My previous company spent tens of millions on Amazon ads. There was definitely a shift in the past couple years to where it became a necessity. Those in charge just shrugged it off and said it was all part of the game.
Amazon can smell the blood in Ads. And it’s going for it
11–20 of 27 posts
Re: Amazon can smell the blood in Ads. And it’s going for it
#12This sounds awful from a seller perspective, but honestly I don’t care. It is also awful from a customer perspective and I care about that a lot. I used to do most of my shopping on Amazon. Now the ux of it all sucks out loud. I’ll search for a product and the first two results are ads for Chinese knockoffs. They’re constantly trying to sell me shit instead of the thing they have, that I want. It’s like walking around a store with a shopping list, but I have to constantly turn down offers to get what I need.
It’s really bad.
Re: Amazon can smell the blood in Ads. And it’s going for it
#13My previous company spent tens of millions on Amazon ads. There was definitely a shift in the past couple years to where it became a necessity. Those in charge just shrugged it off and said it was all part of the game.
Are we paying more through higher prices or are businesses cutting margins?
Re: Amazon can smell the blood in Ads. And it’s going for it
#14My previous company spent tens of millions on Amazon ads. There was definitely a shift in the past couple years to where it became a necessity. Those in charge just shrugged it off and said it was all part of the game.
Are we paying more through higher prices or are businesses cutting margins?
Anecdotally, I would not say that prices increased due to this specifically. Margins were slightly affected but we made it up in volume.
It incentivized better utilizing data to make smarter choices, and even looking into packaging efficiencies to reduce the volume of the package (and incur less storage and fulfillment costs)
Re: Amazon can smell the blood in Ads. And it’s going for it
#15This sounds awful from a seller perspective, but honestly I don’t care. It is also awful from a customer perspective and I care about that a lot. I used to do most of my shopping on Amazon. Now the ux of it all sucks out loud. I’ll search for a product and the first two results are ads for Chinese knockoffs. They’re constantly trying to sell me shit instead of the thing they have, that I want. It’s like walking aroun…
You have to remember the truth about ads. They're not for the consumer, they're for gatekeeper.
I think individuals have very power in the equation. The loss of one sale is meaningless.
the answer is ... competition or regulation or maybe journalism. You need a godzilla to fight a godzilla.
Re: Amazon can smell the blood in Ads. And it’s going for it
#16Yep, the experience has become a complete piece of shit. It looks like an infestation of MBAs. I'm surprised nevertheless, I have always been impressed by Amazon and I didn't expect this short sighted change of direction
* But amazon is a 5 star experience [this commenter participated in the amazon vine program]
* I have found shopping this store to be very excellent
[would you like to try amazon student Prime for 73 days?]
* all the other comments are fake this store sucks.
Re: Amazon can smell the blood in Ads. And it’s going for it
#17There's a chrome extension called "Amazon Lite" that removes all these sponsored ads and listings from your searches. The only part I don't like about the extension is it minimizes nearly the entire Amazon website down to the bare essentials. I would prefer the normal site, minus all the sponsored junk.
It's still an excellent extension that does what it promises. I suggest giving it a shot.
Re: Amazon can smell the blood in Ads. And it’s going for it
#18To note that this article is some subtle informercial to subscribe to some tool to optimise and automate a sellers ads bidding.
Edit: What a paradox, criticising Amazon for its vampire attitude (takes a cut on the sold price, on shipping costs, on inventory, on returns, on ads). The points are valid, but the author is trying to sell a tool starting at $29 per month + 4.5% of ads cost. This tool could easily be integrated in the Amazon ads system, it wouldn't surprise me.
Re: Amazon can smell the blood in Ads. And it’s going for it
#19This sounds awful from a seller perspective, but honestly I don’t care. It is also awful from a customer perspective and I care about that a lot. I used to do most of my shopping on Amazon. Now the ux of it all sucks out loud. I’ll search for a product and the first two results are ads for Chinese knockoffs. They’re constantly trying to sell me shit instead of the thing they have, that I want. It’s like walking aroun…
You have to remember the truth about ads. They're not for the consumer, they're for gatekeeper. I think individuals have very power in the equation. The loss of one sale is meaningless. the answer is ... competition or regulation or maybe journalism. You need a godzilla to fight a godzilla.
I think we just need a well designed alternative market place that addresses the OP points. Good search engine, a somewhat reliable review system, ease of use for both sellers and buyers.
One thing to keep in mind, Amazon eCommerce kept loosing money for over a decade. Jeff and the investors focused on the long term. I think this time has come already and they geared up to cash in. They want to cash for today and for yesterday.
Re: Amazon can smell the blood in Ads. And it’s going for it
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
First those other eCommerce platforms need to show up. I've been looking for PC parts in the EU and there don't seem to be great choices. Newegg has a good interface but their offer in the EU is poor compared to the US. Amazon filled a lot of these verticals with sometimes the best service they've ever had and often just good enough. Finding someone else for each is hard. But it may be a good business model fot the n…
>I've been looking for PC parts in the EU and there don't seem to be great choices. Have you tried online stores in your country? At least in my country many options exist and they have competitive prices. EU-wide ecommerce is a pipe dream
Why should a consumer bother if amazon is the most convenient and reliable?
I supported a local computer shop in Australia. Umart. My $450 monitor had 1 dead pixel out of the box.
I took it back and was declined a refund or exchange; apparently I need 5.
I had to sell it on gumtree and took a $200 loss.
I bought the monitor again for $500 on amazon, and I know if I get a dead pixel, I’ll get returns no questions asked.
To top it off, one of the employees in store was quite unprofessional.