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>I see the Amazon fake products problem as related to the social network fake news problem. In both cases you have a company that wants to both have it's platfo

>I see the Amazon fake products problem as related to the social network fake news problem. In both cases you have a company that wants to both have it's platform cake and eat it's publisher cake at the same time. (Sorry for the bad spin on that phrase there.) These companies innovate by showing off a layer of whiz-bang techy goodness so people don't notice that they've simply externalized all the responsibility and internalized all the profits.

jka 7y ago
It also wouldn't be surprising to learn that they identify customers (buyers) who have louder voices and more social influence, and shield those people from fakes -- or provide rewards to mollify them when they do report problems.
- gowld 7y ago
  That’s intractable. They can’t selectively shield everyone the influencer retweets from fakes. They didn’t even shield a wirecutter , one of their largest affiliate referrers.
amylene 7y ago
Wait, do you really believe that amazons retail business has had little or no significant innovation besides whiz bang tech goodness? I’m guessing you were exaggerating to make a more strong sounding statement, but if you meant it, then I strongly disagree.
- pas 7y ago
  What exactly are they adding in value compared to any regular webshop? It's just as incomprehensibly bad as the standard run of the mill default PrestaShop. At least Shopify is a real platform you can build stuff on. Amazon is just this giant bullying machine. The Dalek of retail.
  - robteix 7y ago
    Super fast and cheap shipping is a big deal. Easy returns. I have several issues with Amazon the company, but any time I buy something only from any other vendor I'm reminded of what makes Amazon different.
    - SECProto 7y ago
      > Super fast and cheap shipping is a big deal. Fast OR cheap shipping. At least in my locality. In the place I most frequently order, free shipping is scheduled for "5-7 business days" to get to me, and frequently gets misdirected and takes an extra day or two (pushing it past another weekend). When I've ordered to one of Canada's large urban centers it is much faster. But going to an actual store to get something for the same price is also an option, and faster still. And doesn't tend to have difficult to spot counterfeits.
    - pas 7y ago
      Could you elaborate a bit on what other vendors screw up? Here, in Hungary, ordering from Amazon is problematic, because it's such a beast. No human in the loop, and they pass on your package to some delivery vendor anyway, which usually doesn't provide much tracking. So we get no* benefit of the machine at all. * - sure, we get an interface that's at least consistent and usually available in English
  - amylene 7y ago
    Huge selection, great customer service, saved credentials, 5% back on purchases, most stuff is one day shipping for me. I also know they fix problems pretty rapidly. I get a ton of entertainment from prime video. Those are all things difficult to get consistently from a random web store.
    - pas 7y ago
      > Huge selection Agreed. The problem is that generally the descriptions are so useless it's hard to know what's actually what. (For example recently I ordered a case for a Kobo Forma e-reader, and it was impossible to know how it would actually fold, because there were a few pictures, no video, no schematics, nothing. And the description was similarly unhelpful. It worked out okay though.) > great customer service I found it impossible to even get in touch with them :o (I wanted to ask where my package is, but they just kept naming the shipping vendor - "Deutsche Post", no tracking ID, no link, no actual contact to the relevant department.) > saved credentials Every webshop so far does it, and usually smaller ones provide ability to use PayPal. > 5% back on purchases How does that work? It's either priced into the price of everything or others pay for it, no?

jka 7y ago

It also wouldn't be surprising to learn that they identify customers (buyers) who have louder voices and more social influence, and shield those people from fakes -- or provide rewards to mollify them when they do report problems.

gowld 7y ago
That’s intractable. They can’t selectively shield everyone the influencer retweets from fakes. They didn’t even shield a wirecutter , one of their largest affiliate referrers.

amylene 7y ago

Wait, do you really believe that amazons retail business has had little or no significant innovation besides whiz bang tech goodness? I’m guessing you were exaggerating to make a more strong sounding statement, but if you meant it, then I strongly disagree.

pas 7y ago
What exactly are they adding in value compared to any regular webshop? It's just as incomprehensibly bad as the standard run of the mill default PrestaShop. At least Shopify is a real platform you can build stuff on. Amazon is just this giant bullying machine. The Dalek of retail.
- robteix 7y ago
  Super fast and cheap shipping is a big deal. Easy returns. I have several issues with Amazon the company, but any time I buy something only from any other vendor I'm reminded of what makes Amazon different.
  - SECProto 7y ago
    > Super fast and cheap shipping is a big deal. Fast OR cheap shipping. At least in my locality. In the place I most frequently order, free shipping is scheduled for "5-7 business days" to get to me, and frequently gets misdirected and takes an extra day or two (pushing it past another weekend). When I've ordered to one of Canada's large urban centers it is much faster. But going to an actual store to get something for the same price is also an option, and faster still. And doesn't tend to have difficult to spot counterfeits.
  - pas 7y ago
    Could you elaborate a bit on what other vendors screw up? Here, in Hungary, ordering from Amazon is problematic, because it's such a beast. No human in the loop, and they pass on your package to some delivery vendor anyway, which usually doesn't provide much tracking. So we get no* benefit of the machine at all. * - sure, we get an interface that's at least consistent and usually available in English
- amylene 7y ago
  Huge selection, great customer service, saved credentials, 5% back on purchases, most stuff is one day shipping for me. I also know they fix problems pretty rapidly. I get a ton of entertainment from prime video. Those are all things difficult to get consistently from a random web store.
  - pas 7y ago
    > Huge selection Agreed. The problem is that generally the descriptions are so useless it's hard to know what's actually what. (For example recently I ordered a case for a Kobo Forma e-reader, and it was impossible to know how it would actually fold, because there were a few pictures, no video, no schematics, nothing. And the description was similarly unhelpful. It worked out okay though.) > great customer service I found it impossible to even get in touch with them :o (I wanted to ask where my package is, but they just kept naming the shipping vendor - "Deutsche Post", no tracking ID, no link, no actual contact to the relevant department.) > saved credentials Every webshop so far does it, and usually smaller ones provide ability to use PayPal. > 5% back on purchases How does that work? It's either priced into the price of everything or others pay for it, no?