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What does it mean when a product is “Amazon’s Choice”?
- larkinrichards 7y agoI think an interesting point to keep an eye on is recommendations with negative side effects, e.g. amazons choice for a high security lock has a terrible flaw. https://youtu.be/kJ1_P5oqf6Y https://youtu.be/kJ1_P5oqf6Y
- mttyng 7y agoTL;DR: “How does Amazon choose its choices? Do humans have a hand in the decisions, or are they governed by an algorithm? The company won’t say.” ...followed by theories.
- archgoon 7y agoWell, also some information on what happens when you change the keywords in the search. "toothpaste" and "best toothpaste" return different results; which is interesting. Also, it mentions that, unsurprisingly, there are external companies attempting to reverse engineer the algorithm.
- danso 7y agoThat the company won't say that it's hand-curated, with the observations that the article makes, seems to suggest that automation is being used to some degree. Which wasn't obvious to me as a customer.
- OJFord 7y agoI always assumed it was just a top seller for rough search term (i.e. algorithmic, but simplistic).
- gowld 7y agoYes, it's the #1 search term by their algorithm, with some badging to psyochologically nudge you toward confidence to buy. It's conceptually no different from a floor salesman telling you that whatever item you are currently looking at is the best choice. It's similar to how almost every Amazon product is a "best seller" in an extremely narrow category.
- duxup 7y agoThose things remind me of when I'm at a home hardware store. They'll have a sale on say multi bit screwdrivers on the end cap. It will look like a fancy screwdriver that is on sale with lots of features and bits. Inevitably if I by these ... they suck and are actually expensive for the quality and often have "features" that get in the way (some sort of fancy grip, more bits). If I go down the isle I'll find for far less a simple multi bit screwdriver that is both cheaper, and higher quality. Accordingly I never trust these signs / actually avoid them as the same rule apply to cooking tools and so many other things.
- UncleEntity 7y agoIDK, I bought an Amazon Choice rice cooker and I'm pretty happy with it. Would have usually gotten a cheap one and have it break sooner rather than later but this thing is going strong so far.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- duxup 7y agoI don't doubt they could be reasonable products, but stuff like a rice cooker or say crock pot isn't usually a product that has a lot of breakage... well shouldn't.
- throwaway2048 7y agoLots of people assume end caps are on sale, but they usually never are, its just stuff that the store wants to sell to you really badly, which usually means high margins (because of crap quality, or overpricing), or the brand is paying them for the privilege.
- pbhjpbhj 7y agoPresumably it's like any other store, products with slight defects ("it was on offer, not worth returning"), excess products taking up warehouse space, old versions, highest profit item in a class, paid promotions. Why would Amazon do it differently, they clearly don't care about product quality; how else would they use the badge?
- wyldfire 7y ago> Presumably it's like any other store, products with slight defects What you are describing sounds like "clearance" which is a pretty upfront designation (this didn't sell very well, it's here at a discount before we chuck it). But I think the message that "Amazon's Choice" is intended to convey is "this product meets certain quality and value standards and is unlikely to disappoint you." Of course, in practice, they could apply it in order to clear inventory. But with FBA, the inventory carrying cost isn't primarily theirs.
- pbhjpbhj 7y agoNo, clearance is different. At least in UK stores that's marked down from the shelf price. Example, Battenburg cake, when it's on promotion it always has one of: mismatches (not quite square), loose seams, cake edges (crust that's darker coloured, not burnt), too much jam. It's not old, but without the promotion it would probably end up in clearance because people are more choosy with "full price". Similarly in restaurants, the waiter will recommend food that's not inferior, but would become so if it's not sold. Or to use a product their supplier discounted. Managers special might be "we got excess inventory at our central warehouse and I get a bonus if we shift more of these, which are perfectly good product". Et cetera.
- pjscott 7y agoThat would be burning Amazon's reputation for dubious short-term gain. If they're thinking about the longer term, it would make more sense to play it straight: make the Amazon's Choice recommendations as honest as possible, and seriously try to help their customers find good products.
