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Amazon’s share of the US e-commerce market is now 49%
- Karunamon 8y agoHow does this degree of influence factor in with their decisions to drop competitor's proucts? (ex. the Chromecast spat with Google)
- verelo 8y agoGood. Today i called Amazon to complain something i ordered never arrived. No questions asked refunded. Needed it urgently so went to a brick and mortar store down the road to buy it. 3x the price, and they took 15 minutes to process my sale. If anyone wants to match the amazon experience anywhere else in my life, take my money!
- dmm 8y agoHopefully you don't buy anything that goes on or in your body from Amazon. Fake Dove Soap: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17217290 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17217290 Fake Diapers: https://jenniferlabit.com/2016/07/21/counterfeit-baby-products-sold-at-amazon/ https://jenniferlabit.com/2016/07/21/counterfeit-baby-produc... Fake Eclipse Glasses: Tons of stories Amazon has a bad counterfeit problem. The way they co-mingle stock is crazy. You can't even trust reviews because the review might be describing a completely different product. EDIT: Counterfeit books! http://davidgaughran.com/2017/06/03/amazon-has-a-fake-book-problem/ http://davidgaughran.com/2017/06/03/amazon-has-a-fake-book-p...
- matte_black 8y agoDoesn’t happen enough to stop using Amazon. Sorry.
- philg_jr 8y agoIf I could get back every block of 15 minutes I've spent on Amazon scrolling through the endless amount of options in order to avoid buying some crappy Chinese knock-off version, I'd be happy.
- com2kid 8y agoFor home decor it is kind of amazing. Some of the higher quality knock off brands have become good products in their own right. My floor lamp is a knock off of a famous designer lamp. The particular knock off I have is rather desirable, to the point that other companies are making inferior knock offs of it! Searching through the gunk is incredibly time consuming though.
- fma 8y agoIf you don't mind waiting for shipping... Aliexpress is your friend for knockoffs at a better price. Buyer beware though, since you are dealing with Chinese sellers.
- ma2rten 8y agoI don't think I ever got a counterfeit item on Amazon. The fact that there are news stories about specific counterfeit items (and not the problem in general), indicates to me that it's not as widespread.
- unimpressive 8y ago>I don't think I ever got a counterfeit item on Amazon. Well you wouldn't, if the counterfeit's were any good.
- lkbm 8y agoFair point, but if I can't tell that the good is fake, even after using it, I don't care that much. It could be I'll order Dove soap, get counterfeit, and incorrectly assume Dove soap sucks, but mostly I'm ordering brands too obscure to bother faking, or brands I'm familiar enough with to realize the bad counterfeit isn't the real thing. (But like ma2rten, I don't think I've ever gotten a counterfeit.)
- bencollier49 8y agoIf you're slathering it all over your body but you have no idea where or how it was made, do you suppose that you might suffer from deferred regret at some point in the future? (cf. today's talcum powder news item)
- ceejayoz 8y ago> Fair point, but if I can't tell that the good is fake, even after using it, I don't care that much. Heavy metal poisoning may take years to show effects. Shoddily made laptop chargers may be a fire/shock hazard that kill in 100/1,000,000 instead of 1/1,000,000 cases. Not every dangerous counterfeit is immediately obvious as such.
- chc 8y agoI've gotten counterfeits of other products (for example, I once got a counterfeit DVD boxed set), and a lot of products I look at will have reviews noting that they received a counterfeit and what to look for to make sure you're actually getting the product listed. It seems to be reasonably common.
- inanutshellus 8y agoAnd don't forget resellers stealthily jacking up the price of commodities. I used to buy indiscriminately from Amazon. If Amazon had it, it was the best price. Why bother shopping around? I've been bitten multiple times now with ordering something only to realize some reseller has jacked up the price and I didn't notice. (e.g. buy baby wipes for $10, later re-order same baby wipes and think "hm, $18.50 seems higher than I remembered. Oh well, I need baby wipes!") So now I shop around for everything. Since Amazon is "forcing me" to shop around, I've started to exclude them out of spite. I get it, it's capitalism. If some Amazon reseller (including the "fulfilled by Amazon!" resellers) dupes me, I'm the sucker. Amazon's not to blame for capitalism. But... I still blame them. :)
- lagadu 8y agoThere are a few browser extensions that automatically compare prices from some major retailers based on whether they ship to you. Give one of them a try, sometimes they find you nicer prices.
- smt88 8y agoI like the idea, but the privacy implications scare me away. My Amazon activity and data says everything personal about me, including medical conditions.
