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55 Percent Of Online Shoppers Start Their Product Searches On Amazon (recode.net)
Another year, another data point showing Amazon has surpassed Google as the default search engine for shopping, a report on Recode reads. Fifty-five percent of people in the U.S. now start their online shopping trips on Amazon.com, according to results from a 2,000-person survey commissioned by the e-commerce startup BloomReach. That stat marks a 25 percent increase from the same survey last year, when 44 percent of online shoppers said they turned to Amazon first. From the report: Over the same time, the percentage of shoppers who start product searches on search engines like Google dropped from 34 percent to 28 percent. The number of online shoppers who check out a retailer's website (other than Amazon) first also shrunk, from 21 percent to 16 percent.
Amazon is only free shipping if you're prime. (and if you're prime you're paying a whopping $100 a year in most cases).
Without prime, if you're not paying $50 in products pre tax, the shipping isn't free. I frequently buy from stores other than Amazon so that I can get free shipping, and frequently exclude taxes too.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
I want to find a MAX7219 display multiplexer chip. Where do I look? Amazon. I can get several of those chips, including shipping, for the price that Adafruit charges for a single chip. Drawback: have to wait several weeks for them to arrive, probably from China. But if I'm not in a rush, no problem.
Want 7-seg LED displays? Some other kinds of chips? Breadboards? Test instruments? I mean obscure things that most soccer moms don't order -- Amazon has it.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
Prime is mostly a scam anyway. For the longest time, delivery times from Amazon for nearly everything was 2-3 days (in Europe), with some deliveries actually happening the next day. As soon as Prime came into play, the usual shipping time jumped to 5-10 days (with ZERO chance for it to be any lower than 6 days), but with prime of course you can get it in 2-3 days.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Amazon is only free shipping if you're prime. (and if you're prime you're paying a whopping $100 a year in most cases).
Whether or not the Prime fees are a good deal depends on how much you shop on Amazon. Last year I ordered 155 packages from Amazon which were delivered via Prime. That means my per-parcel shipping cost was $0.65 each. That's barely more than a first class stamp. That is a good price by any reasonable measure.
There really is no such thing as "free" shipping. Either the shipping is rolled into the cost of the product you are buying or you pay for it separately but either way you are still paying for the shipping.
The sale price on most retail sites is usually more expensive than the price on Amazon. I usually do a quick search for prices prior to each purchase even if I ultimately buy from Amazon. I rarely will use a site that doesn't use one of the major pay services(paypal, google, Amazon) for fear of releasing CC info to yet another irresponsible retailer.
I usually don't go to Amazon first when shopping for items, but only because it is easier to type the product into Google and follow the Amazon link I find in the results, with is almost always Amazon if they offer the product. I wonder if that counts as going to Amazon first or not.
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
Amazon provides a good benchmark for prices, and has useful reviews. It's a reasonable place to start.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Yeah, for a whole 10 bucks a month you get a streaming video service, streaming audio service, free ebooks and free shipping on about 80% of all the products. That's outrageous!!!!
Instead I should shovel 10 out to NetFlix, 8 to Hulu, 10 to Spotify and just pay for the rest of the services/products on an as needed basis. What a great idea!
I can understand you getting your panties in a bunch (paying a "whopping" $100 a year) if you do no streaming, don't care for the ebooks and only order from Amazon 4 times a year but aside from that it's a great offer.
Maybe eventually you can legally BUY a movie from Amazon.
(And NO, you cannot buy a movie today, no matter what Amazon calls it. Their "purchase" option is just a long term rental until Amazon, or the actual copyright owner decides to withdraw your ownership from you. Like in one case of a Disney movie some time back where "owners" of that movie had it taken away because Disney had some other exclusive streaming offer they were making to others.)
All that said, ten years ago it would have seemed unthinkable that you could download and "own" an mp3. But you can. I've done it multiple times from Amazon. I can buy tracks or an album. Download. Put it on all of my own personal devices. In every sense I feel like I made an actual purchase and received something in return. Like any purchase it's my duty to take care of it (eg, make sure I have reliable backups, etc).
