| ▲ | carlosjobim 2 days ago |
| > I think that statement is way too strong and obviously not true of businesses Amazon.com Inc is currently worth 2.4 billion dollars and the only reason is that most businesses insist on giving their customers the worst online experience possible. I wish that I could one day understand the logic, which goes like this: 1. Notice that people are on their phones all the time. 2. And notice that when people are looking to buy something they first go on the computer or on the smart phone. 3. Therefore let's make the most godawful experience on our website possible, to make sure that our potential customers hate us and don't make a purchase. 4. Customers make their purchase on Amazon instead. 5. Profit?? |
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| ▲ | danaris 2 days ago | parent | next [-] |
| > Amazon.com Inc is currently worth 2.4 billion dollars and the only reason is that most businesses insist on giving their customers the worst online experience possible. This is an incredibly reductive view of how Amazon came to dominate online retail. If you genuinely believe this, I would strongly urge you to research their history and understand how they became the monopoly they are today. I assure you, it's not primarily because they care more about the end user's experience. |
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| ▲ | carlosjobim 2 days ago | parent [-] | | It's just an example, and it holds true even if it's reductive. If businesses made just 5% of the effort with their online experience as they do with their physical stores or social media campaigning, then they would see massive returns on effort. | | |
| ▲ | bellgrove 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | Respectfully, this argument reads like it is completely ignorant of the e-commerce landscape over the past 30 years and how much Amazon has shaped and innovated in the space. Not to mention that today they have several verticals beyond e-commerce that make up their valuation. | | |
| ▲ | carlosjobim 2 days ago | parent [-] | | Okay go on and count only half for the sake of argument. That's still a trillion. Any business can do what Amazon does for their products and their customers. But they don't and they won't. Those who do experience great advantages. | | |
| ▲ | ZYbCRq22HbJ2y7 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | > Any business can do what Amazon does for their products and their customers No, they can't, as evidenced by not everyone else in e-commerce doing that. | | |
| ▲ | carlosjobim 2 days ago | parent [-] | | What kind of argument is that? Not doing something is not evidence that it is impossible to do. | | |
| ▲ | ZYbCRq22HbJ2y7 2 days ago | parent [-] | | Yer trollin', but yeah, I'll reply, normally when things are successful, people follow suit, so doing something is evidence that it is possible to do. Like, take nuclear weapons for an example... | | |
| ▲ | carlosjobim a day ago | parent [-] | | I think you misunderstood this part: "Any business can do what Amazon does for their products and their customers." What I meant is that any business can do for their products and their customers what Amazon does. Not that any business can do everything Amazon does. There would be little reason for online marketplaces like Amazon to grow so huge, if businesses had cared enough to provide a reasonable online experience. 20 years ago, 10 years ago, or 5 years ago. Now we are in 2025 and most businesses offer worse online customer experience than what good businesses were offering 20 years ago. You can't be 20 years behind the times and say that it's impossible to compete. It's very possible to make a great customer experience and make money online, even for small businesses with limited means. As evidence by many companies doing that. It's the same with any marketplace like Booking.com or restaurant delivery apps. They wouldn't be half as big if the businesses they serve wouldn't be too lazy and worthless to make a decent online experience for their customers. But here we are. | | |
| ▲ | bellgrove a day ago | parent [-] | | I think today it is a lot easier for businesses to do what Amazon does - but a lot of that is true because of Amazon. Shopify, stripe, and logistics & last mile providers fill some gaps but they were not as widely known or as easy to integrate with long ago - most didn’t even exist until well into Amazon’s existence. |
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| ▲ | danaris 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | Amazon has built out a tremendous logistics network that no one else in the world has. Statements like this are just staggeringly ignorant of how businesses like Amazon operate. | | |
| ▲ | carlosjobim 2 days ago | parent [-] | | Can you make your point without resorting to insults? Businesses don't need to be as good as Amazon or deliver as fast. Amazon is just an example. But business need to take their online experience seriously if they don't want to be pushed aside by Amazon and the likes. And few businesses seem to do that even though it's not hard. |
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| ▲ | nulbyte 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | I...don't have this experience. It doesn't hold true for me, and I suspect I am not alone. There are certainly some online stores that are not very great, but by and large, I just don't have problems with them. I prefer the seller's website over Amazon. Amazon, on the other hand, is plagued with fake or bad products from copycat sellers. I have no idea what I am going to get when I place an order. Frankly, I'm surprised when I get the actual thing I ordered. | | |
| ▲ | ndriscoll 2 days ago | parent | next [-] | | A couple years back I tried to buy some parts on digikey and literally could not get the checkout to work without completely disabling noscript (assuming that would've helped). They had like a dozen 3rd party tracking scripts. Eventually I gave up and used Amazon. | |
| ▲ | zzzeek 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | it's still the case today, in 2025, that when I bought a Focusrite 18i20 mixer from Sweetwater that turned out to be defective, I had to spend a week with a lengthy and super-long-delayed conversation with their support department convincing them that the unit was in fact defective, that I was using it correctly, and finally getting the prized RMA to return it. Whereas if I had bought it from Amazon, I would have received the original package more quickly, and when defective, I could have had it in a box and shipped off from any local shipper that same day with no emails/phone calls required with a new one to arrive the next day. Amazon even as the leader in "enshittification" still offers a dramatically better experience for a wide range of products (though certainly not all of them). |
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| ▲ | Wowfunhappy 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| > most businesses insist on giving their customers the worst online experience possible. I think you're underselling the amount of work it takes to create an experience as smooth as Amazon's. |
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| ▲ | carlosjobim 2 days ago | parent [-] | | There are many one man online businesses with very smooth and user friendly customer experience. Does every business have to be as smooth as Amazon? No. But that's not an argument for giving up completely. |
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| ▲ | SoftTalker 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Amazon is fine if you want cheap chinese garbage products or name brands that have a decent chance of being counterfeit. I never buy there. |
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| ▲ | jerbearito 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| > Amazon.com Inc is currently worth 2.4 billion dollars and the only reason is that most businesses insist on giving their customers the worst online experience possible Huh? |
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| ▲ | narag 2 days ago | parent [-] | | Not the gp, but from my own experience: some business use out-of-the-box online shop software that is not very good. I wouldn't say "most" but, if you're buying some particular niche products, it becomes true. Slow pages, abysmal usability... one pet peeve is that they offer a brand filter in the left column with checkboxes. I want to select three brands and, every time I tick the checkbox, the page is reloaded. Reloading is painfully slow, so I need one minute to get to the search. If I want to do several searches, it's too much time. Also, at least in Spain, some delivery companies are awful. I have a package delivered to a convenience store right now. They refuse to give it to me because I have no delivery key. The courier didn't send it to me. I try to get assistance in their web... and they ask me the key that I want them to give me. Nice, huh? I asked for a refund to the shop. They have ghosted me in the chat, their return form doesn't work. Their email addresses are no-reply. The contact form doesn't work either. Now I need to wait until Monday to phone them. I know the shop is legit. They're just woefully incompetent and don't know they are or think that's the way things work. For cheap and not too expensive products, Amazon just works. No "but I went to your house and there was nobody there" bullshit. No questions return policy. |
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| ▲ | transcriptase 2 days ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Trillion. |
