5 ms·

I get anxiety shopping on amazon now. I just can't deal with 50 pages of options, all from "different" brands, selling the same mass produced chineese shit. Wil

I get anxiety shopping on amazon now. I just can't deal with 50 pages of options, all from "different" brands, selling the same mass produced chineese shit. Will not be renewing prime. There is a real opportunity for focused web stores out there. Selling only 1 type of product, filtering out crap, having good search, etc...

deelowe 5y ago
100% agree. I used to avoid walmart or lowes for things that fit into the category of "I need something to do x, but don't have the time to research it properly" and instead use amazon as I would generally end up with a better product in the end. These days it's the opposite. Fakes, clones, and outright scams have taken over. For the products I do have intimate knowledge of (e.g. hand tools or cables) amazon routinely buries the quality products and presents crap. And this isn't a price thing. Even affordable, quality options get buried despite being less expensive than the clones and fakes. It's even worse when amazon has their own competing product.
- WarOnPrivacy 5y ago
  > amazon routinely buries the quality products and presents crap. Not just crap, crap w/ 4.5 star ratings - that when you check find it's 1 star after 1 star after 1 star.
  - deelowe 5y ago
    Right. I used to think that Amazon was just supremely incompetent, but my opinions have shifted in recent years. I truly believe Amazon is intentionally causing brand dilution to strengthen their value of their on in house brands. It makes sense as the next logical step in terms of growth. Own the marketplace, then own the supply chain, and now they want to own product development. Manufacturing would be next.
satysin 5y ago
Not anxiety but I do get incredibly frustrated by the experience. Even when you search for a specific model number of something you get other similar items returned above the item you specifically searched for. Wtaf? And God help you if you search for something generic. You will see an endless list of the same item from 2000+ rebranding outfits. If you search through a bunch you can see they all use the same product shots just edited slightly. A green star added on a flipped image or the tint adjusted so the colour is different, etc. Maybe their editor was more creative so they photoshopped in a different stock background. Another thing I have noticed is many resellers on Amazon will use the correct product item in the search result but when you click through it is clear a different, albeit very similar, version of the product. You have to be so so careful to read the product description to ensure you buy the right product. USB items are notorious for this sort of thing with USB-C to C cables shown with two C connectors in the search result image but the actual item is a C to A??! It is infuriating.
greenail 5y ago
The problem is that you flip your problem from a huge selection of items in a big store to a big selection of stores with a small selection of products. Why do you think you wouldn't have a similar level of anxiety picking from lots of boutique stores?
vishnugupta 5y ago
> There is a real opportunity for focused web stores out there. Ironically this was a key differentiator that worked in favour of Amazon against EBay all those years ago. Amazon went against the tide and introduced "Single Detail Page". An SKU was supposed to get exactly one page no matter how many sellers were selling them. That way customers would be assured of buying the right product they searched for. As a customer, it's sad to see that principle being obliterated. Their catalog has become a cesspool of all sorts of knockoffs and fraudulent sellers. So now we are back to square one hoping someone would do to Amazon what Amazon did to Ebay.

deelowe 5y ago

100% agree. I used to avoid walmart or lowes for things that fit into the category of "I need something to do x, but don't have the time to research it properly" and instead use amazon as I would generally end up with a better product in the end. These days it's the opposite. Fakes, clones, and outright scams have taken over. For the products I do have intimate knowledge of (e.g. hand tools or cables) amazon routinely buries the quality products and presents crap. And this isn't a price thing. Even affordable, quality options get buried despite being less expensive than the clones and fakes. It's even worse when amazon has their own competing product.

WarOnPrivacy 5y ago
> amazon routinely buries the quality products and presents crap. Not just crap, crap w/ 4.5 star ratings - that when you check find it's 1 star after 1 star after 1 star.
- deelowe 5y ago
  Right. I used to think that Amazon was just supremely incompetent, but my opinions have shifted in recent years. I truly believe Amazon is intentionally causing brand dilution to strengthen their value of their on in house brands. It makes sense as the next logical step in terms of growth. Own the marketplace, then own the supply chain, and now they want to own product development. Manufacturing would be next.

satysin 5y ago

Not anxiety but I do get incredibly frustrated by the experience. Even when you search for a specific model number of something you get other similar items returned above the item you specifically searched for. Wtaf? And God help you if you search for something generic. You will see an endless list of the same item from 2000+ rebranding outfits. If you search through a bunch you can see they all use the same product shots just edited slightly. A green star added on a flipped image or the tint adjusted so the colour is different, etc. Maybe their editor was more creative so they photoshopped in a different stock background. Another thing I have noticed is many resellers on Amazon will use the correct product item in the search result but when you click through it is clear a different, albeit very similar, version of the product. You have to be so so careful to read the product description to ensure you buy the right product. USB items are notorious for this sort of thing with USB-C to C cables shown with two C connectors in the search result image but the actual item is a C to A??! It is infuriating.

greenail 5y ago

The problem is that you flip your problem from a huge selection of items in a big store to a big selection of stores with a small selection of products. Why do you think you wouldn't have a similar level of anxiety picking from lots of boutique stores?

vishnugupta 5y ago

> There is a real opportunity for focused web stores out there. Ironically this was a key differentiator that worked in favour of Amazon against EBay all those years ago. Amazon went against the tide and introduced "Single Detail Page". An SKU was supposed to get exactly one page no matter how many sellers were selling them. That way customers would be assured of buying the right product they searched for. As a customer, it's sad to see that principle being obliterated. Their catalog has become a cesspool of all sorts of knockoffs and fraudulent sellers. So now we are back to square one hoping someone would do to Amazon what Amazon did to Ebay.