I think the book and movie rights holders are taking longer to come around to giving true DRM free ownership. But I think it is inevitable that they will. Or maybe they won't, since they already have effective DRM tragedies / strategies in place. Unlike mp3 which did not. And mp3 players which did not and already had massive market penetration.
Still I can rip DVDs and play them on my own personal devices. I can watch a movie on a plane. Etc.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
Watch for a merger...
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
I check amazon first because they have more product reviews than anywhere else. For me, it's the reviews, not always the price or shipping rate, that get me to buy something.
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
I still use search engines to look for retailers other than Amazon to buy stuff, because I like to give the little guy some business.
But nowadays it seems like Amazon is ALL there is for many products that I want. Either Amazon is driving many businesses out of business, or it is doing a great job completely dominating search engine results for several different search engines.
We're not talking to going to the back of the queue, which is what I could absolutely understand. If you're at the back of the queue, your stuff would arrive somewhere between 2 and 10 days. But that's not what happens. It arrives no earlier than 6 days after ordering. They deliberately delay the delivery.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
This makes using it an inconvenience so I never use it
love is just extroverted narcissism
Prime or minimum $25 spend. In most cases that's not too hard.
I don't bother with prime because it only applies to Amazon-provided stuff, and often they either don't have what I want or their prices suck compared to their third-parties.
I usually hit Amazon early for two reasons
a) They often have product spec sheets that I can look up.
b) It gives me a basis for comparison.
However I've noticed that for a lot of stuff their pricing algo's lately are way out of whack, especially for older stuff. For example, a slightly older video card which is going for $100 on eBay or stores (where available) is listed on Amazon at $2500, presumably because they're harder to come by but there's still some demand. For $2500 I could build a whole rig including the latest gen card.
Not that others aren't a mess as well. I regularly see people caught up in eBay bids for used stuff that exceeds the price I could buy it new.
Prime or minimum $25 spend. In most cases that's not too hard.
The $25 minimum applies only to books. Anything else is $49 minimum.
You should be well aware, that the movie industry is opposed to that, and make sure this isn't allowed in their license.
It is supposably to stop illegal sharing of the data. But I think it is more to keep the honest honest approach. Having a file you obtained legally sitting on your PC ready to be copied and shared with your friend who would share it with their friend...
While currently the person would actually have to go to the darknet to get the pirated version.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Funny, I always shop elsewhere before hitting Amazon, even though I'm a Prime member and will (probably) get it from Amazon.
IIRC there was an issue some years ago about how Amazon would check your system for recent cookies from other shopping sites (like bn.com), offering better prices on the fly if it appeared you'd been shopping around. Dunno if it is still true, but really with internet shopping there's no good reason NOT to do some decent price-comparison if it's something of any great value.
-Styopa
But then the 80's came, and they wanted their store back.
I check amazon prime, ebay, amazon non prime and then google search. (and if i'm really desperate bing) in that order
and yes I mean google search google shopping has been worthless ever since they switched to promoted listings.
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
Before I had prime (which I only got a couple months ago), I never had a product stay in a queued state for more than 24 hours. Yes, prime is quicker where it's now shipped the day I ordered it. Before it was the next day. Maybe it's just you? Because I can't believe that my pre-prime days I was getting any sort of special treatment.
Prime is mostly a scam anyway.
Hardly. Prime is a perfectly reasonable deal and given its popularity a lot of people (myself included) find it to be good value for money. Maybe it doesn't suit your needs but it doesn't remotely fit the definition of a scam for many of us.
For the longest time, delivery times from Amazon for nearly everything was 2-3 days (in Europe), with some deliveries actually happening the next day.
I cannot speak for Europe but in the US even non-Prime orders usually arrive in 2-4 business days. Probably about 15% of what I order through Amazon isn't eligible for Prime and most of that arrives considerably before the estimated delivery date. Mostly it just depends on where it is shipping from. Stuff that ships within a single state radius usually arrives in 1-2 business days. Stuff from the opposite coast might take as long as 4-5 business days to receive. Even when I use Amazon's "No Rush" delivery it still tends to arrive within 4-5 business days.
IIRC you have to have a kindle to be able to read a free ebook. The kindle app does not qualify.
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
Where i live, Prime is a value that is VERY hard to beat. I get 2 hour Prime Now delivery ( which i use at least 2 times a week), a nice chunk of storage, free 2-day delivery, Prime Video, Restaurant Delivery..
