51–60 of 69 posts
These companies aren't on a collision course - they collided a long time ago.
If I can't buy it via Amazon, I probably won't buy it. I trust the reviews, and I trust them to play fair if they've sent the wrong thing, to such a degree that any other avenue feels like a big waste of my time.
- I only shop on Amazon
- every general question(1) is answered on Wikipedia
- every programming question(1) is answered on StackOverflow
so a generalist search engine isn't as essential as it was when those category killers didn't exist.
(1): that I can think of
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This is so true. The last thing I've recently bought at a retailer other than amazon felt like a hassle. I decided to buy some glasses from "39 dollar glasses".com -- they offered overnight shipping, which is something I've gotten used to thanks to Amazon. I've been sitting in my office all day waiting for them to get here, and they haven't, so I got on their website and talked to a person via chat. I found out that…
Glasses are a poor example because they have to be customized for each customer. Did you really think that they had your prescription with your choice of lens coating in stock that they could just ship out to you next day?
So this is a bit of a tangent, but I'm a bit of a fan of economist Hyman Minsky (fascinating, accessible writing on economics btw). One of the really interesting things that Minsky repeatedly points out is that advertising isn't technologically necessary. It's kinda mind-boggling to step back and think that the main service (advertising) that one of the most valuable companies in world charges for is entirely unneces…
I live in a world as free from advertising as I can make it (AdBlock + no tv + no radio), and I do get along fine. What's interesting is that advertising that doesn't concern you isn't as annoying as advertising for products that you're able to buy. I love The Daily Show, but sometimes, for some reason, it only works with AdBlock disabled. All ads on The Daily Show are for American products not available here (fast f…
Did you know they now have video ads where you have to type the text of the product slogan if you want to skip the ad?
It's a bit annoying.
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Will Amazon be willing to customize their engine to meet the needs of specific markets? Not everything is "sell item X to person Y, ship to Z".
Yea, in store pickup, and local delivery by a store are two things I doubt Amazon is prepared to handle well.
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Glasses are a poor example because they have to be customized for each customer. Did you really think that they had your prescription with your choice of lens coating in stock that they could just ship out to you next day?
Yes. Lenscrafters etc. have been doing 1 hour glasses since the 1990s.
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Yea, in store pickup, and local delivery by a store are two things I doubt Amazon is prepared to handle well.
Amazon does something similar to in store pickups in Japan. They'll deliver to a convenience store near you and you can pick it up there-it's a very popular option.
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Yes. Lenscrafters etc. have been doing 1 hour glasses since the 1990s.
With an extensive network of lens millers who are distributed so that each worker has a short list of lenses to grind, which are all destined for local customers.
My impression is that when I buy glasses at lenscrafters, they're grinding lenses there, in house.
Are you saying that they're couriered around my city when I order them or something?
So this is a bit of a tangent, but I'm a bit of a fan of economist Hyman Minsky (fascinating, accessible writing on economics btw). One of the really interesting things that Minsky repeatedly points out is that advertising isn't technologically necessary. It's kinda mind-boggling to step back and think that the main service (advertising) that one of the most valuable companies in world charges for is entirely unneces…
Advertising and sales, are product info and persuasive information.
Product info is relatively straightforward I think. Persuasive information is credible information about the buyer that explains why the product is needed. The reviews on Amazon serve this need. The websites of camping enthusiasts or cooking enthusiasts etc etc serve this need in Google.
They aren't going away, the work is being done by entities other than the manufacturer. They're being outsourced to amazon or the buyers peers, but the work still needs to get done.