The making of Amazon Prime, the internet's most devastating membership program • Hacker News Board

Re: The making of Amazon Prime, the internet's most devastating membership program

#21

Post by max76 » Fri, May 03, 2019, 4:11 PM UTC

sveng wrote: post #3

oldjokes wrote: post #2

They just stratified online shopping. Everything is becoming more and more stratified, from airline cabins to online content to education. I'd argue that copying this trend and tweaking the spreadsheets to extract money in a more fine grained manner while just cutting every dime on the lower tier is not exactly innovation. Holding this up on a pedestal as the great moment of triumph and creativity in tech is not real…

Not sure if you actually read this article. It’s excellent, especially its narrative stitched together with first-person, you-are-there, accounts. Rather timely also since Amazon announced this week that it’s working on one day deliveries for Prime customers. And those in the know will tell you that same-day (even 2-4 hours!) deliveries are on the roadmap for Prime customers in major metro areas.

> Rather timely also since Amazon announced this week that it’s working on one day deliveries for Prime customers.

> And those in the know will tell you that same-day (even 2-4 hours!) deliveries are on the roadmap for Prime customers in major metro areas.

In Seattle we already have next day and same day shipping for a lot of merchandise. It drastically reduces the amount of time I spend in physical retailers.

Re: The making of Amazon Prime, the internet's most devastating membership program

#22

Post by ensignavenger » Fri, May 03, 2019, 4:16 PM UTC

omega3 wrote: post #20

As an active subscriber, I find Prime very frustrating, the plethora of different benefits on offer sounds amazing. However, in practice Video doesn't have the shows and movies I want to watch, Reading doesn't have the books I want to read, Music doesn't have the music I want to listen to and shopping still takes two days to arrive (to one of the biggest cities in the UK). It seems every time I want to watch a movie…

This is exactly why I am no longer a Prime subscriber. I rarely order from Amazon anymore because they deliberately delay shipping because I am not on Prime, and I can order from ebay or Walmart and get my stuff within 2-3 days usually, for the same price or less. Prime has a few shows I might watch, but it filtering what I can and can't watch free with Prime is impossible (or at least was the last time I had it). Netflix has a lot more interesting content to me, and I don't have to worry about ads for paid content in my search results.

Re: The making of Amazon Prime, the internet's most devastating membership program

#23

Post by praneshp » Fri, May 03, 2019, 4:29 PM UTC

daveFNbuck wrote: post #18

save_ferris wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What shocked me was that after I let my Prime membership expire and ordered something to be shipped, I got the usual 7-10 business day ETA on my package. The package came the next day, and no extra cost to me. I've made two other orders since then, and they both arrived next day despite the order confirmation telling me 7-10 days. I'm sure that there's some shipping infrastructure slack that allows them to do this, b…

Meanwhile, I pay for prime and experience extremely unreliable shipping.

If you don't normalize for where you live I think it's an apples to oranges comparison.

Re: The making of Amazon Prime, the internet's most devastating membership program

#24

Post by Funes- » Fri, May 03, 2019, 4:29 PM UTC

sevensor wrote: post #19

Back in 2005 or so, I had a friend who was working at Amazon. When he told me he was ordering things like toothpaste, I could hardly believe it. His apartment was in easy walking distance of a drugstore, and I thought him ordering toothpaste from an online bookseller instead was insane. Little did I know he was living in the future.

Yes, in a horrid future we find ourselves in right now. And it's just getting started.

Re: The making of Amazon Prime, the internet's most devastating membership program

#25

Post by mikeash » Fri, May 03, 2019, 4:33 PM UTC

save_ferris wrote: post #16

sveng wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if you actually read this article. It’s excellent, especially its narrative stitched together with first-person, you-are-there, accounts. Rather timely also since Amazon announced this week that it’s working on one day deliveries for Prime customers. And those in the know will tell you that same-day (even 2-4 hours!) deliveries are on the roadmap for Prime customers in major metro areas.

What shocked me was that after I let my Prime membership expire and ordered something to be shipped, I got the usual 7-10 business day ETA on my package. The package came the next day, and no extra cost to me. I've made two other orders since then, and they both arrived next day despite the order confirmation telling me 7-10 days. I'm sure that there's some shipping infrastructure slack that allows them to do this, b…

I’ve never had Prime and often get fast service anyway like you describe. It’s not totally consistent, though. I assume their logistics are so good that they can usually fulfill an order quickly at no extra cost because they have it in a nearby warehouse, but sometimes you hit cases where the closest item is still on the other side of the country. In that case, Prime would get you fast shipping and the free, slow shipping won’t.