Good-bye
You mean like on a Bluray? They do carry those. I don't "buy" streaming content. You never own that.
"Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
Either Amazon is driving many businesses out of business, or it is doing a great job completely dominating search engine results for several different search engines.
It's a bit of both. Amazon is definitely the 800lb gorilla of ecommerce. Even companies like Walmart are having a hard time dealing with them. And to be honest Amazon has earned their place. Honestly I do most of my shopping there these days because there isn't anything else remotely as convenient in most cases. They have the best selection, usually reasonable prices, excellent customer service, and checkout is a breeze. With Prime their shipping costs are very reasonable as well. I seldom have to go to a physical store anymore and that suits me just fine because that generally is a waste of my time. I really only shop locally for groceries, certain specialty items, and if I need something quicker than 2 days.
I also buy stuff for my company through Amazon. I used to get office supplies from Staples but they try to charge absurd prices and make me clip coupons. Amazon just charges a reasonable price up front and no hassle. Toner through Amazon for our printers is about 30% cheaper than at Staples.
Mind you it's not very good, includes a lot of stuff relevant to one of your search terms but irrelevant to your search because it lacks another keyword, and is missing a lot of options like being able to sort the results by rating but exclude the things with just 1-2 reviews.
Google Shopping used to be better, but about 1-2 years ago they redid the format of the search results page. Clicking on the name of the search result used to give you the list of all stores which sold the item. Now both it and the "Shop" button send you directly to the first vendor selling the item (probably the one which paid Google the most). To get the list, you now have to click the little text that says "Compare prices". And some time this year the search results stopped being a spot-on match for your search terms. Putting terms in quotes no longer excludes results which don't have that term, so the results page is as polluted with irrelevant results as Amazon's search results.
Amazon also has better sort options for the reviews. Their "most helpful review" system really helps filter out the crappy two-word reviews and bring the thorough ones up to the top. Google Shopping's reviews are aggregated from multiple sources, and only recently have they begun to allow you to view reviews only from certain sources. It's aggravating enough that I do my initial search on Amazon, then do a price comparison search on Google Shopping. A lot of useful third party services like camelcamelcamel and fakespot also tie in to the Amazon reviews.
Newegg still has the best shopping search engine IMHO. But they only sell tech stuff.
Since I got it I did find I start hitting Amazon first but I still look elsewhere as Amazon is not necessarily the cheapest location
Amazon is not always the cheapest but they usually are the most convenient in my experience. Generally their prices are competitive but if you need rock bottom pricing you can usually do better if you are willing to put in the time. For much of what I buy Amazon's prices are good enough that it isn't worth the extra time to save just a little extra. I'm fully aware that I'm paying for this convenience and generally I'm ok with that.
Prime is a "scam"? And yet you're only considering the cost of shipping vs shipping times. Prime also offers exclusive discounts (I purchased Overwatch Origins edition for almost the cost of the basic $40 set). Plus the books, movies, TV shows, and other media content available and content storage. It is a whole bundle of services, not just a shipping service.
It isn't a case of deliberately delaying it. It is a case of items shipped cross-country via air mail (2 day shipping) or ground. (5-7 day). Items have to be physically stored somewhere before they are shipped out. Unless it is a hot and common item (Amazon's Basics line, iPhones, things like that), odds are the items probably isn't going to be stocked in a local Amazon warehouse. If you got prime, it is free to ship it via air, if not, it ships ground. These terms are not used on check out to simplify the process though, but if you purchase from a retailer like Newegg, they'll still list the shipper and method involved.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Until the encryption key used for that blu-ray disk hits the blacklist and renders the disk entirely useless on all new (or firmware updated) blu-ray players!
It's coming from exactly the same warehouse all the time. We're also not talking about "sometimes" or "often" but of "always". It ALWAYS took 2-3 days and now it ALWAYS takes 6-7 days. From the same warehouse.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Since when do you have prime and since when was it offered in your area?