- bitL 8y agoAmazon keeps constantly increasing fees in their marketplaces or warehouses, then there is a brutal competition on price via algorithmic repricers, so resellers try to compensate wherever they could. Increased price could be also a consequence of Amazon kicking out cheaper sellers and the remaining ones without doing anything by using a repricer would set a higher price, not mentioning some advanced repricers using game theory to find equilibrium as well.
- paulcole 8y agoI get my diabetes supplies through Amazon– generic glucose test strips and pen needles I use for insulin. The price is a fraction of what they cost at the pharmacy (even with insurance). I have no problem recommending them to anyone. Quality is acceptable and more importantly it's the only option at a price point I'm willing to pay. Edit: Thanks to whoever downvoted this.
- spenczar5 8y agoHow do you know the quality is acceptable on something like test strips? I don't know anything about the specific here, but I would have thought that you especially would care about brand for single-use test supplies, because you just have to trust the manufacturer regarding their false positive/negative rates. (this sounds more combative than I mean because internet text is hard - i'm genuinely curious)
- paulcole 8y agoThere is a solution of known "sweetness" you can put on test strips. If the result comes up in a set range, they're acceptable. Basically my assumption is that if a random strip or 2 from a container is good, they're all good. Also, knowing blood sugar EXACTLY isn't really something I'm interested in. I want to know trends and where I'm roughly at.
- jonnycomputer 8y agoHN downvoting is stupid. they should remove it, or make it cost in their own karma.
- jonnycomputer 8y agohow typical. HN's moderation system is broken.
- rhacker 8y agoDo any independent websites sell counterfeit? If so, then we're just comparing isolated cases on a large ecommerce site with what?
- seandougall 8y agoIndependent (non-aggregator) web sites generally have some control over what suppliers they draw from. So of course there are counterfeits out there, but they’re the exception, unless selling counterfeits was the seller’s intention. You can generally judge based on how reputable the seller is. Amazon sources indiscriminately, because they’re not a seller in the traditional sense; they’re basically a flea market with warehousing and logistics. So you have no guarantees one way or another whether the thing they’re selling is genuine or not.
- DoubleGlazing 8y agoA friend of ours gave us a painting of Cú Chulain for our wedding. That painting was her specialty that went through many prototypes. She put prints of it on Amazon and within a few weeks hand made copies were being sold from far eastern sellers. She spent two year battling to get those sales taken down. In the end it only stopped because the sellers moved onto other pictures and not because Amazon took any action.
- dv_dt 8y agoSo has the dept of commerce, or homeland security, or whoever is responsible in gov't for suppressing counterfeit goods ever raided an Amazon warehouse? Does there need to be complaint by the manufacturer first?
- mistermann 8y agoI would imagine Mr. Bezos figured out how to navigate Washington successfully long ago.
- ryanmercer 8y agoFor stuff being sold domestic you go through the FBI, for stuff being imported you go through CBP and the USITC. For intellectual property it's OIPR. (I clear international freight through Customs for a living)
- unclebucknasty 8y agoOr razor blades. Bought some Gillette Fusion 5 blades on Amazon a few years ago for a good price. Didn't take long to realize that no way were they the real thing. First shave was horrible and it was downhill fast from there.
- zajd 8y agoAhh yes the Amazon experience of having counterfeit products boxed up by some of the most exploited employees in America shipped to you by an "independent contractor". https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/01/technology/amazon-wristband-tracking-privacy.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/01/technology/amazon-wristba... Gross
- kolpa 8y agoAmazon is better than brick and mortar because Amazon fails to deliver after a week, but a brick and mortar store fulfilled in 15 minutes?
- twinkletwinkle 8y ago15 minutes of synchronous time waiting at the store versus 1 week of asynchronous time while you live your life though.
- ehsankia 8y agoFor most random things, getting there and back aside, find the item in a huge store is a pain in the ass. On amazon, it's literally a 10s search query. Also, for more common items such as shampoo or litter, grocery stores have literally 30 different types of them, which can make it hard to choose. By having ratings, reviews, information and q&a right there, it makes choosing the right product much easier.
- enraged_camel 8y ago>>15 minutes of synchronous time waiting at the store versus Uhh, what about traveling to and from the store? Or have you invented teleportation?
- jpao79 8y agoAnd on top of that, what happens when the bricks and mortar store goes out of business and you have nowhere to go when Amazon is not sending it to you and "need it urgently". Sometimes I shop at the local BestBuy to delay that inevitable day when Amazon is the only thing available.
