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"82% of Prime members buy on Amazon even if the item is less expensive somewhere else" The supposed "source" referenced another study (sans link), so I can't g
by ShabbyDoo 15y ago
"82% of Prime members buy on Amazon even if the item is less expensive somewhere else"
The supposed "source" referenced another study (sans link), so I can't get the answer to the obvious question: Was "less expensive" computed using the marginal cost to the customer of this particular purchase? Meaning, do other sites offer the widget for a few dollars less but charge a lot for 2nd day shipping?
I'm a Prime customer, and I've mostly given up on comparison shopping for small items. Amazon's prices are usually good enough that, especially coupled with the free 2nd day shipping, my effective "wage" for comparison is too low to make it worth it. Nevermind the "it just works" feature of Amazon's system (not just website -- the entire process by which a widget comes to my house).
My wife and I have forced ourselves to change our shopping behaviors and ask ourselves before thinking about leaving the house, "Do I really need this thing now, or can it wait a day?" $4 for overnight shipping is a bargain compared to wasted time, gas, etc. Stores are harder and harder to justify. That my wife finds ordering a bunch of clothing, trying stuff on at home, and returning what she doesn't want to be much more efficient makes me wonder what the future of retail clothing becomes. She sometimes even regards the "home try-on" process as superior because she can see how a new item of clothing looks with other, previously purchased garments.
- PhrosTT 15y agoThere's also the money you save but not stepping foot in a store. That is, you don't throw extra items in your cart out of temptation.
- jrockway 15y agoAre you sure about that? Amazon spends a lot of money (and screen space) trying to recommend items for you to buy. I have to imagine that they do that because it works.
- MBCook 15y agoAs as Amazon user, it does work. But screen real-estate is quite a bit cheaper than the physical counterpart.
- Lewisham 15y agoI think the other thing that's missing from this is that Amazon's customer service is really very good. I'll spend the extra dollars buying something from Amazon than, say, one of their third-party merchants, because I know Amazon will take care of me if anything bad happens.
- pja 15y agoYeah you can return stuff...right until they decide you're an unprofitable customer and drop you like a hot brick.
- icey 15y agoDoes this happen frequently? I haven't heard about Amazon doing this before.
- pja 15y agoSee reply to CleverJake. They closed a stack of accounts a few years ago, whether they're still doing so I don't know, but the same logic applies...
- cleverjake 15y ago[citation needed] I have never heard of this happening ever with amazon, though I would love to know where your experience with this is coming from.
- pja 15y agoThe magic phrase to search for is "extraordinary number of incidents with your orders and corresponding shipments" which is from their standard form email when they cancel your account. My guess would be that Amazon's business model is very sensitive to the return rate, since returns are very expensive for them: their whole system is built around getting product out the door to the customer not the other way round! One or two expensive returns from a customer could wipe out all the profit they'll ever make from that individual. If they believe they can identify those customers who are likely to cost them money, it's in Amazon's interest to cut off service to those customers as early as possible. Perfectly rational behaviour, but I imagine highly frustrating for those customers who naturally feel that they've been somehow accused of wrongdoing when Amazon decides it doesn't want to do business with them any more.
- jcromartie 15y agoNever having to go to Best Buy again is worth the Prime membership alone.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- jrockway 15y agoI agree with you. Buy.com is often cheaper, but the items don't even ship the same day. Why wait around when I can pay $10 extra on a $200 item and get it same day? Ultimately, Amazon is doing what I think all companies should: compete on value instead of on price.
- kprobst 15y agoYes, exactly. We've gone from buying stuff at WalMart or BestBuy or whatever (with the associated marginal costs of gas, taxes, etc) to basically getting just about everything from Amazon. Small electronics, appliances, office supplies, etc. For anything over $50 or so I do compare prices with other online places, but more often than not Prime usually wins out simply based on the free shipping. For niche-ish things for example Monoprice will usually beat Amazon, but for most smaller purchases that are not immediately required, Prime has paid for itself many times over, especially considering my consumption of their member videos over my Roku.
- ShabbyDoo 15y agoI use monoprice as well for cables, etc. Well under half the cost of Amazon makes it worthwhile.
- oflannabhra 15y agoI've really loved Amazon's "Amazon Basics" brand. Lots of cables available at very reasonable prices, simple, frustration-free packaging, and always Prime eligible.
- MrFoof 15y ago>especially coupled with the free 2nd day shipping There's an added bonus if you live near a distribution center, in which 2nd day often turns into next day. In a handful of cases, I've had next day turn into same day -- ordering something before I go to work, and finding it was delivered in the middle of the afternoon by a specialty shipper like LaserShip.
- MattRogish 15y agoIt's especially magical if you're shipping to Manhattan as they offer same-day delivery. It's such a delight to click "Buy!" in the morning and have it by mid-afternoon.
- apeconmyth 15y agoGuess I'm near a distribution center then as I generally find that free super saver shipping, which is supposed to take 5-8 days, ends up being two day. Definitely hinders my urge to go Prime.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- ktsmith 15y agoIn addition to the free shipping on 2 day delivery or the $4 next day delivery we purchase a lot from amazon on our chase/amazon credit card due to the 3% cash back on purchases from amazon. We pay the card off every month and then by the time Christmas rolls around we have tons of points to redeem. We also typically buy gas (2% back) and a few other large recurring monthly expenses on the card for the 1% cash back. I wouldn't use it for anything that I wasn't paying off immediately though as the interest rate sucks. The combination of prime and the card have significantly increased the amount we spend with Amazon.