- pkaye 7y agoRecently when we were deciding among a couple vitamins to buy on Amazon we noticed that the "Amazon's Choice" label got moved from one product to another during a screen refresh. We thought that was strange and were curious how they determining the labeling.
- blairanderson 7y agoi would be interested in seeing that, because I do consulting for suppliers selling to Amazon and rarely see flucuations like that on badges.
- IAmGarrett 7y agoI sell a product on Amazon and have seen it be AC one day, not the next day, and then two days later, back to AC. Return rate and star rating were constant throughout the period, so I'm at a loss for how this "choice" is bestowed.
- privateSFacct 7y agoA factor may be availability and not wanting to overload a choice. Let's say you are way down in list, and pop up to be the Amazon Choice. That drives real sales increases. They might look at how many in warehouse local to you. Persons A, B, C put in cart - they slow rate at which AC shows up until they get a sense of whether all those will become sales or some will expire from cart etc. Amazon has some places that feel like they have softer consistency guarantees. Ie, something shows up, but with some time passing things like price might change even while in your cart etc.
- toast0 7y agoI haven't noticed that, but the labels definitely move around with very similar searches.
- Finnucane 7y agoIn Ye Olde Dayes, these sorts of promotional considerations were paid for by the manufacturer. When Amazon was still mainly selling books, 'coop' funds paid for favorable placement on the intro pages for genre sections (the same way bookstores arrange endcaps and window displays). But it sounds like this has been replaced with a system that doesn't require any sort of human input.
- CharlesColeman 7y ago> But it sounds like this has been replaced with a system that doesn't require any sort of human input. They should rename it "Our Insane Algorithm's Choice."
- zwieback 7y agoI don't know but I gravitate toward them and haven't regretted it yet.
- oceanghost 7y agoI have seen some really questionable products recommended by "Amazon's Choice." I have assumed that in addition to customer input, the choice is probably working against me (recommending things with higher margins, items that Amazon needs to get rid of, or kickbacks themselves).
- tzs 7y agoSome of them are very specific. For example, the eufy RoboVac 11S is currently "Amazon's Choice" for "eufy robovac 11s".
- occamschainsaw 7y agoThis could be useful when there are multiple sellers of the same product.
- dpoochieni 7y agoAmazon's choice === high margin made on this product
- chaoticmass 7y agoI mean, it is Amazon's choice after all.
- blairanderson 7y agoThis seems like an obvious theory, but its not backed by any data. We have seen products with choice badge that are negative margin.
- blowski 7y agoThey could be getting a rebate, either on that product or across the range.
- themagician 7y agoDefinitely not true. I have about a dozen choice badges which come and go and it's definitely not related to margin.
- calf 7y agoIt's so people don't have to choose so Amazon is literally choosing for you. I've picked Amazon's Choice a couple times because I gave up trying to research what would actually be the right product for me.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- residentfoam 7y agoI look only at the negative reviews. You can trust them to highlight the weak points of a product. So I know at least what would be the "worst" case scenario and if that works for me I buy it.
- flavor8 7y agoUnfortunately they're not safe either. Competitors in a niche will hire sock puppet accounts to negative review each other.
- chx 7y agoThis is why I always look at the two star reviews :) One star reviews are too often indeed sockpuppetery, PEBKAC and such.
- rienbdj 7y agoDo you not think they would have caught on to this?
- chx 7y agoToo much effort. So no, I don't think so.
- soulofmischief 7y agoIt's not too much effort to pay someone a third-world salary to do whatever you want.
- chx 7y agoYes but wanting that is way too much effort and writing a credible two star review is actually not easy.
- soulofmischief 7y ago
- ohnope 7y agoIf I were an evil decision maker at Amazon, I would have the algorithm pick products that are well rated with low return rate, but have high inventory that doesn't clear fast enough. Easy way to free up space in the warehouse. Because why call out actual crowd favorites if they are already "organically" selling well?