- ehsankia 8y agoAmazon Prime Now, while not available everywhere, has worked fairly well for me, and maybe soon we'll have drone deliveries too.
- mc32 8y agoBought something from Amazon, delivery status said was delivered on a Wed. but no such delivery. Got busy and forgot about it, two days later, bam! Delivery from who else, On-Track. On track is deceitful for some reason falsely announcing a delivery that won’t be made for a day or two in the future, I’m guessing to meet delivery SLOs.
- ant6n 8y agoMmmh. On boxing day I ordered some wifi-extenders, which was in stock. It was a good deal. When I received the order confirmation, it wasn't in stock anymore, they said they'd get it to me as soon as possible. Six months went by and occasionally I got updates they're still trying to get the item. After six months I tried to tell them that I waited enough, and that they should actually deliver the item. They told me they cannot offer me the item, because it's not available. I told them it's actually available on their own store, at double the price. They told me that's different sellers, so even though they're selling it on their website, it's not actually their website or something. They graciously offered that I could cancel so that I could order it from them again at double price. I tried to explain to them that I we've made a sales contract, and that it seems they want to unilaterally cancel it by simply not doing anything about it. I also tried to explain to them the issues of bait-and-switch sellling, and even cited from the government website (I'm in Canada, consumer protection is slightly stronger in the states). (Note that six months after boxing day, I can't get boxing day specials from competitors anymore) In the end I spoke to several people who went around in circles over and over. Eventually somebody offered to give me store-credit that would cover the difference when cancelling the order and making it again immediately. ...I don't get why everybody thinks Amazon has great customer service. They don't even seem to believe in following basic consumer protection laws.
- metasaval 8y agoWas the item shipped and sold from Amazon? I admit they don't make this distinction very clear on their product page, and they make it way too easy to be a third-party seller on their site, but it makes a huge difference. Chances are you were talking directly to a third-party seller and not Amazon. I have had nothing but great experiences dealing with Amazon directly.
- ant6n 8y agoSold and (never) shipped from Amazon. I only spoke to Amazon reps.
- mnm1 8y agoSame, but with Amazon, I've been on hold on the chat now for at least half an hour. The rep can't say if the order will be cancelled if I press the cancel button myself. It will never be delivered, that's for sure. Amazon's delivery service simply doesn't even attempt delivery. I'm pretty sure this kind of experience is hard to replicate simply because it's so bad. Even cancelling an order is hellish nowadays requiring a supervisor. What a shitty fucking company. And worse, it's the only place to buy a ton of stuff.
- chmaynard 8y ago> Today I called Amazon Please share the phone number you used to call Amazon. Thanks!
- lainga 8y agoI'm honestly surprised it isn't bigger. That's some serious king effect in the diagram.
- mynameishere 8y agoI've been using walmart.com occasionally and honestly it reminds me of how Amazon used to be: A smaller selection but no weird spammy cruft. Amazon makes a lot of money on sketchy 3rd parties. Also no "premium" membership ripoff (ie prime). You still have to use amazon for reviews though.
- simonbarker87 8y agoI agree on the sketchy third parties but why do you say Prime is a rip-off? You get TV and movies and free next day delivery (in the UK) on basically everything - feels like a good deal to me.
- icantdrive55 8y agoI don't think it's a ripoff either, if you buy most of your stuff on the site. I have a weird feeling the average user buys a Prime membership, and is literally spending $60 when shipping an item. (I bought two items off Amazon last year. And no--I will not start to buy stuff just because of the free shipping.) The Prine movies selection is o.k. (Someone needs to invent a better way to browse for movies. ) My point is I bet most don't really get their money back on Prime Memberships.
- liveoneggs 8y agoalso prime streaming music
- abruzzi 8y agoI’m not sure I’d use the term ripoff either, but prime is essentially there to tie people into using amazon. Once you’ve committed the $x/yr for prime it is there to compel you to spend more to make sure you get your money’s worth. Amazon could just as easily lower the prices of what they sell, or the cost of shipping, and not force people to buy in to a “club” membership. In my case I buy one or two things from Amazon a year, and have no interest in their streaming content, so whatever they’re charging these days for prime isn’t worth it.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- ur-whale 8y agoIs US e-commerce susceptible to 51% attacks?
- mattbeckman 8y agoIf all other e-commerce outlets banded together, they could double spend at Amazon.
- contravariant 8y agoWell, there's regulatory capture, monopolization, and becoming too big too fail, but no 51% attack that I know of.