- dmoy 15y agoThe extra 2% back (assuming 1% from another card) is nice. While I do this as well, it does not end up making an impact on most stuff when I run the numbers. Combined with the shipping & customer service convenience though... :) The 2% gas (& food?) / 1% everything is the same as any other (good) card. Also yes, pay it off immediately. Not paying off any credit card immediately is insane, because the interest rates on basically all credit cards is abysmal. There are a lot of credit cards that will have 0% intro periods, but then the standard 10~15% rate after that. I've never seen one with an actual low interest rate (and if you think about it, why in hell would anyone offer such a card?) - correct me if I'm wrong though. Treat it like a debit card, but enjoy the benefits of building a credit score.
- ktsmith 15y agoAmazons credit card through chase is 3% on purchases at amazon.com, 2% for gas at most locations and 1% on everything else. Where the cash back works out is on things you have to spend money on anyway and can't get cheaper, gas being a good example of that. Our gas expenditures for last year resulting in about $100 in points on $3600 in gas. Using my debit card would have simply resulted in $3600 in debits.
- rb2k_ 15y agoI'm personally fine with NOT buying at a cheaper merchant somewhere else because I know: - Amazon ships fast - Sending things back to Amazon is free and fully automated - If something breaks in a year, Amazon will usually replace it without a big hassle - I don't have to get another account at another merchant that will save my password and credit card data in plaintext - Amazon packaging is great - ... There is more to a purchase than just the product itself
- nn2 15y ago- amazon has a relatively painless website, unlike a lot of other webshops
- DennisP 15y agoI mostly buy books from Amazon, and since they're usually the cheapest option anyway, typically don't comparison shop for them. However, I do buy used books when they're significantly cheaper, or Kindle books when they're the cheapest (except in cases where I feel Kindle provides significantly less value, such as programming books.) Compared to the stacks of full-price books I was getting from Borders a decade ago, I'm doing a lot better.
- billybob 15y agoRegarding clothing: I've heard the idea that we'll all scan our bodies, upload that data, and an online site will be able to show us what will fit us. People may find that too creepy, but Amazon could do something else: gather lots of feedback about what fits customers and what doesn't. You get 3 pairs of pants, rate them "too big" and "too small" and "just right". Eventually that could correlate that if you and Customer X both fit these pants recently, the shorts he bought last week will probably fit you too. (This would be more complicated for women, of course.)
- megaman821 15y agoI think Zappos already does something similar with shoe sizes.
- kenrikm 15y agoExactly! Less "expensive" in what way? sure the purchase price might be lower but what about the "pain in the butt" price? If you have to load a baby into the car drive 5mi (gas) get the thing you need and drive back 5mi (gas) and the whole thing takes two hours of your night when you could have been working and getting paid $XXX. Nope Amazon is cheaper 99% of the time once you factor in the "pain in the butt" price.
- bostonvaulter2 15y agoBut don't you need to leave the house to return the items? I've always regarded dropping off and mailing packages to be a huge chore.
- MBCook 15y agoThat's true. I rarely have to return things to Amazon, so it doesn't come up much. However, I buy so much from the (I'm a Prime member) the I almost always have a small box around. I just put the item in it, print out the pre-paid shipping label, and drop the box in a UPS box or at a UPS store. It's not that bad.
- kenrikm 15y agoI buy more than I return so the "pain in the butt" cost is still lower. Plus Amazon makes it really, really easy to return stuff, you just print the label and drop it off.
- ShabbyDoo 15y agoGood point. Returns usually are exception conditions, so one need only factor in a fraction of the "cost" of a return when making most purchases. However, when I order two sizes of the same shirt, I obviously will be returning one of them.
- sagres 15y agoYou don't need to leave the house. When you return something Amazon gives you the option to drop off or have UPS pickup the package the next day.
- mattmcknight 15y agoI generally wish I could go to the site and not even see non-Amazon warehoused items- effectively always keeping the "prime only" box checked. I like buying from Amazon, not the marketplace. It's also confusing for the non-savvy user.
- gwern 15y agoThere probably is an option somewhere for that. It's just that the Amazon site is so awfully designed and ugly... (For years I would read how Amazon pioneered A/B testing and measured statistics on every pixel of its site and tweaked out the wazoo, and I would wonder how this was possible given that the site was a chaotic mess that actively impeded me when shopping there - could my sense of what is effective and attractive be that out of whack? And then I read in Yegge's famous Google+ post that this was not true, but the cluttered chaos was kept at the specific request of the CEO, Jeff Bezos. And I went, 'oh of course; that explains everything.')
- whatusername 15y agoUgly sites can convert better: http://scobleizer.com/2006/03/04/the-role-of-anti-marketing-design/ http://scobleizer.com/2006/03/04/the-role-of-anti-marketing-... See also: Any direct marketing long form sales letter.
- blntechie 15y agoI'm not very sure about that. Amazon's site may not be beautifully designed but it works. As they advertise, it has never taken me more than a click to buy an item unless I want to change something. Also, it has one of the better product search engines amongst all retailers. Their reviews are generally considered genuine and useful and they're clearly laid out. I'm generally happy with their website design.
- gwern 15y agoYes, it works, but could it be better? Notice that you can have great reviews or product search engines despite a busy chaotic layout - the search engine source code doesn't give a toss what the pages look like as long as it has the data it needs, and the reviews come in if you have enough customers and don't make too hard on them to submit.
- guelo 15y agoYou make a good argument for states figuring out how to strictly enforce the sales tax on Amazon purchases. As Amazon cannibalizes local retail (similar to what Walmart has done but without even the crappy jobs) the tax base will erode further.