3 ms·

Had a thought about it the other day. I think the easiest way forward would be a full scale attack on the quality side. There's a lot of people who wouldn't min

Had a thought about it the other day. I think the easiest way forward would be a full scale attack on the quality side. There's a lot of people who wouldn't mind paying a few bucks more for something that's actually _good_. Get a subset of players on board, try to own a niche they're weak in (like Amazon started out with books) and then rigorously throw anything out that doesn't adhere to the platform's standards - the USP is that whatever you buy, it's stellar, and then you start getting exclusive deals and dry Amazon out (because a lot of sellers are tired of them too). Makes for some good PR, as everyone should be able to relate to that story. Unfortunately, it's really hard entering a two sided market with an established player as big as Amazon and will probably take lots of capital. Maybe it's actually easier to pivot one of the remaining e-commerce giants into that kind of company.

comboy 8y ago
Sounds good but is this different from a site that does product reviews? Amazon does shipping and customer support which is hard and the only difference between quality store and quality reviews site seem to be one click more when buying.
dwyerm 8y ago
Yeah, but you need to hit the convenience side, too. Shopping on Amazon is really easy. They already have all my info, and seem to be trustworthy enough to hold it. A few nights ago, I was looking for very specific LED strips -- no waterproofing, black PCB, warm white LEDs, etc. Amazon couldn't help me, or at least, I couldn't find the item with high confidence that I'd actually get the right item after the 3 months of slow-boat China shipping. I ended up branching out to a bunch of local 'warehouses', which are I think what you're describing: Local stores that stock and sell a small number of items that they stand behind. I passed on every single one I found because of their terrible websites, filled with popups and chat windows, and the scourge of early ecommerce: "contact us for pricing!" This is before I ever had to enter an address and credit card number to actually buy anything. I think the solution is somewhere in the middle. Use Amazon for what they're good at and what makes them good for your customers, but build a brand with its own trustworthiness that exists outside of Amazon. It is something like SDCardholder.com that sells what I feel is the best card holder in the world. They have a storefront, but they use Amazon for their cart and warehouse. Monoprice has been the best place to get cables for years. I've purchased from them from both Amazon and their own storefront. Or Anker and Aukey, who have made brands around "reasonably-priced chargers that probably won't burst into flames and kill your family." Recently, I've been getting a lot of boxes from Walmart.com after ordering from Amazon.com... and I'm okay with that. Because I didn't have to open an account with Walmart.com, but I still got the products that I wanted and a price I was okay with. So, quality is VERY important, but don't forget about convenience.
- 8note 8y ago
  you probably should have used digikey for your LED strips
  - lozaning 8y ago
    Or Alibaba or Aliexpress. If you're actually going to wait for a china boat to showup with your stuff 3 months later, don't pay the Amazon premium, go as directly to the source as you can.
  - dwyerm 8y ago
    I would have liked to, but they didn't have them. Or at least, I couldn't find them. I checked Mouser, too. But at least these sites have excellent parametric search functions! It is nice to be able to say "I do NOT want to see any waterproofed strips" and have my request actually honored.

comboy 8y ago

Sounds good but is this different from a site that does product reviews? Amazon does shipping and customer support which is hard and the only difference between quality store and quality reviews site seem to be one click more when buying.

dwyerm 8y ago

Yeah, but you need to hit the convenience side, too. Shopping on Amazon is really easy. They already have all my info, and seem to be trustworthy enough to hold it. A few nights ago, I was looking for very specific LED strips -- no waterproofing, black PCB, warm white LEDs, etc. Amazon couldn't help me, or at least, I couldn't find the item with high confidence that I'd actually get the right item after the 3 months of slow-boat China shipping. I ended up branching out to a bunch of local 'warehouses', which are I think what you're describing: Local stores that stock and sell a small number of items that they stand behind. I passed on every single one I found because of their terrible websites, filled with popups and chat windows, and the scourge of early ecommerce: "contact us for pricing!" This is before I ever had to enter an address and credit card number to actually buy anything. I think the solution is somewhere in the middle. Use Amazon for what they're good at and what makes them good for your customers, but build a brand with its own trustworthiness that exists outside of Amazon. It is something like SDCardholder.com that sells what I feel is the best card holder in the world. They have a storefront, but they use Amazon for their cart and warehouse. Monoprice has been the best place to get cables for years. I've purchased from them from both Amazon and their own storefront. Or Anker and Aukey, who have made brands around "reasonably-priced chargers that probably won't burst into flames and kill your family." Recently, I've been getting a lot of boxes from Walmart.com after ordering from Amazon.com... and I'm okay with that. Because I didn't have to open an account with Walmart.com, but I still got the products that I wanted and a price I was okay with. So, quality is VERY important, but don't forget about convenience.

8note 8y ago
you probably should have used digikey for your LED strips
- lozaning 8y ago
  Or Alibaba or Aliexpress. If you're actually going to wait for a china boat to showup with your stuff 3 months later, don't pay the Amazon premium, go as directly to the source as you can.
- dwyerm 8y ago
  I would have liked to, but they didn't have them. Or at least, I couldn't find them. I checked Mouser, too. But at least these sites have excellent parametric search functions! It is nice to be able to say "I do NOT want to see any waterproofed strips" and have my request actually honored.