- blitmap 8y agoWe need to increase participation with ghost consumers to stave off attacks like this? :p
- blunte 8y agoLike many other behemoth US companies, Amazon has taken dubious shortcuts to its position as leader... Anti-employment wage suppression in its distribution and shipping, wilfully facilitating counterfeit product sales, regional tax breaks, and perhaps the biggest multiplier - the stock market and its ability to allow leverage upon leverage. We are seeing an excellent example of modern American capitalism.
- kolpa 8y agoWhat does "modern" mean?
- tjr225 8y agomod·ern ˈmädərn/ adjective adjective: modern 1. relating to the present or recent times as opposed to the remote past. "the pace of modern life"
- vokep 8y agoin the modern context? corrupted.
- astronautjones 8y agoabout to collapse
- munificent 8y agoWhat is particularly American about the capitalism being shown here? Honest question: are other countries better?
- mdev 8y agoI can see someone else complete by having a competitive prime product equivalent for half the cost and remove unnecessary services. When I think about pricing its not very obvious to tack the $99 fee onto individual orders but you should since you're paying for it(I used to order 50+ times year from amazon and now its down to about 10-15 so it's harder to justify). Also, I rarely use other prime free products. I'd be willing to move to Walmart or Google Express if they have a good selection and lower minimums + decent shipping times in return for a small yearly membership. I can still use amazon for larger purchases or pay a small premium for shipping as needed.
- Zelphyr 8y agoI think Jet.com tried this. If my memory serves, they were trying to be the Costco of online retailers where they generated a significant portion of their revenue from membership fees which would allow them to charge lower margins for their products. I don't know if their acquisition by Walmart was considered a good exit or not but it seems to me that they at least didn't grow big enough and fast enough to be a direct competitor to Amazon. Maybe they are now that they're part of Walmart? I don't personally buy from them anymore but that's mostly due to my disdain for Walmart.
- kevin_thibedeau 8y agoI buy from them when Amazon pulls their "reserved for Prime" BS.
- beamatronic 8y agoI ordered a PlayStation 3 from Walmart years ago. It arrived in a smashed box. I took it into the store to get a refund. They treated me like I was a criminal.
- smt88 8y agoI did the same with a $700 TV a few days ago. No issues. They carried it from my car. If they'd refused to take the return, I would've had AmEx refund my money, so I was safe either way.
- paulddraper 8y agoOn mobile I scroll to the bottom and then I can't get back to the article.
- atonse 8y agoWhen I wanted to buy a Hakko Soldering Iron, I heard that there are counterfeit ones on Amazon. So instead of getting 2 day shipping, I got the nearly 1+ week shipping direct from Hakko. But I know it'll be authentic. Same with Adafruit products, and I'm increasingly noticing that if I want to make sure something absolutely won't be fake, I buy direct from the retailer. It sucks. You get spoiled by Amazon's amazing "free" shipping especially if you're a prime member. But it's more important to me that a product is genuine. I'll learn to be a bit more patient.
- liveoneggs 8y agoI was just looking at jansport backpacks for my kids and all of them had "jansport sent this back as not authentic" reviews
- atonse 8y agoThere you go. But if you go to Jansport, I bet you'll have to pay shipping and the cheap option will be 5-10 business days. That's the norm. We've forgotten, mostly thanks to Amazon.
- sbov 8y agoFor a brand like Jansport, this is a false dichotomy: https://www.walmart.com/search/?query=jansport%20backpack&cat_id=0&typeahead=jansport https://www.walmart.com/search/?query=jansport%20backpack&ca...
- jessaustin 8y agoWal-Mart has the same problem, although perhaps not to the same extent.
- pbourke 8y agoDoes Wal-Mart commingle inventory with 3rd party sellers? That’s the root of the problem in Amazon’s case.
- jamestimmins 8y agoI suspect the defense (whether it's valid or not is for lawyers to debate) is that if 68% of Amazon's sales are the result of other sellers using their marketplace, it isn't quite accurate to say that these sales belong to Amazon.
- jpao79 8y agoYes, in someways it feels like if Visa claimed that it handles 99.99% of all online retailing and showing revenue numbers based on the entire retail sales transaction and not just on the 1.5% processing fee. To a certain extent, Amazon's retail presence is 68% Marketplace (from the article). Marketplace is really just a very high scale website plus very high scale order fulfillment which nets an analogous 6%-15% fee for listing, inventory storage and shipping/returns.