Again, I used to get the Prime delivery times. Until they came up with Prime.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
OK, then please explain how they could miraculously deliver in 2-3 days, and often the next day, before the invention of Prime, but now that there is Prime, normal deliveries take 6-7 days. From the same warehouse.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Prime is offering me something I either cannot use or isn't available in my country, or artificially lowers the quality of a service that I could "get back" by paying for Prime. So yes, I can't help but feel fleeced.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
People may also want to check the place with more reviews. Its part of researching the product to decide if one even wants to buy.
Even *WITH* Prime, 2-Day shipping is not always 2 days. In fact, I just placed an order yesterday which was eligible for prime. I got a "Shipped" confirmation email this morning, but the expected delivery date is 4 days from now.
Also, sometimes the items are shipped more than 2 days AFTER the order is placed. What good is free 2-Day shipping when it takes them a week *BEFORE* they ship it?
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IIRC you have to have a kindle to be able to read a free ebook. The kindle app does not qualify.
Sorry; your recollection is not correct, at least not at this flaming instant in time. Just "bought for free" one of this month's selections, downloaded it to my phone, and skimmed the first few pages with the Kindle app.
Amazon or Newegg to see the product and reviews.
If I'm not in a hurry, aliexpress; otherwise A or N usually has the best price.
But I do agree with the other poster--Amazon has gotten very tricky in the past few years.
You have to dig to make sure you get the right price.
Also the default free shipping option seems to come and go.
I've gotten burned a couple times at checkout, then have to cancel the order.
If I catch it soon enough, start the checkout process again. as there's no "backup" as you are herded down the checkout chute to the killing floor.
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
We must be talking about different things. There are free ebooks on amazon but afaik that's not a prime benefit
the Kindle Owners' Lending Library which is a prime benefit does require you to have a kindle.
I see they now offer something called kindle first which has no such restriction that lets you pick from one of 6 books each month. That must be what you were talking about.
I was thinking of the kindle owners lending library sorry I was not more clear.
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
Apart from some furniture and decorations, Amazon has little competition for convenience, shipping, and customer service. Whenever something goes wrong, I'm always amazed how quickly and easily they fix it.
I do still use Wayfair and Overstock for some of above two categories, though. For whatever reason, Amazon still has much smaller selection there.
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a 747 filled with CD-ROMs.
Because with Prime, they sometimes don't take a week before they ship it?
Just saying.
If Fry's had a more up-to-date selection of flash cards (instead of everything being five-year-old models) and hard drives (not enough HGST), I'd be buying a lot less from Amazon.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Must be country-specific, or they've changed it in the last week. Here (Canada) it's lress. I was going to say $25, but it looks like the bastards just cranked it up to $35 since I last ordered anything a few weeks ago.
Of course the item prices in Canada all seem to be near-double that of the US in many cases too (even accounting for exchange).
The encryption key for all Blu-Ray discs is already well known. There's not a blacklist for discs. There's a blacklist for player keys that can make your player useless for all new discs until you update the firmware to get a new key, but AFAIK, there's no blacklist for discs. There's no rational reason for such a thing to exist.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Because I like their review system. I've avoided a lot of "lemon" products by reading reviews first.
I've noticed that a lot of "Prime Eligible" items are priced higher than the exact same item from a different merchant that is not eligible. So you're paying a subscription and paying more for the item still.
You're paying for the convenience of being able to get it in 2 days. You can get cheaper prices than Amazon offers in a lot of cases. The question is how much is it worth to you to spend the time looking? Sometimes it's worth it. Sometimes not so much. Generally I'll take a good price with excellent convenience over a great price with lots of hassle any day unless we are talking about an amount of money large enough that the number involves a comma.
So what about other countries in the world? I know US thinks "we're #1" but since when are they the barometer against which all the worlds spending is compared? Is all online shopping in the world done in the United States? I hardly think so... I'd be interested to know if that 55% is the same in Canada, or China. I'd wager no.
TFS clearly states that the cited statistic is for the US. Here's an idea: why don't you do some research and submit your own article about the statistics in Canada or China or the world?
Such as Alibaba? TMart? Aliexpress?
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
I'm a Prime customer in the Seattle area and I almost always get stuff in 2 days, sometimes even the very next day.
