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Comment by jcoder | Hacker News Reader

Considering the ambiguity of "Sold Out", maybe the original headline, "Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush", would be better?

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I think the salient point is "Amazon sold more Echos than they expected to sell." Holiday rush can be anticipated (and was the impetus of AWS).

Agreed here.

If there's anyone who knows how to stock up for the holidays, it's Amazon. It's kind of amazing that they sold out on the Echo, all things considered.

They've been running sales and promos almost back to back since Google Home shipped. Right now the Echo Dot is $10 off for example. In fact if you google "Echo Dot" the first adword is for "Amazon Echo Dot - $10 Off."

Assuming this isn't artificial scarcity (to imply their product is more popular than it is); it just likely means that Amazon discounted harder and further than they projected and thus ran out.

Plus the Google Home had a weak day 1 offering in my opinion and the opinion of many reviewers. So that may have driven sales too.

Alternatively: could selling out be a method of potential advertisement?

"If they sold out, the product must be great!"

Absolutely not. They can't gain sales from this because they're sold out. High opportunity cost - flatline zero revenue for the next week, which is (at least one of) the highest demand weeks of the year.

That's ok. You can order one now for shipment in January, and buy something else to put under the tree!

1) I bet that conversions plummet on a page where the buyer can't immediately get the item. There's a reason they have optimized for fast delivery.

2) I bet that the average cart size at checkout is less than half of the cost of an Echo.

The benefits don't outweigh the costs of a marketing stunt of claiming that they are sold out.

They can't gain sales now from this, but why not in a few weeks when they have more supply?

The article touches on this. There is an equivalent product available from Google. People, in the US apparently, are more inclined to shift to a another vendor if they have the item in stock.

You don't want to have a voucher under the tree, you want the product. Delivery in January will put off everyone who wants to buy as a present.

But what if you don't want to buy it as a present? Or know someone with a birthday in January?

I'd still argue that many people are more likely to buy gadgets in December (gift to yourself).

Birthday is different though, but will not be the case for most decisions.

I'd absolutely agree more people buy gadgets in December, but I don't see how that means it couldn't be artificial scarcity.

Long term gains > Short term gains on a product like this.

Because for Amazon the echo is not the actual product, it's just the platform. Don't think they make that much profit at the current price. But people who have one will more likely stay prime members and buy things at Amazon.

I got what you meant, and that was my first thought too.

The main reason I haven't bought an Echo (and am looking into self-hosted solutions instead) is the privacy concern.

Was really concerned about that. But in the end it's really no different from a smartphone/laptop. If someone compromises my device it could also always send. I have to trust the manufacturer of my phone not to transmit audio unless I tell them to, and the same is true for Amazon.

I'm also pretty sure that people would've noticed if it always sends by default, guess some people will have monitored traffic from/to the device.

I'm using the Echo now, but I keep playing around with raspberry pi solutions. I'm waiting for Respeaker to deliver. I'd prefer to have it all in-house, but until I come up with something that works as well I'll keep the Echo plugged in.

Well, according to Amazon nothing is sent to their server unless Alexa is awake (after saying the magic 'Alexa' keyword).

And we all know Amazon would never lie, and that the Echo could never be compromised...

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