm not going to bother any further otherwise.

Re: Retail, search and Amazon’s $40B ‘advertising’ business

#223

Post by worik »

mym1990 wrote: post #46
Semaphor wrote: post #31

I went to Amazon without an ad blocker for the first time yesterday (wanted to try the fakespot service, but it requires an extension and "access all" so I created a clean profile for it). I was surprised how many ads there were on Amazon, I thought the situation was already bad with an ad blocker, considering they show a lot of hard-coded ads, but wow.

I am generally getting overwhelmed with ads coming from every nook and cranny of life to the point that I don't even want to buy stuff anymore, for a lot of it its like: whats the point?

I stopped buying stuff when COVID hit

I do buy things, but each purchase is carefully considered.

Happier, wealthier, all good

Re: Retail, search and Amazon’s $40B ‘advertising’ business

#224

Post by Xenoamorphous »

bradleyjg wrote: post #217
mabbo wrote: post #205

I keep trying to explain to people: they aren't "ads" they are "pay for customers to ever see your product". It's an extortion ring, basically. Just like nobody ever opens page 2 of Google search, people rarely scroll down very far on Amazon's product search page. These "ads" just put the highest bidders' products at the top-K spots (and K keeps increasing) so that customers aren't see the most relevant products, jus…

I’ve reduced my usage of Amazon significantly since they made it near impossible to filter out 3rd party sellers. I have no interest in eBay 2.0.

eBay? More like Aliexpress.

Re: Retail, search and Amazon’s $40B ‘advertising’ business

#225

Post by worik »

ctvo wrote: post #183
tantalor wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> then search directly on amazon Crazy idea: skip that step, buy somewhere else

I love when we don't acknowledge the suggestion is the pain point. I can't get to work because I lack access to transportation. Crazy idea buy a car! Geez, why didn't I think of that? Finding a reputable online retailer, with customer service, competitive pricing, and fast delivery that has your product in stock is hard . Managing a list of niche retailers that meet those requirements, one for electronics, one for ho…

> Finding a reputable online retailer, with customer service, competitive pricing, and fast delivery that has your product in stock is hard

Maybe five years ago. Not now

Re: Retail, search and Amazon’s $40B ‘advertising’ business

#226

Post by stronglikedan »

Drblessing wrote: post #211
mabbo wrote: post #205

I keep trying to explain to people: they aren't "ads" they are "pay for customers to ever see your product". It's an extortion ring, basically. Just like nobody ever opens page 2 of Google search, people rarely scroll down very far on Amazon's product search page. These "ads" just put the highest bidders' products at the top-K spots (and K keeps increasing) so that customers aren't see the most relevant products, jus…

You don't like it? Don't shop at Amazon!

Why not? That sounds like cutting off your nose to spite your face! They usually have the best prices and fastest delivery. I'll just ignore the bits I don't like, and still shop there.

Re: Retail, search and Amazon’s $40B ‘advertising’ business

#227

Post by stephenitis »

Drblessing wrote: post #215
stephenitis wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

oddly defensive of Amazon here. I think the criticism is warranted given that Amazon's core ecommerce product is a shadow of it's former self.

"It's an extortion ring... Now it's reaping its reward by selling [customer trust] off wholesale." I think this is hyperbolic. In my experience, they continue to deliver great products at reasonable prices, especially given inflation. I can regularly find the same products cheaper on Amazon than local brick and mortar retailers, as well as online Walmart and other online venues. If this is selling off my trust, they…

I lean more towards your side as I'm still a Amazon Prime user of 10+ years.

They capture at easily 50% of the goods I purchase.

That said for me it's not because they compete on price or quality. its convenience being in an apartment building with the nearest big box everything store being 15-20 minutes drive from me.

Re: Retail, search and Amazon’s $40B ‘advertising’ business

#228

Post by Zetice »

freejazz wrote: post #222
Zetice wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not aware of other online retailers?

Amazon is more than an online retailer... Amazon sells ads on its marketplace. It also sells ads that integrate within its marketplace listings in a fashion that can be difficult to discern. It offers a fulfillment service that is integrated with its marketplace. It offers an integrated third party marketplace. These, are of course, facts. Whereas my initial response to was just the hypothetical point that you misund…

So… walmart.com?

You can use outrage if you want, but the fact remains that Amazon has nothing even approaching a monopoly, not in the legal sense and not in any layperson sense.

You’re kind of proving my point for me, that there’s no actual argument here, just general negative sentiment.

Re: Retail, search and Amazon’s $40B ‘advertising’ business

#229

Post by Marsymars »

sithadmin wrote: post #170
DeathArrow wrote: post #120

I never encountered ads on Amazon, so out of curiosity I disabled uBlock Origin and visited Amazon. It seems that the ads are for products sold on Amazon. Clicking an ad redirects you to the product page. Until now I thought that sites where you go to spend money are free of ads. This is a new low. What's next, ads on banking apps? Ads on the revenue service website? I think ads play the biggest part in why the Inter…

Pretty much every banking app I've used in recent memory (Chase, Citi, AmEx) has some kind of ad in it. Either to promote the bank's services, or promoting partnership deals (extra points for spending at certain retailers; discounts if you add a retailer's deal to what is basically a virtual coupon book). They're not quite as intrusive at Amazon's search result ads, but they're there.

I just don’t use banking apps. If a bank doesn’t have a fully-featured website for me to use with a desktop browser, I won’t use that bank.

Re: Retail, search and Amazon’s $40B ‘advertising’ business

#230

Post by atlasunshrugged »

bradleyjg wrote: post #217
mabbo wrote: post #205

I keep trying to explain to people: they aren't "ads" they are "pay for customers to ever see your product". It's an extortion ring, basically. Just like nobody ever opens page 2 of Google search, people rarely scroll down very far on Amazon's product search page. These "ads" just put the highest bidders' products at the top-K spots (and K keeps increasing) so that customers aren't see the most relevant products, jus…

I’ve reduced my usage of Amazon significantly since they made it near impossible to filter out 3rd party sellers. I have no interest in eBay 2.0.

Agreed, the only thing I buy from them anymore are books because I know what I'm getting (that said, trying out Bookshop to support local bookstores but they're often more expensive)
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