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PriceZombie is shutting down

pricezombie.com

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Re: PriceZombie is shutting down

#151

Post by lukebennett »

ikeboy wrote: post #116
mwexler wrote: post #30

All the comments on "don't rely on 1 customer" are correct, of course, but I'm more interested in how, as far back as the 80s, we all believed in the magic of having something show us the best price for an item. Now, sure, it may often be Amazon, but not always, and they don't carry everything. So, multiple price engines come and go. Why? Because consumers won't pay for them, and so they rely on kickbacks from mercha…

What's wrong with Google shopping? I've found deals using it, it's had greater than zero value for me. >What kind of service would one have to create that grabs prices but can charge consumers so it's not depending on affiliate vig? I've got a handful of ideas about this and have been considering a startup along these lines. I think that you need to take control of the actual purchase, so then it's just "Oh, I paid l…

Google Shopping requires vendors to pay for inclusion so it isn't a fair comparison of what's actually available. What makes matters worse is that they don't make that clear so people think it's fairer than it is.

Re: PriceZombie is shutting down

#152

Post by stale2002 »

hvo wrote: post #46

Padmapper was forced to shut down too by Craigslist.When are we going to learn that this type of business model is unsustainable? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4149455

Padmapper ended up fine though.... They just got acquired for millions.

Re: PriceZombie is shutting down

#153

Post by stale2002 »

heyplanet wrote: post #93

UPDATE: Hey, lot's of downvotes for this post. Would be great if you guys could explain why you downvote. Sorry, but not much sympathy from me. 1) You knowingly violated the terms of service. Therefore you are denied service now. Nothing to complain about. Honestly, if the API of my website would be intentionally abused in a way that I explicitly exclude in my TOS, I would be seriously pissed. I would probably think…

They were TOLD that they were 100% in compliance with the rules and that there was no problem. And then one day things changed for no reason.

Re: PriceZombie is shutting down

#154

Post by loco5niner »

ValentineC wrote: post #52
mattlutze wrote: post #22

The issue here wasn't that they were just using Amazon's API and then lost access. The Amazon TOS says don't store and display our old prices and, per the post, that's what PriceZombie was doing. The lesson is that if you're doing something in violation of a partner's TOS and start to negatively effect their business, the partner is well within their rights to cut off access. Whether other businesses have or haven't…

The Amazon TOS says don't store and display our old prices How is Amazon fine with CamelCamelCamel [1] then? It seems like they make money off Amazon affiliate links too. [1] http://camelcamelcamel.com/blog/how-our-price-checking-syste...

shhhhh ;-)

Re: PriceZombie is shutting down

#155

Post by riskable »

frogpelt wrote: post #138
gdulli wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never got Prime because the yearly cost of it (even before the price went up) did not amortize to an acceptable shipping cost. I take the slower free shipping because I'm not impatient or buying on impulse. So I've never been locked into Amazon and always been free to shop around. And I can absolutely confirm that Amazon is no longer the "default" winner on price. Sometimes they are, but often not. I don't even hav…

Walmart still meets or beats them on price many times and I can buy online and pick it up on my way home which is effectively same-day delivery.

That requires leaving the house though. Even worse, it requires going in to Walmart.

Re: PriceZombie is shutting down

#156

Post by shostack »

AznHisoka wrote: post #142
acconrad wrote: post #4

YC partner Aaron Harris had a similar problem with his first startup[1], and is a lesson for all startups: It's risky to rely on one customer for the majority of your revenue. 90% of PriceZombie's revenue was dependent on affiliate revenue, and thus Amazon. Similarly, virtually all of TutorSpree's revenue was dependent on SEO, and thus on Google, and when Google changed their algorithm, they saw a similar fate. [1] h…

This is part of the risk of startups/business. This is like the opposite of survivorship bias... Think about all the successful companies out there that DO depend on third parties: - Buffer (Twitter has a bad day? Cut their API access off!) - Candy Crush (Apple hates them? Remove their apps!) - RetailMeNot (Google thinks they're spam! Delist them!) - DuckDuckGo (Bing hates them? Cut off their API access) - Heroku (Am…

Just because these companies are doing well today says nothing of the potential impact this (still very present) risk holds for them.

Re: PriceZombie is shutting down

#157

Post by pink_dinner »

"However, our appeals to Amazon affiliate program administrators (associates@amazon.com) and even Jeff Bezos (jeff@amazon.com) were either ignored or answered incompletely, leaving us wondering if anyone was listening. "

This is pretty standard for Amazon marketplace seller services. They take a 16%+ cut of all of your sales and have absolutely nobody to help you when your account is banned or disabled by one of their auto bots.

This happened to a client of mine a few years back. Near 100% feedback, complying with every rule, and one day they get the ban hammer (for a claim that was later withdrawn by the original person that filed it).

Amazon withheld $50,000 for over 3 months while they were 'investigating'. After 3 emails where Amazon responded with canned responses, they said the matter was 'closed' and all future emails would not be answered.

Do NOT do business with Amazon. You will end up sorry and probably without a business. As as an associate or marketplace seller, they own all of your clients and you are responsibly for anything bad that happens. When you get kicked, they have all of your data, your clients, and your money for 90 days.

On top of this, they compete with their own marketplace sellers (unlike Ebay) and use all of your sales information to undercut you. I witnessed it many times with the above client.

This should be against the law. I think the only reason they haven't been sued out of existence is because their so big.

Re: PriceZombie is shutting down

#158

Post by shostack »

As others here have noted, the affiliate game is a risky one. You are in essence a sales rep for whichever merchant(s) you work with. A merchant has ZERO legal obligation to continue working with you, and can often discriminate against you as they see fit, terms be damned.

If you don't own the relationship with your primary source of revenue, your business is built on a rocky foundation, and if the weather is fickle enough, you can be washed away overnight.

Having been an affiliate, managed an affiliate program, and worked with an OPM to manage the program, I can say that stuff like this happens all the time in the industry, and that's why the #1 rule for affiliates is "diversify diversify diversify."

Re: PriceZombie is shutting down

#159

Post by ikeboy »

MrApathy wrote: post #146
ikeboy wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's wrong with Google shopping? I've found deals using it, it's had greater than zero value for me. >What kind of service would one have to create that grabs prices but can charge consumers so it's not depending on affiliate vig? I've got a handful of ideas about this and have been considering a startup along these lines. I think that you need to take control of the actual purchase, so then it's just "Oh, I paid l…

> What's wrong with Google shopping? I've found deals using it, it's had greater than zero value for me. The Google shopping that exists today is not the same service that was originally launched. It used to function more like a standard search, but limited to all online stores. So long as there wasn't a robots.txt, Google was index the site and include the product in their shopping results. So basically like standar…

I know that they moved to paid inclusion, but as I said, it's still useful. GP said it was "killed", and that seemed too much.
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