3 ms·
There has already been a dramatic increase in the number of manufacturers selling directly to consumers over the past few decades, both online and via manufactu
by nickff 3y ago
There has already been a dramatic increase in the number of manufacturers selling directly to consumers over the past few decades, both online and via manufacturer-controlled retail stores. Look at brands like Nike, Adidas, Microsoft, Apple, Le Creuset, etc.
- quickthrower2 3y agoTesla famously.
- ethbr1 3y agoAll of these are established brand names though. On the one hand, going over the top of big box allows you to establish a direct customer relationship and keep profits. On the other hand, it removes the quality imprimatur that being stocked in a big box confers. Ceteris paribus, why take a risk on one of 1,000 new internet brands, when you know better what you're getting with a megabrand? Which is probably why you see internet brands succeed best in the disposable space (e.g. fast fashion), where quality is not a differentiator.
- quickthrower2 3y agoThere are exceptions. The Niche Zero coffee grinder is direct from manufacturer but is high quality. In addition a lot of what they sell in stores is crap. To the point I would go online to find the same thing to get better quality. The caveat being caveat emptor: DYOR.
- gumby 3y agoPhysob brands have been launching online-only, even Amazon-only for a long time. Anger is one who built a popular brand with only an Amazon presence.
- TylerE 3y agoWhen has being stocked by big boxes been a sign of quality? Maybe real old school department stores zzz but Walmart and Target?
- maxerickson 3y agoCompared to an unknown, yeah, the store brands at Walmart and Target do communicate some reasonable minimum level of quality. I think Walmart does a better job of it than a lot of smaller grocers. "Great Value" whatever will be pretty cheap (in terms of both cost and value), but it won't be garbage in a package.
- h0l0cube 3y agoShoes are the one thing I’ll go to a store for. It’s a real struggle to find a good fit, and there’s some manufacturing variance, even with the same model
- lotsofpulp 3y agoFor clothing and shoes, I order 3 sizes, and return 2.
- gumby 3y agoIn most case the two you return are discarded. I don’t think that’s sustainable in the long run.
- ryandrake 3y agoThat’s a choice of the retailer or manufacturer though. Whether it is sustainable is their problem. My wife buys 20 outfits and returns 19 of them. If the clothing manufacturer is really throwing them away then they are very wasteful.
- gumby 3y agoI’m sorry I was ambiguous. I didn’t mean “unsustainable” in the ecological sense (though I think that’s true as well). I meant that free returns, especially but not only in clothes, is expensive and of course is baked into purchase price. For some reason brick and mortar shops can resell the product (and often reject returns if not) while e-commerce do not. I feel like Amazon pioneered this for the same reason clothes sellers do, but Amazon is so dominant it could be clouding my memory. In any case, I think the inexorable downward pressure on pricing will make the overpurchase/free return in clothing too expensive, and it will be dropped. Amazon famously cuts off customers who return too much: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-permanently-banning-customers-too-many-returns-230130372.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-permanently-banning-cu... They are supposedly trying cut the returns cost: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/10/how-amazon-plans-to-fix-its-massive-returns-problem.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/10/how-amazon-plans-to-fix-its-... Apparently the term is “reverse logistics”: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/08/21/the-hidden-cost-of-free-returns https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/08/21/the-hidden-cos...