Retail, search and Amazon’s $40B ‘advertising’ business • Hacker News Board

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

#181

Post by bombcar » Tue, Mar 07, 2023, 2:41 PM UTC

Regnore wrote: post #52

prawn wrote: post #14

I've noticed Bunnings (like Home Depot, but in Australia) adding "Marketplace" listings for non-store things to their website. I assume that there's either an internal push to become more like Amazon, or consultants pitch this approach to them and it's hard to resist. I wonder what the numbers are for supermarkets and the way they prioritise shelf placements? A friend had a big contract recently going around and hi-r…

I assumed that this is a legal requirement for all big online stores - is that not the case?

No, it's a blatant cash-grab by all big online stores.

And for awhile you can continue to search "shipped and sold by Company" but eventually that goes away, because the marketplace shit is pure profit for them.

It sells out the brand and turns them all into eBay/Alibaba clones and it's a major danger sign.

More and more I have to restrict Walmart to "stocked in store" to avoid useless crap.

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

#182

Post by idopmstuff » Tue, Mar 07, 2023, 2:44 PM UTC

gumby wrote: post #163

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…

You know products labeled as Amazon's choice? Those are actually ads. Search for a product by a specific manufacturer and see that first in the results is a (usually) similar product from a different manufacturer? An ad. They also use their customer data to sell ads off the Amazon site.

This is wrong. You can't pay for those labels; Amazon auto-assigns them based on sales data.

Source: I sell on Amazon and one of my products is Amazon's choice for something.

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

#183

Post by ctvo » Tue, Mar 07, 2023, 2:45 PM UTC

tantalor wrote: post #176

MagicMoonlight wrote: post #97

Amazon is really shit now. You try to buy a product and instead of showing you the actual brands it just shows you alibaba scam products. I have to go to other sites and find the actual products and then search directly on amazon. It won’t be long before I just stop using amazon altogether.

> 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 home goods, one for furniture, etc. etc. is not something people want to do. Convenience drives behavior, and until there's an aggregator that does a good enough job (Google shopping or whatever isn't it), convenience will still drive people to Amazon.

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

#184

Post by bombcar » Tue, Mar 07, 2023, 2:46 PM UTC

DeathArrow wrote: post #153

It's that really hard to buy from other online stores? Sure, you won't have all things together and you might have to use a few stores to replace Amazon, but overall it might be a better experience.

Amazon does have some major advantages in the "free shipping" areas, but those are starting to be outclassed, especially as Prime becomes more and more shit.

The "free delivery" minimums are pretty easy to hit at some place like Walmart or Target or Home Depot, and often it's just free shipping period.

And since 2day shipping is dead at Amazon even with prime, you just start cart-collecting and ship when it hits the amount.

Or you pay shipping to places like Monoprice, rather do that than pay amazon "more" for the "same thing (literally)" with free shipping.

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

#185

Post by patrickk » Tue, Mar 07, 2023, 2:53 PM UTC

input_sh wrote: post #129

Anon4Now wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you use Chrome, then switch to another browser that allows full adblocker functionality. I use Firefox with UBlock Origin and hardly see any ads.

Sponsored segments on YouTube. Billboards. Sponsored texts in newspapers. "YC XXX is hiring" on HN. I use Firefox + uBlock Origin + Sponsorblock and a few others. Ads are still everywhere. Not as everywhere as they'd be without it, but it's not like adblocks get rid of them all together.

On iOS I can recommend sideloading uYou app for YouTube which includes sponsor block. AltStore is the side load app provider that I use.

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

#186

Post by dahfizz » Tue, Mar 07, 2023, 3:02 PM UTC

input_sh wrote: post #129

Anon4Now wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you use Chrome, then switch to another browser that allows full adblocker functionality. I use Firefox with UBlock Origin and hardly see any ads.

Sponsored segments on YouTube. Billboards. Sponsored texts in newspapers. "YC XXX is hiring" on HN. I use Firefox + uBlock Origin + Sponsorblock and a few others. Ads are still everywhere. Not as everywhere as they'd be without it, but it's not like adblocks get rid of them all together.

Its trivial to skip ahead of the sponsor reads in youtube vids, or to scroll past the "is hiring" posts.

Frankly, these are minor annoyances. The people who get emotionally overwhelmed by them perhaps should resolve that internally rather than externally. Life is never going to be free from minor annoyances.

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

#187

Post by NotYourLawyer » Tue, Mar 07, 2023, 3:04 PM UTC

beachy wrote: post #70

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.

The most satisfying experience for me at the moment is the suggestions I get on a new tab in chrome on Android. Not because the suggestions are amazingly good - sometimes they're ok - but because when they lead to some crap-infested site I can click to not see that site any more. That ability to cull keeps the suggestions workable for me. I genuinely think the Google would benefit hugely by making this a possibility…

If the suggestions are only ok, why not just disable them and stop wasting your time curating them?

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

#188

Post by yamtaddle » Tue, Mar 07, 2023, 3:06 PM UTC

jefftk wrote: post #156

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…

> This is a new low. Like many things people criticize Amazon for "starting", this has a long history in retail. When you walk into a store and see an attractive display at the end of an aisle full of products from one brand, that is a "end cap" and is something that brand paid for.

Ads on the store search is more like you ask a clerk to help you find one thing and they show you three other things first.

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

#189

Post by softwaredoug » Tue, Mar 07, 2023, 3:17 PM UTC

From https://www.amazon.jobs/content/en/our-workplace/leadership-...

> Leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust.

What do you do when a product serves two customers (shoppers and advertisers?)

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

#190

Post by jtbayly » Tue, Mar 07, 2023, 3:18 PM UTC

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…

> What's next, ads on banking apps?

That's old. It seems like every time I login I get a promo of some sort pushing me to sign up for some product offering they have. New low rate this, new high rate that. And you can't block them. It's a full page. I can't get my account page to load until I click "not interested" or something.