4 ms·

If Amazon made it possible for a customer to pick (and pay for the presumed incremental cost of) alternative carriers, they'd have a gold mine of data on custom

If Amazon made it possible for a customer to pick (and pay for the presumed incremental cost of) alternative carriers, they'd have a gold mine of data on customer WTP and carrier quality at the local level.

behringer 7y ago
They have a more accurate results by seeing actual performance numbers, not opinionated results. They see customer retention in certain areas, they see damaged, lost, stolen, late packages. They have numbers for every type of issue and every location. If they let customers decide, they'd be a lot more limited in both their reporting and their testing.
- freeone3000 7y ago
  Then why do they keep sending me stuff through Intelcom when the last eight have not been delivered to my address?
  - behringer 7y ago
    Because they test on a large scale, not an individual scale
sokoloff 7y ago
I suspect that Amazon does not want to put additional cognitive load on the purchaser right at the most critical point of the conversion funnel. As a customer, I want a delivery time/date and let Amazon figure out how to do it. They're presumably way better at it than I am. If Amazon fails at that, I want to be able to complain without feeling like "oh, it was my fault because I picked Rickshaw Bob as the carrier". When Amazon would willy-nilly give away a month of Prime when a guaranteed package was late, I would frequently wish I could get a package over to Mail Innovations or SurePost. Both would pretty reliably be late and for most packages, I'd rather have the $10 credit.
- cornishpixels 7y ago
  > They're presumably way better at it than I am. That's laughable.
  - sokoloff 7y ago
    I have no idea where the stock is that they're planning on sending me. If the question is "what carrier service do I feel best about based on my anecdotes?", I am better than Amazon. If the question is "based on all the places from which Amazon could fulfill my order [or combinations of outstanding orders], which one(s) are likely to satisfy the constraints given our large base of actual carrier performance, and which one of those is optimal?", it seems laughable that I'd have any hope of answering that better than Amazon. (I oversee Logistics software for another e-commerce player. Our network is vastly simpler than Amazon's and yet I'm quite sure we're better at it than our 99.5th percentile customer.)
- post_break 7y ago
  I'd buy more if it meant USPS never handled another amazon package again in my lifetime.
- macjohnmcc 7y ago
  Rickshaw Bob is the worst.
- thaumasiotes 7y ago
  > I suspect that Amazon does not want to put additional cognitive load on the purchaser right at the most critical point of the conversion funnel. > As a customer, I want a delivery time/date and let Amazon figure out how to do it. The big problem here is that Amazon no longer offers you the ability to pick the delivery date. They'll tell you when your package will arrive, and you'll suck it up. It's a huge step backwards from the old system, where slow shipping was free, two-day shipping was moderately priced, and one-day shipping was expensive. (Or, with Prime, two-day shipping was free and one-day shipping was $7.99.) Under normal circumstances, I don't care which delivery company drops off my package. I might develop a preference if one of them is chronically late, or usually damages the package[1]. But I always care what the delivery date is! [1] Guess what! Amazon's also stopped shipping individual books in boxes with bubble padding. Now they come in manila envelopes. And they usually take damage in transit from being squeezed by the envelope.
prostoalex 7y ago
They presumably can just ask the carrier for their internal reliability metrics as a pre-requisite for the contract.

behringer 7y ago

They have a more accurate results by seeing actual performance numbers, not opinionated results. They see customer retention in certain areas, they see damaged, lost, stolen, late packages. They have numbers for every type of issue and every location. If they let customers decide, they'd be a lot more limited in both their reporting and their testing.

freeone3000 7y ago
Then why do they keep sending me stuff through Intelcom when the last eight have not been delivered to my address?
- behringer 7y ago
  Because they test on a large scale, not an individual scale

sokoloff 7y ago

I suspect that Amazon does not want to put additional cognitive load on the purchaser right at the most critical point of the conversion funnel. As a customer, I want a delivery time/date and let Amazon figure out how to do it. They're presumably way better at it than I am. If Amazon fails at that, I want to be able to complain without feeling like "oh, it was my fault because I picked Rickshaw Bob as the carrier". When Amazon would willy-nilly give away a month of Prime when a guaranteed package was late, I would frequently wish I could get a package over to Mail Innovations or SurePost. Both would pretty reliably be late and for most packages, I'd rather have the $10 credit.

cornishpixels 7y ago
> They're presumably way better at it than I am. That's laughable.
- sokoloff 7y ago
  I have no idea where the stock is that they're planning on sending me. If the question is "what carrier service do I feel best about based on my anecdotes?", I am better than Amazon. If the question is "based on all the places from which Amazon could fulfill my order [or combinations of outstanding orders], which one(s) are likely to satisfy the constraints given our large base of actual carrier performance, and which one of those is optimal?", it seems laughable that I'd have any hope of answering that better than Amazon. (I oversee Logistics software for another e-commerce player. Our network is vastly simpler than Amazon's and yet I'm quite sure we're better at it than our 99.5th percentile customer.)
post_break 7y ago
I'd buy more if it meant USPS never handled another amazon package again in my lifetime.
macjohnmcc 7y ago
Rickshaw Bob is the worst.
thaumasiotes 7y ago
> I suspect that Amazon does not want to put additional cognitive load on the purchaser right at the most critical point of the conversion funnel. > As a customer, I want a delivery time/date and let Amazon figure out how to do it. The big problem here is that Amazon no longer offers you the ability to pick the delivery date. They'll tell you when your package will arrive, and you'll suck it up. It's a huge step backwards from the old system, where slow shipping was free, two-day shipping was moderately priced, and one-day shipping was expensive. (Or, with Prime, two-day shipping was free and one-day shipping was $7.99.) Under normal circumstances, I don't care which delivery company drops off my package. I might develop a preference if one of them is chronically late, or usually damages the package[1]. But I always care what the delivery date is! [1] Guess what! Amazon's also stopped shipping individual books in boxes with bubble padding. Now they come in manila envelopes. And they usually take damage in transit from being squeezed by the envelope.

prostoalex 7y ago

They presumably can just ask the carrier for their internal reliability metrics as a pre-requisite for the contract.