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What are these sites that are simply better? Also, Amazon's retail empire is very much buttressed by its speedy delivery service, and thus warehouses and the t

by nine_k 2y ago

What are these sites that are simply better? Also, Amazon's retail empire is very much buttressed by its speedy delivery service, and thus warehouses and the truck fleet. A much better web site sometimes cannot compete with next-day delivery. (And sometimes can, of course!)

themacguffinman 2y ago
Etsy is pretty slick, although lately I've heard it has similar (but not the same) product/seller trust issues as Amazon. iHerb has a somewhat Amazon-like UI but noticeably less cluttered and more structured. It highlights a minimum "best by" date, which is also a guarantee that goes beyond pure UI design but provides the kind of customer-friendly interface that informs rather than confuses. I usually find Webstaurant product listings pretty informative and much cleaner. From Big Tech, Google & Apple may not have a comparable physical goods marketplace but the marketplaces they do have - books and applications - are much cleaner and more focused than their Amazon counterparts. Of course, the gold standard is McMaster-Carr. I know Amazon is more successful than those examples. Microsoft Windows is also much more successful than its competitors, but I don't think most people would see that and argue "the point of an OS/software is not to be easy to use or convenient or understandable". Certainly it's not the point of Windows but I'd say that's because competition involves factors unrelated to quality and quality is multi-dimensional, not because quality is "not the point".
southernplaces7 2y ago
well, for anything related to photographic equipment, try B&H, much better. Decent search too and without all the ridiculous crud of false buy leads that Amazon dumps on you despite being one of the world's biggest companies and perfectly capable of providing a clean product search that¿s reliable. Or, for random products, even damn walmart does better, and that's just embarrassing. I could go on with this but if you're defending the obviously broken interface that Amazon provides for buying products, I suspect your motives. The one single thing I continue to use them for is book reviews, not buys, but just reviews, and that's a low bar indeed.

by nine_k 2y ago

themacguffinman 2y ago

Etsy is pretty slick, although lately I've heard it has similar (but not the same) product/seller trust issues as Amazon. iHerb has a somewhat Amazon-like UI but noticeably less cluttered and more structured. It highlights a minimum "best by" date, which is also a guarantee that goes beyond pure UI design but provides the kind of customer-friendly interface that informs rather than confuses. I usually find Webstaurant product listings pretty informative and much cleaner. From Big Tech, Google & Apple may not have a comparable physical goods marketplace but the marketplaces they do have - books and applications - are much cleaner and more focused than their Amazon counterparts. Of course, the gold standard is McMaster-Carr. I know Amazon is more successful than those examples. Microsoft Windows is also much more successful than its competitors, but I don't think most people would see that and argue "the point of an OS/software is not to be easy to use or convenient or understandable". Certainly it's not the point of Windows but I'd say that's because competition involves factors unrelated to quality and quality is multi-dimensional, not because quality is "not the point".

southernplaces7 2y ago

well, for anything related to photographic equipment, try B&H, much better. Decent search too and without all the ridiculous crud of false buy leads that Amazon dumps on you despite being one of the world's biggest companies and perfectly capable of providing a clean product search that¿s reliable. Or, for random products, even damn walmart does better, and that's just embarrassing. I could go on with this but if you're defending the obviously broken interface that Amazon provides for buying products, I suspect your motives. The one single thing I continue to use them for is book reviews, not buys, but just reviews, and that's a low bar indeed.