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Chrome extension recommends local businesses while shopping on Amazon or eBay

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Re: Chrome extension recommends local businesses while shopping on Amazon or eBay

#211

Post by londons_explore »

harikb wrote: post #210
jamesrr39 wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find even the larger businesses have much poorer shopping experiences than Amazon. I wanted to buy a book last year. I found it on a major, non-amazon bookseller's website. However, no "Look-inside", not even a description, no reviews, no real information about it aside from the title and [very short] description. I ended up going to Amazon to find all this info and having a look at the "Look inside" first few page…

Talking from the perspective of local business owner - it isn’t possible to compete with Amazon on ”online” features. This needs two efforts - people have to be Ok with an inferior shopping experience to a certain extent. Can’t have cake and eat it. Second, Software powered world needs a different kind of monopoly control - we shouldn’t talking about “breaking up Amazon” - that just creates busy work from yet another…

As a software guy, rebuilding many of the features of Amazon that users love isn't awfully hard or expensive.

I think it's a unique combination of logistics and tech which few companies manage to successfully pursue. Things like hooking up the cash register system to the website so the website doesn't say "in stock" when someone has bought the last one. It's pretty easy for someone techy to do that, but there is rarely a sufficiently techy person on staff in a typical small business.

Re: Chrome extension recommends local businesses while shopping on Amazon or eBay

#212

Post by bobthepanda »

adrianmonk wrote: post #200
robbrown451 wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as you can find your size. I'm tall and thin, so if I want to buy something as basic as Levi's jeans, I have to go to a ton of stores and have limited choices. Now I just get them on Amazon, problem solved. This is a problem that should have been solved years ago. You should be able to measure yourself very accurately and thoroughly, keep it on some sort of file that you can share what you need, and then use…

There's a company called True Fit ( https://www.truefit.com/ ) which attempts to solve this. True Fit partners with several stores. You go on a store's web site (for example, macys.com), and you tell True Fit about some clothing you already have that fits well (brand, size, style). Based on that, it refers to its database to recommend the best size of the product you're considering now, and it tells you whether it th…

How do I actually use this? I have to intentionally seek out brands and stores they've already partnered with?

There's not a directory or anything it seems like.

Re: Chrome extension recommends local businesses while shopping on Amazon or eBay

#213

Post by [deleted] »

jcims wrote: post #177
londons_explore wrote: post #60

Small business near me never seem to have online catalogues or stock levels. Hunting for a specific product (for example a washing line) might involve walking into 3 different shops and guessing which shop might sell what you need. When you arrive in the shop, they always arrange aisles differently so unless you have 20 minutes to hunt you might not find it either. Whereas online it's a simple search and click "buy n…

I've wanted to dive into FPV drone flying for some time. Finally pulled the trigger on the components I needed to get started...controller, transmitter, goggles, charger, battery, BNF drone. I did this online because it seemed impossible to sort out locally and the prices I did see were +30% or more in price. Somehow in the process I goofed and ordered batteries with the wrong connector (xt60 v xt30). I spent this mo…

[deleted]

Re: Chrome extension recommends local businesses while shopping on Amazon or eBay

#214

Post by JangoSteve »

Nice. I've actually built a startup doing exactly this a few years ago, called PriceLocal [0]. Though, unfortunately, it never really got off the ground in terms of traction.

We ended up spending I think around two years building out the functionality. Most of that time was spent arranging agreements with brick and mortar businesses to share their inventory data with us, so that we could make it function on a per-product basis. You could shop normally on Amazon, and it would drop down a banner when your product was available from a local business at or below the Amazon price. We also had it working as extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. This article had a good screenshot showing how it actually worked [1].

That was definitely one of the favorite startups I've helped build to date. It was also cool to see it featured on The Today Show [2]. I'm super bummed it didn't end up working out. Good luck to you!

[0] https://www.producthunt.com/posts/pricelocal

[1] https://www.today.com/video/new-app-promises-to-find-amazon-...

[2] https://www.cnet.com/how-to/find-local-stores-that-will-matc...

EDIT: By the way, nice name! I can't believe we didn't think of that.

