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The entire business model was people being willing to buy things “site unseen”. This is not how people shop. Seeing is an important part of the experience. Als

The entire business model was people being willing to buy things “site unseen”. This is not how people shop. Seeing is an important part of the experience. Also, these losses are staggering. And yet they are still selling these things. I just bought one for the kids dorm room.

Lx1oG-AWb6h_ZG0 2y ago
One other reason is that the quality of Amazon listings has really nosedived over the last decade. There are too many spammy merchants in the marketplace now. You cannot just trust the name or description - you need to look at the reviews (or other websites) these days before you feel confident about your purchase. It’s a classic case of mismatched incentives - the Retail org is just focused on increasing sellers and listings because they have reviews to bail them out, but Devices really need quality results which Retail is not motivated to provide. Their recent focus on mimicking Temu and Shein is only going to make things worse.
- SoftTalker 2y ago
  The reviews can be bogus too. I've just stopped shopping on Amazon. Their business model isn't trustworthy.
- burningChrome 2y ago
  >> One other reason is that the quality of Amazon listings has really nosedived over the last decade. I stopped using Amazon years ago when I had four purchases of completely different and random items all turned up to be counterfeit. One was a Microsoft ergonomic keyboard, the other was a pair of Lucky brand jeans, the other was a pair of Ski goggles and the last thing was a Topo Designs backpack. I've also noticed that when I came back looking for something simple like a charging block for a new phone, I had pages and pages of Chinese merchants who all had similar looking products but just different brand names stamped on them. But I agree with everything you're saying, its not just logging on, finding what you need and ordering something. It takes ungodly amounts of due diligence to make sure what you're buying is a) a legit product and b) its not some suspect seller that's paying people to write fake reviews.
- joshjje 2y ago
  There's a video on YouTube of some guy gathering pee bottles discarded by Amazon drivers/contractors, created a fake drink, and got it listed on Amazon to the top spot.
arder 2y ago
It's especially not how people shop at Amazon. You could feasibly imagine a shop where there is basically 1 version of each thing. Like the low cost supermarkets in the UK, they're efficient because they have very small product inventories. In that scenario you say "I'll buy some ketckup" and they only have 1 ketchup so you don't need to see it. You know the shop, you know what you're getting. Amazon is the polar opposite, for any given product it'll have 100,000 options and you have to fight Amazon every step of the way to find what you want, not just what will give Amazon the fattest margin.
- fckgw 2y ago
  If you say "add Heinz ketchup" or "add Bounty paper towels" then it works exactly how you describe. It's not really that complicated.
  - pavel_lishin 2y ago
    Except for everyone else saying they've received counterfeit goods, or wrong items based on Amazon's commingling strategy, etc.
- crooked-v 2y ago
  Costco is the biggest name I can think of devoted to that model. They're very aggressive about keeping to a short list of high-quality products in each possible subcategory, even for online sales.
bdjsiqoocwk 2y ago
You bought an Alexa..... For the kids dorm room...? Wanna share with us your thought process?
- listless 2y ago
  It was requested for…weather, alarms, music. You know - all the things his phone ALREADY DOES.
  - chasd00 2y ago
    you can use routines to get alexa to talk pretty dirty. heh I bet it's good for a dorm room laugh or two.
- baq 2y ago
  Of the precious little Alexa can do reliably announcing that dinner is ready without having to yell is quite useful.
  - bdjsiqoocwk 2y ago
    How big is your house? Just looking to understand under what circumstances what you said might be a good idea. Where I live it would be silly.
    - baq 2y ago
      Kitchen downstairs, rooms upstairs, closed doors.
  - snapcaster 2y ago
    Do you value your family's privacy at all?
    - bdjsiqoocwk 2y ago
      [flagged]
  - 2y ago
scubbo 2y ago
> willing to buy things “site unseen” Heh - that eggcorn is actually applicable in this case, as they have not seen the Amazon website.

Lx1oG-AWb6h_ZG0 2y ago

One other reason is that the quality of Amazon listings has really nosedived over the last decade. There are too many spammy merchants in the marketplace now. You cannot just trust the name or description - you need to look at the reviews (or other websites) these days before you feel confident about your purchase. It’s a classic case of mismatched incentives - the Retail org is just focused on increasing sellers and listings because they have reviews to bail them out, but Devices really need quality results which Retail is not motivated to provide. Their recent focus on mimicking Temu and Shein is only going to make things worse.

SoftTalker 2y ago
The reviews can be bogus too. I've just stopped shopping on Amazon. Their business model isn't trustworthy.
burningChrome 2y ago
>> One other reason is that the quality of Amazon listings has really nosedived over the last decade. I stopped using Amazon years ago when I had four purchases of completely different and random items all turned up to be counterfeit. One was a Microsoft ergonomic keyboard, the other was a pair of Lucky brand jeans, the other was a pair of Ski goggles and the last thing was a Topo Designs backpack. I've also noticed that when I came back looking for something simple like a charging block for a new phone, I had pages and pages of Chinese merchants who all had similar looking products but just different brand names stamped on them. But I agree with everything you're saying, its not just logging on, finding what you need and ordering something. It takes ungodly amounts of due diligence to make sure what you're buying is a) a legit product and b) its not some suspect seller that's paying people to write fake reviews.
joshjje 2y ago
There's a video on YouTube of some guy gathering pee bottles discarded by Amazon drivers/contractors, created a fake drink, and got it listed on Amazon to the top spot.

arder 2y ago

It's especially not how people shop at Amazon. You could feasibly imagine a shop where there is basically 1 version of each thing. Like the low cost supermarkets in the UK, they're efficient because they have very small product inventories. In that scenario you say "I'll buy some ketckup" and they only have 1 ketchup so you don't need to see it. You know the shop, you know what you're getting. Amazon is the polar opposite, for any given product it'll have 100,000 options and you have to fight Amazon every step of the way to find what you want, not just what will give Amazon the fattest margin.

fckgw 2y ago
If you say "add Heinz ketchup" or "add Bounty paper towels" then it works exactly how you describe. It's not really that complicated.
- pavel_lishin 2y ago
  Except for everyone else saying they've received counterfeit goods, or wrong items based on Amazon's commingling strategy, etc.
crooked-v 2y ago
Costco is the biggest name I can think of devoted to that model. They're very aggressive about keeping to a short list of high-quality products in each possible subcategory, even for online sales.

bdjsiqoocwk 2y ago

You bought an Alexa..... For the kids dorm room...? Wanna share with us your thought process?

listless 2y ago
It was requested for…weather, alarms, music. You know - all the things his phone ALREADY DOES.
- chasd00 2y ago
  you can use routines to get alexa to talk pretty dirty. heh I bet it's good for a dorm room laugh or two.
baq 2y ago
Of the precious little Alexa can do reliably announcing that dinner is ready without having to yell is quite useful.
- bdjsiqoocwk 2y ago
  How big is your house? Just looking to understand under what circumstances what you said might be a good idea. Where I live it would be silly.
  - baq 2y ago
    Kitchen downstairs, rooms upstairs, closed doors.
- snapcaster 2y ago
  Do you value your family's privacy at all?
  - bdjsiqoocwk 2y ago
    [flagged]
- 2y ago

scubbo 2y ago

> willing to buy things “site unseen” Heh - that eggcorn is actually applicable in this case, as they have not seen the Amazon website.