- adventured 8y agoThey're increasingly nothing more than a platform like eBay or Alibaba (soon they'll have the ad business to match). However that won't save them from having to be careful as their dominance continues to increase. If you own the $200 billion platform, you wield the power, not the little guy selling $100k or $1m worth of merchandise per year. Regulators will focus on the platform owner and any broad market abuses that harm consumers. Bezos potentially going toward $200 billion in personal wealth guarantees they'll perpetually be a target, it doesn't matter how good they are to consumers, that much concentrated economic power terrifies a lot of people; his wealth alone will be taken by many as evidence of wrong doing, it's a lightning rod for attention. Gates solved that by pledging to give most of his wealth away and moving to philanthropy as a primary focus. Bezos is going to have a harder time based on what he has said he plans to do (assuming Amazon's insane valuation doesn't implode after this round of the asset inflation party ends).
- jpao79 8y agoI think what's also interesting is that now that Microsoft is awake with Nadella at the helm and presenting a viable alternative, will Amazon's cloud business start losing marketshare. If I were say, Procter and Gamble/Clorox (Consumer Staples), Macy's (Consumer Discretionary), Visa/Fedex (E-Commerce), Aetna (Healthcare) if I were going to look at options for cloud, would I host my enterprise on Amazon who is actively trying compete with me and provide the end customer with alternatives to my product/services? Or would I go with a vertical pure play cloud services provider like Microsoft.
- mikestew 8y agoI'm all set to jump on the Amazon hate bandwagon, and I'm tryin', I really am. So when I wanted window shadows for our RV, I thought I'd give the non-Amazon shop a shot. They had what I wanted, order page was tidy, item arrives in short order, and the shades are better quality than I expected. Happy customer! Until two days later and my bank calls, telling me my CC is compromised. Now, I can't say for sure it was the online vendor's fault. But in summary, I would hesitate to order from them again.
- d4l3k 8y agoI've been using https://privacy.com/ https://privacy.com/ to prevent this exact kind of thing.
- icebraining 8y agoSome banks also have virtual CCs included.
- pnathan 8y agoHuh, never heard of them before. Interesting concept, but the in-browser replacements worry me. Know of any service that does disposable CCs without the in-browser hackery?
- knuththetruth 8y agoCitbank offers disposable credit card numbers for your account: https://www.cardbenefits.citi.com/Products/Virtual-Account-Numbers https://www.cardbenefits.citi.com/Products/Virtual-Account-N...
- pnathan 8y agoI believe you, but I would much prefer not to have another credit cards. I have a very straightforward system right now, and adding a citi card would not help that.
- ddoolin 8y ago
- tibiapejagala 8y agoMeanwhile in my country in Europe I have never heard about anyone buying anything from Amazon. Not the IT people, not the common folk, not teenagers, literally no one. Maybe someone bought a Kindle some time back, but I remember that people were literally reading tutorials how to buy it from amazon. The same people who had been buying things online for years. Amazon doesn't even have a polish website, as amazon.pl redirects to amazon.de They have multipe logistic centres in my country, employing thousands of people though! I guess it's for Germany so I can buy at amazon.de with international shipping, lol. We have Uber, McDonald's, iphones, credit cards, the internet, electricity! Come on! Almost everyone buys online here, either native polish e-commerce or directly from China. Also I think we can't buy any of Google hardware directly. I have given up on them though. So much for globalization.
- AnssiH 8y ago> Amazon doesn't even have a polish website, as amazon.pl redirects to amazon.de They have multipe logistic centres in my country, employing thousands of people though! I guess it's for Germany so I can buy at amazon.de with international shipping, lol. Amazon.de does have Polish-language interface, though, and free shipping to Poland (and 10 other European countries) for orders over €39. > Also I think we can't buy any of Google hardware directly. I have given up on them though. They seem to have given up as well... a few years ago the Finnish Google Store sold various Nexus tablets and phones, nowadays it is just Wifi and Chromecast.
- tibiapejagala 8y ago> Amazon.de does have Polish-language interface, though, and free shipping to Poland (and 10 other European countries) for orders over €39. Well, that's something. Some content seems to be machine-translated and prices are in €, but it indeed works. I wonder why wouldn't they just slap polish domain on it. And why I haven't heard about that. > They seem to have given up as well... a few years ago the Finnish Google Store sold various Nexus tablets and phones, nowadays it is just Wifi and Chromecast. "We aren’t in your country yet" I guess I'll get Xiaomi or Samsung again.