Re: Chrome extension recommends local businesses while shopping on Amazon or eBay

#215

Post by cerved »

mcv wrote: post #209
halikular wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being able to test clothes before you buy them to so if they fit is so much more convenient than ordering the wrong size online.

Plenty of online stores let to order stuff to fit them and return what doesn't fit.

who wants to return stuff

Re: Chrome extension recommends local businesses while shopping on Amazon or eBay

#216

Post by smichel17 »

vages wrote: post #134
jazu wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can try them on in the local store and then buy the same size online. Works wonders for some products like brand sneakers or jeans.

Works worse when the store closes because you don’t buy stuff there.

I imagine a future in which brick and mortar stores offer the same prices as online (without having to price match), but charge an entry fee for the service of trying stuff on/out.

Won't happen until enough brick and mortar stores close that the remaining ones can get away with it, though.

Re: Chrome extension recommends local businesses while shopping on Amazon or eBay

#217

Post by cerved »

greenie_beans wrote: post #69
londons_explore wrote: post #60

Small business near me never seem to have online catalogues or stock levels. Hunting for a specific product (for example a washing line) might involve walking into 3 different shops and guessing which shop might sell what you need. When you arrive in the shop, they always arrange aisles differently so unless you have 20 minutes to hunt you might not find it either. Whereas online it's a simple search and click "buy n…

I’m sorry, I can’t help but point out that you could call the store before you left your house. And when in the store, you could ask a sales associate for help. Just sayin!

how do i get this Tele-Phone app you speak of?

Re: Chrome extension recommends local businesses while shopping on Amazon or eBay

#218

Post by smichel17 »

harikb wrote: post #210
jamesrr39 wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find even the larger businesses have much poorer shopping experiences than Amazon. I wanted to buy a book last year. I found it on a major, non-amazon bookseller's website. However, no "Look-inside", not even a description, no reviews, no real information about it aside from the title and [very short] description. I ended up going to Amazon to find all this info and having a look at the "Look inside" first few page…

Talking from the perspective of local business owner - it isn’t possible to compete with Amazon on ”online” features. This needs two efforts - people have to be Ok with an inferior shopping experience to a certain extent. Can’t have cake and eat it. Second, Software powered world needs a different kind of monopoly control - we shouldn’t talking about “breaking up Amazon” - that just creates busy work from yet another…

"Breaking up Amazon so that fulfilment is a separate business, which other companies besides may do business with" seems isomorphic to "force Amazon to share its infrastructure" to me.

Re: Chrome extension recommends local businesses while shopping on Amazon or eBay

#219

Post by jasonladuke0311 »

notatoad wrote: post #176
robbrown451 wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as you can find your size. I'm tall and thin, so if I want to buy something as basic as Levi's jeans, I have to go to a ton of stores and have limited choices. Now I just get them on Amazon, problem solved. This is a problem that should have been solved years ago. You should be able to measure yourself very accurately and thoroughly, keep it on some sort of file that you can share what you need, and then use…

yeah, this is a problem i've solved by learning what brands are internally consistent with their sizing. i know my size in Levi's, and as long as they don't suddenly start making 36/32 jeans fit differently than they used to, i'll keep ordering from them without having to worry about fit.

Levi's is one of the worst offenders. There is such a massive sizing variance that I stopped buying them years ago unless I found them in a store.

Re: Chrome extension recommends local businesses while shopping on Amazon or eBay

#220

Post by mitchdoogle »

crazygringo wrote: post #104
greenie_beans wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m sorry, I can’t help but point out that you could call the store before you left your house. And when in the store, you could ask a sales associate for help. Just sayin!

That's hilarious! Do you... try that regularly? Stores are so understaffed, you're lucky to get them to pick up the phone at all, and if they do you often won't get accurate information. They'll never walk to an aisle to see if something is physically there, they'll tell you if it's "in the system", but frequently "the system" will show 3 in stock while the reality is zero on the shelf. Or 48 in stock but they're all…

You sound like you're describing a Walmart or Target. I thought we were talking about local small businesses. All the niche small businesses around me, the store owner is often the one who takes the call and they know their inventory inside and out
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