Buying things with 1 click is not an Amazon feature I've ever cared to use.
The right product at the right price, fast. That's what matters.
E-commerce will evolve next month as Amazon loses the 1-Click patent
211–220 of 237 posts
Re: E-commerce will evolve next month as Amazon loses the 1-Click patent
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
> madness Why shouldn't something be patentable, just because it's easy to replicate?
Because if an "invention" is obvious it isn't patentable ( http://www.bitlaw.com/source/35usc/103.html ), and many many people see this as being far too obvious to be patentable.
"Obvious" for patentability purposes means obvious in advance, not obvious in hindsight. Before Amazon, nobody had one-click purchasing. They wanted people to sign up, to fill out forms with irrelevant info, and "engage with the customer". After Amazon, many people wanted one-click. That means it wasn't "obvious to one skilled in the art" in advance. For patentability purposes, the best way to demonstrate non-obviousness is to show that lots of people have worked on the problem and didn't get it right. The one-click patent meets that test.
Amazon's real innovation was combining one-click ordering with easy order cancellation for a few minutes after the order. This makes enabling one-click ordering low-risk. Many on-line sales operations still don't get this, as I mentioned the last time this came up on HN. Most shopping cart programs have a built-in attitude of "We have your money now, muhaaa haaa". Yes, you can "contact customer service to cancel." ("Please listen carefully as our menu options have changed... Due to unusually high call volume...")
Now the people who don't get this will implement one-click ordering without easy cancellation and anger their customers.
Re: E-commerce will evolve next month as Amazon loses the 1-Click patent
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
Of course - if nobody used it Amazon would remove the button. I doubt that adding 1-click to some other site will greatly increase their sales - that is all I'm saying.
Well, you would be wrong. Every step between a customer and completing an order is a loss of sales.
Yes, but adding 1-click also inserts an extra semi-step into every purchase: the choice of whether to click the 1-click button or the add to cart button.
Apparently Amazon finds that adding 1-click does more good than harm.
Re: E-commerce will evolve next month as Amazon loses the 1-Click patent
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
On the other hand, many more people actually do use 1-click. A tip: if you ever find yourself saying "why does a company have X feature/product, I don't use it, no one uses it!" you might be right on the first statement but you're almost certainly wrong on the second. It wouldn't be there if no one used it.
Of course - if nobody used it Amazon would remove the button. I doubt that adding 1-click to some other site will greatly increase their sales - that is all I'm saying.
Well since we're using anecdotal evidence, I would certainly buy from more stores if they had one click. There have been countless times I've abandoned a shopping cart because there was too many steps
Re: E-commerce will evolve next month as Amazon loses the 1-Click patent
#215Earlier quoted context omitted.
Business process can be considered a technology, i.e. technical procedure. Also, since they got the patent, wouldn't they have to pass tests for previous works, novelty, and obviousness? And, why shouldn't something be patentable, just because it's easy to replicate?
Being easy to replicate often suggests that it is, in fact, _obvious_. Which is supposed to invalidate the patent.
Lots of things become easy to replicate after they've been done once, despite being non-obvious before. The "no obvious inventions" part of patent law is supposed to prevent people from patenting things that are already broadly used (or small variations on things that are already broadly used). The cliched example being that you can't patent the wheel.
Edit: I see that Animats has covered this much better elsewhere in the thread.
Re: E-commerce will evolve next month as Amazon loses the 1-Click patent
#216Earlier quoted context omitted.
The middlemen are adding value by making niche items available on the marketplace. If they are gone the diversity of products will shrink.
But either Amazon will have the product or it will still be valuable to another middle man. Amazon have a lot but are a long way off having everything. Health and Beauty for example, they may have the top 50k sales ranks pretty well covered but at least the top 100k are probably worth a middle mans time.
Not all products are really valuable to a middle man. From my insights regarding Amazon sellers, ~70% of the profit is made from ~5% of the products, and those are the products Amazon is taking away from them. If they then only have the low-profit items remaining, they aren't able to be profitably on Amazon anymore, unless they operate at significant scale - a scale that becomes very hard to grow to when Amazon is constantly taking away your means to do so.
Re: E-commerce will evolve next month as Amazon loses the 1-Click patent
#217Does Amazon even use this themselves? I have fewer clicks going product page to purchase confirmation on Aliexpress.com than on Amazon.com
Re: E-commerce will evolve next month as Amazon loses the 1-Click patent
#218I ran an ecommerce company for about a year, and one click checkout was the least of our concerns when it came to Amazon. The speed of delivery, prime benefits, brand recognition, and willingness to lose money on many if not most items are absolutely brutal to compete against. I'm glad one click checkout will be more broadly available, but it's probably not going to make much of a difference...
But you have to realize that Amazon was able to become so advanced in all those areas because they had an (arguably) unfair 20-year advantage thanks to this patent.
If we could rerun the timeline without this patent, then the e-commerce field would likely not be so lopsided.
Re: E-commerce will evolve next month as Amazon loses the 1-Click patent
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
You mean like a temporary credit card number valid for a small period of time or valid for a specific vendor? We have those (at least in America), and have for many years. Services like "ShopSafe". They also create many hassles and headaches. Can make returns difficult, validation difficult (please show the card used, what, it's a virtual card?), and the rigor may not be great (reoccurring charges on "invalidated" nu…
Yes - exactly. And with a specified amount so I am safeguarded from anu surprises. I have never seen a service like that - so (I think) it is mainly on your side of the pond.
My Swedish bank also supports it so it's not unheard of in Europe either
Re: E-commerce will evolve next month as Amazon loses the 1-Click patent
#220Still can't believe that this was a patent!
I wish I had thought of patenting a half click patent. If a click is a mouse button down and up, how about something 50% more efficient - order immediately on mouse button down? Surely that is non-obvious!