- pnathan 8y agoTime and again I can't find what I'm looking for in brick and mortar, but it's on Amazon. Original companies don't always have a direct sales arm. I avoid buying gadgets from Amazon, but other than that... ::shrug:: They've got it nailed. Worlds better than brick and mortar for non-boutique goods.
- bgun 8y agoCouldn't agree with you more. I wandered through a big-box store not long ago for 15 minutes searching, I kid you not, for AAA batteries. I'd even bought them at the same store before, but the powers that be decided that store layout wasn't profitable enough, or whatever prompts such decisions.
- mojowo11 8y agoWhen I say this, please understand that I'm saying this as a person who would've wandered for 15 minutes as well -- but yeah, you COULD just ask someone who works there where the batteries are.
- reaperducer 8y agoyou COULD just ask someone who works there where the batteries are. If it was Home Depot, he'd probably wander around for 45 minutes trying to find someone who works there.
- linuxftw 8y agoHome depot helpfully puts aisle and bin numbers for products on their website if you search for things in-store. I also can get help at home depot pretty quickly, as long as you're not there on the weekend (when they're just completely slammed, victim of the own success is what I call it).
- reaperducer 8y agoYour Home Depot is staffed radically different than mine. It doesn't matter when I go there - mid-day, mid-week; or prime time, weekend. There's virtually no employees. I usually end up going to the Customer Service desk and waiting 10 minutes while they summon someone on the radio/phone thingy. Once the only person in the entire store was the lady at the self check-out aisles. And she couldn't help me because she wasn't allowed to leave her station because she was the only person in the store.
- lawrenceyan 8y agoA company that Amazon can learn a lot from is JD.com in regards to counterfeit items and customer trust. When you buy a product using JD backed shipping, you are guaranteed to get a real product, which is especially important in a country like China where authenticity is extremely coveted in a world of frauds/fakes. It might not be as highly held in people's minds here in the US, but I still think there's a limit, and Amazon has definitely crossed it at this point. Continuing to allow the amount of counterfeit goods that currently circulates throughout their warehouses will permanently stain Amazon's reputation if something isn't done soon. Trust is difficult build up, and almost impossible to regain once lost.
- fenwick67 8y agoTo be fair Amazon also "guarantees" you won't receive conterfeits, you can return a counterfeit and get your money back.
- rasz 8y agoTo return something you first have to receive it.
- jopsen 8y agoIf it doesn't arrive, they'll also refund you... IMO, the problem with returns is the cost of sending it back, it terms of time wasted by me. Back in the good old days some supermarkets would hand you a gift if you pointed out products that were expired, etc.. Amazon could just pay a 50% reward whenever counterfeit products are returned. The liability could easily be passed to the responsible seller.
- lawrenceyan 8y agoThe difference between a JD "guarantee" and an Amazon "guarantee" is that the JD one actually means something. When you guarantee something and then fail to deliver on that promise, people begin to lose trust in you. Have it happen enough, this often only needs to be once by the way, and they likely will never fully trust you again.
- crb002 8y ago"Free" shipping but the seller pays a 15% stocking fee.
- 40acres 8y agoBuying stuff on Amazon has just become second nature to me. I've gotten hard to find hot sauce, books, and laundry detergent despite the fact that I live literally across the street from a whole foods because of the convenience. My apartment complex recently installed an Amazon Hub as well. I've never really had an issue w/ the quality of goods or counterfeits and Prime is a great deal if only for the 2 day shipping and Prime Video.
- foxhop 8y agoDoes anyone understand just how bad this statistic, if true, is? It almost seems like there is room for somebody to disrupt Amazon by building a better e-commerce mousetrap and getting multiple retailers and distributors to co'operate with it.
- aiyodev 8y agoSears, Roebuck and Company used to own 100% of the market. Look at where they are today.
- ryanmercer 8y agoThey had a good chunk of the toilet paper market covered too, their catalogs. Seriously. My grandfather would regularly tell me about having to wipe his butt with pages from the Sears catalog when he was a kid on the farm.
- deanCommie 8y agoI feel like the current backlash against Amazon fails to consider the question: What would the alternative be if Amazon never adopted the 3rd party Marketplace or added the international sellers? Selection would be significantly smaller. Some percentage of items that are currently getting overwhelmed with fraud would be available safer, sure, but likely at a much higher price (competition lowers prices, after all). Everyone remembers the time they got a crappy knockoff, or had to filter through fake reviews. But most of the time, people just search for something, buy it, and are satisfied, never having to consider whether it was only fulfilled by Amazon. At least there is a consistent search/shopping experience, and the refunds are generally instantaneous and there are no questions asked. You can't say that about dealextreme, or alibaba, or dozens of other sites we'd be forced to use if Amazon didn't decide to take on the long tail fo sellers and become responsible for solving the fraud use cases.