- kdmccormick 7y agoMy friend works at a liquor store. His boss one day told him to label the poorly-selling wines as "Staff Picks". So your fear isn't exactly unfounded :P
- calbear81 7y agoI guess that isn't wrong, your boss is part of the staff and they have "picked" the poorly selling wines to highlight. It didn't say "Staff Recommended" or "Staff Favorites"
- kdmccormick 7y agoI think the average shopper would interpret "Staff Picks" as meaning "wine that the staff recommends" instead of "wine the store is hoping to sell." It's disingenuous at best. For the record, my friend initially refused, and then compromised by labeling them "[Manager name]'s Picks".
- TeMPOraL 7y ago> It's disingenuous at best. Not the only thing retail stores do. It saddens me that this kind of dishonesty is actually a standard operating practice in retail.
- calbear81 7y agoI was being facetious. It definitely is extremely misleading based on any common understanding of what a “pick” implies in terms of quality or attributes of a product.
- blairanderson 7y agoOur data shows "Amazon Choice" is essentially a join table between product and search keywords, ordered by a multiplier of conversions, ratings, and availability. - Customers are happy when they get stuff fast - it needs to be available right now, and in the buy box - Higher rated items are theoretically better than lower rated items - "choice" badge is keyword specific: a plant light could be choice for "grow light bulb" and "grow light led" but not for "light bulb". Our data shows the items are not correlated by margins for. We often see negative NET PPM on "choice" items. Source: I run an Amazon consultancy that manages roughly $30M/year sold through Amazon.
- swampthinker 7y agoWhat does PPM mean in this context?
- jetrink 7y agoPure profit margin (otherwise known as net profit margin)
- blairanderson 7y agoNet Pure Product Margin after cost of goods sold and various agreed services such as damage allowance are deducted.
- zippergz 7y agoSo this would largely imply that Amazon's Choice truly is about giving customers the best experience (to the extent possible given the quality of keyword and review data)?
- losteric 7y agoBasically, labeling products the customer is most likely to purchase. but, pessimistically or realistically, I expect they are also training customers to blindly trust the black box and eventually the criteria will change towards maximizing short-term value.
- Pxtl 7y agoIt bothers me because the term pretty strongly implies that a "choice" involves a human doing the choosing. When I first saw it, I'd hoped it was a sign that Amazon was going to be investing time in curating their junkyard swapmeet of a store. Not so much.
- wtracy 7y ago> Searching for “Goyard,” a French company whose bags usually retail for thousands of dollars, often displays a $25 knockoff as Amazon’s Choice. Wow, this sounds like lawsuit material. It's one thing to unwittingly carry counterfeit products. It's another thing entirely to actually endorse one.
- neom 7y agoLockpick lawyer (not embarrassed to say my fav youtube channel) has some choice words for amazon choice locks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm9K6rby98W8JigLoZOh6FQ/search?query=amazon+choice https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm9K6rby98W8JigLoZOh6FQ/sea...
- Theodores 7y agoThis is a good example as it really does lay the Amazon gig bare. LPL knows his stuff but, for customer recommendations, do you really need LPL level product knowledge? Nope. I have sold locks as just one of thousands of products in the bicycle trade and you don't need to sell that many to know what you should be recommending to customers. It is not difficult. You don't have to pick/angle-grind them, you just need to listen to the customers. There is a forest of locks out there, all different for slightly different use cases and customers do need a little bit of advice to get the right one. It is one of those situations where you can have two out of three of these things: security, a nice price or a manageable weight. There is unwritten moral obligation to provide some customer service, as a shop assistant it would be pathologically wrong to sell someone a lock that is not suited for their use case. The same goes for any other product. Sure there may be times when you might try your hardest to shift inventory, e.g. the models with last year's packaging that have got a bit dusty, or the ones that are over-abundant in the warehouse. But you can do that responsibly so the customer knows what the deal is. In normal retail with a finite amount of shelf space you do not have sub-standard clone products taking up tonnes of space with little product differentiation. It makes no sense to sell these products as the profit from the sale is nowhere near as good as what you get selling a legitimate product. Besides, how on earth are the customers supposed to choose when the options are mind-boggling? With the LPL Amazon locks series it seems clear to me that Amazon are selling highly branded products that are useless as 'choice' as well as off-brand junk as 'choice'. If a regular shop assistant was doing what they were doing then you would wonder whether they were trying to destroy the company! In regular retail if you realise that some locks are sub-standard then you get the customers coming back with some horror story about how their shed was raided. Or they come in with the remains of what the thieves left behind. After profuse apologies they are cool about it, they have insurance and you help them get what they need. You then decide not to stock the offending locks again or to sell them only to people who are okay with the compromise. Amazon just do not have this type of a feedback loop, they are not trimming down their range to only offer the customer the good stuff. They just don't get this aspect of customer service even though they excel in other areas.