For me it's been very rare when it takes longer than that (I can't actually remember when the last time it was longer than 2 days). YMMV of course, but that's my data point for whatever it's worth.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Intentionally delaying shipments would be a terribly inefficient business practice, and I can't imagine that Amazon could offer competitive pricing if it used that approach.
To intentionally delay shipping means that you've got warehouse employees standing around doing nothing when they could be filling orders. You run the risk of getting backlogged later when a sale causes a sudden surge in volume. You've also got already-sold merchandise using up valuable shelf space in your warehouse instead of making room for new inventory.
But if Amazon keeps their workers busy and it still takes 6 days to ship your stuff, then that's not an intentional delay. You're just a low-priority customer (as advertised). Either that, or they need to hire some more folk.
Replying to myself here: I suspect one of the reasons Amazon uses a multi-tiered approach to shipping is because it allows them to keep personnel costs lower. Instead of hiring enough people to handle high-volume days, they employ enough staff to handle the average volume and then use low-priority customers as a buffer to "catch up" when a surge occurs. High-priority customers always receive shipments on schedule, even during a surge, and the low-priority customers can't reasonably complain about the terms they agreed to.
Slower shipments certainly encourage people to upgrade, but that's not the reason they're slow. Free shipping is still a big selling point for a lot of customers, and Amazon's approach is just one cost-efficient way of satisfying that demand.
I've had mixed results (Chicago). Sometimes ordering multiple items (not from the same business) together to get the free shipping will cause delays. I've had a few orders take over a week just to be shipped. On the other hand, my most recent order included multiple items and was shipped the Friday I ordered it and delivered on Monday. They even attempted delivery on Sunday.
You mean ordinary pleb customers get the slower shipping. They aren't exactly equivalent.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
anytime my 2 day shipping takes longer than 2 days, which is extremely rare, they usually give me a month credit. ymmv.
...
that also 55% of all statistics are made up.
I only seem to use Newegg first when I have a specific idea of a type of computer parts, but I don't have a specific brand or anything in mind. They seem to organize their stuff and sort it based on more technical matters. On Amazon I can sort which internal M.2 SSD I want by color, but that's not always what I'm looking for.
Yes, Kindle First is the program. Free for Prime members; discounted for non-Prime, Kindle First subscribers.
Post office does the same thing.
I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
Even if there were no shipping incentive I would still have Prime. There is way more going on then just the stupid expedited shipping. Movies, shows, streaming music, storage, books, etc...
I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
I even complained to Bezos' personal email about this saying that this attacks Amazon's most valuable asset. They just don't care.
Everytime I see ""I received this product at a discount in exchange for my unbiased review" I die a little. Such a great service being ruined.
Prime is mostly a scam anyway.
Not true.
I am yet to see a seller that can GUARANTEE actual arrival date. I have seen free shipping and I have seen fast shipping, but with anyone else you are GUESSING when the item will arrive. Could be very fast or could be later. Point is -- with other sellers you don't know when your item will arrive.
Again, if delivery times are between 2 and 12 days, I would not complain. I'm not a Prime customer, I get pushed back to the end of the queue and my time comes when there's less stress. So I could hope to get lucky and order on a slow day, and get my stuff in 2 days because they get around to shipping it right away, or I could be unlucky and order during a stressful week when they don't get around to my order until the next week. That, I could understand.
What I cannot understand is how my stuff arrives without fail (and I am dead serious here, this is ALWAYS the case) in 6-8 days from the same warehouse that could deliver in 2-3 days before Prime got here.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Artificially broken?
The first book I ordered from Amazon was in my hands less than 24 hours after the order, although I'd picked lowest-cost shipping. Amazon took a loss on that order just to impress a new customer. I wouldn't be surprised to find that Amazon's two-day service wasn't really sustainable on a large scale.
In the meantime, my wife has Amazon Prime and I don't, and I don't notice any great delay in getting stuff compared to her.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
As near as I can tell, Google isn't indexing (or at least sharing results for) product pages -- specific products, digital goods, or services listed for sale within a online shopping cart's catalog. So if you're looking to buy something, Google is largely worthless. It's much more likely to show reviews than items for actual sale, as near as I cant tell. Meanwhile, I know developers who are now listing products in regular blog posts (with single Paypal buttons included), in order to try to get those products to show up in Google.