- ebbv 8y ago> But most of the time, people just search for something, buy it, and are satisfied, never having to consider whether it was only fulfilled by Amazon. What’s your basis for this? Just the fact that Amazon is so successful? What if that success is in spite of the third party sellers and not because of them? I know my own personal experience with Amazon over the last few years has been feeling like I’m trying to outsmart the website which is constantly trying to direct me to buy from sources I don’t trust. As a result I am more and more hesitant to turn to Amazon than I was years ago. Is my case the common case or is your hypothetical one? I don’t know that we can say. But I think as more people get burned by bad actors they will become less likely to use the site. My basis for this is eBay, which is a shadow of its former self. Being over taken in many areas by niche sites that specialize in a certain market and are at least perceived as more trustworthy. (E.g. Reverb for musical instruments.)
- count 8y agoYou can say: they continue to grow at a ridiculous pace, meaning that more people are using it than leaving it, and it's being used more.
- 8y ago
- pwaai 8y agotime for anti-trust suit??
- dawhizkid 8y agoAmazon search, reviews, product ratings have been completely gamed by third party sellers. Type in "wireless headphones" and the top results is completely full of counterfeit or knockoff goods. It's shocking how little news this makes in major publications.
- S7012MY 8y agoI think when you're buying an expensive item, you should do your research first on the internet, find the best item for you and then order it.
- fermienrico 8y agoGP's message is about lack of legit reviews on Amazon when searching for wireless headphones. You are talking about doing an internet research for wireless headphones. They are two separate topics.
- loco5niner 8y agoI think your description is unclear... order it from where?
- S7012MY 8y agoeither from amazon or from the brand's store
- loco5niner 8y agoI see what you are trying to say: "Do your research somewhere other than amazon", but one of the major problems is if you order from amazon you risk receiving a counterfeit item(whether expensive or not).
- germanier 8y agoGoogle search results are absolutely littered with fake review sites that have never actually have tested the products they claim, usually just reiterating the Amazon product pages (which is only obvious once you know that this is a thing). It's extremely hard to find a real review in a product category you are not an expert in to the point where I have just given up.
- dredmorbius 8y agoThe big news here for me is the well-below-forecast growth of ecommerce. I'd first noted this for years ago[1]. In an earlier, 2010 TechCrunch piece,[2] Forrester Research predicted a $250 billion e-commerce market, 8% of all retail, by 2014. We're just barely reaching 10% in 2018. U.S. census estimated 5.3% in 2013.[3] The hype's not measuring up. E-commerce has growwth resistance. ________________________________ Notes: 1. https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/243in1/privacy_norms_and_confusopoly_where_advertising/ https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/243in1/privacy... 2. https://techcrunch.com/2010/03/08/forrester-forecast-online-retail-sales-will-grow-to-250-billion-by-2014/ https://techcrunch.com/2010/03/08/forrester-forecast-online-... 3. https://www.sba.gov/advocacy/analysis-internet-sales-taxation-and-small-seller-exemption https://www.sba.gov/advocacy/analysis-internet-sales-taxatio...
- S7012MY 8y agoIn Romania shipping takes a lot and prices are higher, so I prefer ordering from Amazon Italy or Germany and I get the same price even though I also pay for shipping
- nafizh 8y agoAmazon's customer care experience is second to none. I have been a prime member for almost 4 years now, and every time I had a problem, it was instantly resolved, no questions asked. The only company whose customer care is at par with them is Apple.
- rochak 8y agoI think that greatly depends upon the demographics. Here in India, Apple sucks in customer care. Amazon is ok, not too good. The number of counterfeit products I've received is baffling.
- ggg9990 8y agoIt’s absolutely nuts that Apple sells as much of their own product as Walmart.com sells of thousands of products.
- kbenson 8y agoWalmart, the world’s biggest retailer when counting physical stores, has yet to really hit the right note in e-commerce... This is online sales only. Apple sells a slightly higher value of goods online that Walmart does. Apple's products are generally much more expensive than Walmart's products. Extrapolating from Amazon's numbers, every percent of total online sales is approximately $5.26 billion. That means Apple has online sales of about $20.5 billion, and Walmart has about $19.5 billion in online sales. Walmart revenue was $318.5 billion in 2018 in the U.S alone (and not including Sam's Club)[1]. Walmart is still selling significantly more than Amazon overall. 1: https://www.statista.com/statistics/269403/net-sales-of-walmart-worldwide-by-division/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/269403/net-sales-of-walm...