- tzs 7y agoAmazon is just a mess. Search for "apple watch charger cable". Among the results is one "Amazon's Choice", this one by ATETION [1], sold by ZDAGO and fulfilled by Amazon, with Prime shipping. Amazingly, all the reviews in the listing seem to actually be reviews for an Apple watch charger cable, which is a rarity for that category. Almost every other third party cable listing is rife with reviews and questions for other products. So, in this case, the "Amazon's Choice" label seems to be very useful--it is marking pretty much the only third party Apple watch charger cable on Amazon that doesn't show obvious signs of being sold be a scammer. However, if like me before you go look at the search results you go over to the side and check the "Prime" box to refine the search to just listings with Prime shipping, the "Amazon's Choice" ATETION listing from ZDAGO goes away! This makes no sense. The results still do contain what appears to be the same ATETION cable (at least the specs are the same) [2], except now it is sold be WEIZY and fulfilled by Amazon, and is not an "Amazon's Choice", and is slightly cheaper. The WEIZY listing is a cesspool, like pretty much everything else in the category except the ZDAGO listing. It's full of questions and reviews that have nothing to do with the charger cable. [1] https://www.amazon.com/ATETION-Charger-iWatch-Magnetic-Charging/dp/B07NWC3SX1 https://www.amazon.com/ATETION-Charger-iWatch-Magnetic-Charg... [2] https://www.amazon.com/ATETION-Charger-iWatch-Magnetic-Charging/dp/B07PQ1RNYG https://www.amazon.com/ATETION-Charger-iWatch-Magnetic-Charg...
- bitL 7y agoCynic in me: it means a similar product is soon going to be offered as Amazon Basics, i.e. grab the original while you still can.
- sutterbomb 7y agoAlmost definitely not the case. My product had the badge for awhile and our whole category is too small to warrant Amazon’s attention.
- sytelus 7y agoTLDR; looks like none of what I thought "Amazon Choice" meant is true. This is what I thought: (1) they had verified seller through some background checks, (2) made sure the seller was selling genuine brands/product, and (3) the product was the best selling among such verified products.
- ptah 7y agotldr: "we don't know either"
- kkarakk 7y agoSounds like their algo has reached youtube recommender/ranking algo level of "we don't know what the black box does, we just try to fix it when it fucks up"
- PcMojo 7y agoI bought my parents some outdoor pathway solar lights marketed as "Amazon's Choice" that turned out to be cheap garbage. Their first set that they bought decades ago lasted over 10 years. Then next two sets they bought fizzled out in 2 years or so. With solar, battery & led technology moving forward exponentially I figured it would be easy to find nice solar lights for a good price. I set out to buy a decent set of lights for them & didn't mind paying a little more for some quality lights. I couldn't decide between a few models & Amazon kept recommending their "Amazon's Choice" that didn't list as many technical specifications as the ones I was considering. Time marched on & I needed to make a decision & decided to trust Amazon with their choice. I figured that their AI would know I analyze many of my purchases extensively & pay extra for quality, so I assumed that info would probably be in my account profile. (yeah I remember the old saying too!) I was never so embarrassed to give somebody a gift then when I gave the "Amazon's Choice" solar light set to my parents. Some didn't work at all right out of the box. Within 6 months only two worked. They were dim, really cheap (stakes broke) & were that annoying artificial light spectrum. I don't buy much from Amazon anymore for this & other reasons, but when I do, if it says "Amazon's Choice" it doesn't encourage me to buy, it discourages me from making a purchase.