Re: The making of Amazon Prime, the internet's most devastating membership program

#26

Post by teh_klev » Fri, May 03, 2019, 4:35 PM UTC

omega3 wrote: post #20

As an active subscriber, I find Prime very frustrating, the plethora of different benefits on offer sounds amazing. However, in practice Video doesn't have the shows and movies I want to watch, Reading doesn't have the books I want to read, Music doesn't have the music I want to listen to and shopping still takes two days to arrive (to one of the biggest cities in the UK). It seems every time I want to watch a movie…

As a fellow UK customer I very much agree with you. So much so that I just cancelled my Prime membership. These days I buy most of my books second hand (very few marketplace sellers do Prime) so I'm having to pay for postage anyway. Amazon have also introduced "Channels" (MGM, Starz etc) so there's a bunch of content that's now silo'd off in these channels that you need to pony up for on top of the Prime subscription.

I'll use Amazon to rent movies now and again. When there's a new season of something like "The Man in the High Castle" or complete seasons of other stuff I like become available then I'll pay for just a month to watch these then cancel the sub again.

I also find it slightly annoying when Prime deliveries go from "Next day" to "Two days" randomly, especially around holiday seasons. I queried this with them giving examples of SKU's that two days before were available Next Day and then suddenly change to Two Day delivery despite being in stock, but it's like talking to a brick wall.

Perhaps in the US it's a different story where due to licensing there's a much larger selection of content available, but the UK Prime is a bit meagre.

Re: The making of Amazon Prime, the internet's most devastating membership program

#27

Post by chubot » Fri, May 03, 2019, 4:36 PM UTC

orev wrote: post #17

Prime really was a stroke of genius. The free shipping was just the lure. Once you’ve signed up, you’re now invested in using Amazon first for everything “because I’m paying for the membership”. Then they started adding video and the other benefits, and it became such a great value even if you don’t use most of the benefits.

Isn't that exactly what Costco and Sam's Club did?

My dad was a member back in the 80's (and still is). Every time we wanted something, we would wait until he could get it at Costco -- which was further away than Walmart and K-mart -- "because I'm paying for the membership".

Amazon Prime is of course a lot more addictive because of the one-click, not-leaving-your-house thing. But the idea of retail memberships has been around for a long time. I think that psychology was well understood in the retail industry.

Re: The making of Amazon Prime, the internet's most devastating membership program

#28

Post by mfatica » Fri, May 03, 2019, 4:45 PM UTC

Funes- wrote: post #24

sevensor wrote: post #19

Back in 2005 or so, I had a friend who was working at Amazon. When he told me he was ordering things like toothpaste, I could hardly believe it. His apartment was in easy walking distance of a drugstore, and I thought him ordering toothpaste from an online bookseller instead was insane. Little did I know he was living in the future.

Yes, in a horrid future we find ourselves in right now. And it's just getting started.

what's horrid about it exactly?

Re: The making of Amazon Prime, the internet's most devastating membership program

#29

Post by johnwalkr » Fri, May 03, 2019, 5:01 PM UTC

Amazon Prime in Japan is such a great value. It's about $40/year (was $30 until recently) and almost everything I want has next day, if not 2 hour delivery. Prime now (2 hour delivery) started 2 years ago here. The combination of dense neighborhoods and non-car culture in Tokyo means that the delivery companies have enough distribution centers that last-mile delivery is often done by bicycle or foot. It must have been a good place to trial 2 hour delivery with this infrastructure in place. That being said, it's via a different app which feels like a way to hide the premium price, rather than as a natural extension of the normal prime service. The video selection is also pretty good, but the UI and platform lag far behind Netflix. But, it and the other benefits are just a bonus. I'd be interested to know if for other people/regions, video content is the main value with free shipping being the value adder.

Re: The making of Amazon Prime, the internet's most devastating membership program

#30

Post by daveFNbuck » Fri, May 03, 2019, 5:22 PM UTC

praneshp wrote: post #23

daveFNbuck wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meanwhile, I pay for prime and experience extremely unreliable shipping.

If you don't normalize for where you live I think it's an apples to oranges comparison.

That's pretty much our points. Shipping speed is mostly about factors other than Prime membership.