- ggg9990 8y agoI know that, that’s why I said Walmart.com. It’s still mind blowing
- rcar1046 8y agoAlmost every Amazon thread on HN seems to devolve into stories of receiving counterfeit goods. I order around 10 items per week on Amazon and have never received anything counterfeit or suspect over a decade of shopping. It takes very little effort to weed out bad actors imo. Perhaps this is a case of the negative experiences only being shared? Or...I'm better at online shopping. I'm guessing the former, but it gets tiring watching companies grow from loved to hated once they reach such a critical mass. Nobody likes to root for the favorite I suppose.
- minhaz23 8y agoIt also depends on what you're shopping for. If its skincare, haircare, korean beauty items, accessories like sunglasses than theres a greater likelihood of running into counterfeit items.
- jstarfish 8y agoBatteries, car parts and model-specific computer parts (laptop chargers, etc) also have high rates of fraud.
- minhaz23 8y agoYep. Thanks to amazon's comingled inventory
- brewrwe 8y agoThis bit me the other day, ordered a Ubiquiti UAP-AC-HD and got the Pro model instead. Returned it and ordered off eBay for a bit over $100, figure if I'm going to deal with fakes, might as well snag a deal.
- realusername 8y agoFor batteries, there's so much counterfeit on Amazon, it's even difficult to find real ones.
- 8y ago
- kbos87 8y agoAmazon is enemy #1 of small business. It blows my mind that people don’t see this and are so quick to don a badge of how many items they order per week.
- dingo_bat 8y agoIs that a bad thing?
- askafriend 8y agoIt depends on how you define small business. Under a different definition, Amazon is the best friend of small business e-commerce: https://services.amazon.com/fulfillment-by-amazon/benefits.html https://services.amazon.com/fulfillment-by-amazon/benefits.h...
- AmericanChopper 8y agoAmazon isn’t a threat to small businesses in general. Certain categories of retailers will struggle to compete with them, but that’s the nature of innovation. Old business models will always need to find new ways to compete. Also, Something your assertion completely ignores is the Amazon is friend #1 of consumers. If consumers didn’t benefit from Amazon, they wouldn’t use it.
- fma 8y agoWalmart had been improving but I don't know why, as big as they are, they don't step up their game. I ordered somethings last night (Thursday). Walmart and Amazon offered free two day shipping. Amazon will arrive Sunday... Walmart Tuesday, with two items arriving Friday. All Walmart items were sold directly by Walmart and not third party. The fact I even purchased from Walmart is a testament to their competitive pricing s d selection... But shipping... Needs some work.
- clarkgaybeul 8y agoLooks like a soviet market.
- beauzero 8y agoAs someone who worked for a used book warehouse. Counterfeits are a huge problem. A large source of books for us was at a specific auction. We started getting so many counterfeit textbooks from that auction that we pretty much had to stop selling textbooks. For a specific textbook that we would get hundreds of, we would purchase one directly from the publisher and then compare.
- mnm1 8y agoIt's amazing they have gotten this far but can't even deliver packages properly. The last few orders, they haven't even tried. Their new delivery service is manned by idiots who can't even read maps. What's worse is that they will lie and say they attempted delivery, but they don't leave a note or anything because they don't even go by the house. I understand the job sucks big time for the drivers, but this is unacceptable no matter what. 2 day shipping my ass. The packages delivered with Amazon's service simply never arrive. Then there's the matter of them closing accounts, lying that there were some violations of undisclosed policy, and stealing the prime payments. Of course people are going to return an inordinate amount of stuff when most of the stuff available to buy is fake or shoddy quality. Every time I go back and give them another chance, I regret it. I guess others are less sensitive to such issues.
- jaclaz 8y agoA curious thing that happened me last month. I needed one of those kits (the "professional" ones) to try and remove dents from car bodies with hot glue, dent puller, etc. A "real" professional kit costs around 400-500 Euros here (Italy) and since I needed it only for a small experiment (attempting to straighten a collapsed stainless steel fume pipe) I wasn't going to get one of those. After finding on e-bay an el cheapo (but not too shabby) Chinese kit with just the stuff I needed (some have also mirrors and levers I didnt need) for around 70 euro, I ordered it (and got a valid receipt/invoice from the seller) and two or three days later the box arrived directly from Amazon!
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