Survey: Amazon is burying the competition in search | Hacker News Reader

Survey: Amazon is burying the competition in search

bloomreach.com

11 pointsOatseller5 comments

Please be aware of the fact that this survey is commissioned by Bloomreach to reach a conclusion they'd like.

"By a 2-to-1 margin, respondents to Survata’s survey said they don’t understand why their favorite retailers don’t offer the same kind of dead-on, personalized experience that the big search engines do." It must be a great coincidence that Bloomreach provide personalization services to online retailers.

I know. The article falls apart quickly when they get to the "Key takeaways" section. Nobody (except people selling marketing services) is looking at Amazon for "personalization."

Good search and filter and important. I take Newegg to be about the best at this.

But the real reason everyone starts the shopping search at Amazon is because they have a good selection of almost everything! Few stores are going to be able to match this scope, even in a deep vertical.

Also, Amazon (and again Newegg) have somewhat useful comment and ratings sections. You can skip all the four and five star reviews. They're mostly spam these days. But you can pick through the one and two star reviews to find the non-spam ("this thing sucks and broke before I got it") posts to find out specific issues that might cause you to rule out a product. And that only comes about with a large customer base of active shoppers. Which only comes about once you've reached critical mass.

Related infographic:

http://bloomreach.com/2015/10/infographic-amazon-leads-in-pr...

Internet retail constitutes around 7% of total retail in the US. Of that, Amazon has around 25% for around 1,75% of total retail.

Now, I would risk saying that if you are reading HN, you think that digital technology is absolutely everywhere and transformed everything and is now plateauing. This is far from the case. Digital technology is only barely starting to mature. You may think that internet retailers have all these tools to collect and analyze data which far surpass the brick and mortar world and you would be wrong. Retailers will soon start to get serious about digital and Amazon has to defend itself. Its position is far from solidified.

See the popular growth curve.[1] The early majority has just begun to develop the necessary infrastructure. The overwhelming number of retailers are yet to even start their (serious) attempt.

Moreover, while retailers grow their digital channels, internet pureplays like Amazon need to make a b&m infrastructure in some form or they will never have a significant market share. Internet will not facilitate commerce in its entirety, but merely augment it.

http://www.ou.edu/deptcomm/dodjcc/groups/99A2/curve.JPG

This (1.75%) is a surprisingly small number! I wonder how far the reach of the internet is into retail? I know a few people who use Amazon and other sites to find products but don't even have Amazon accounts. When they've found the item the want, they look for local B&M stores for actual purchase. But they find Amazon invaluable for price reference and general info.

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