A flood of unknown products is making online shopping impossible | Hacker News Reader

A flood of unknown products is making online shopping impossible

washingtonpost.com

21 pointsjpm_sd10 comments

I'm probably too optimistic, but the current trend of drop-shipping, reselling, white-labeling, fake reviews, fake accounts, uncountable (fake-)brands and the wave of advertisement (and retargeting) kinda has a beginning of the end feel to me. Like retail stores when they got complacent just before they got run over by Amazon.

I just hope something new will come along soon. Who knows, maybe retail stores will somehow be able to capitalize on this.

Amazon had a goal of selling every product in the world. It's the end of that IMO. Facebook does much the same — it'll advertise anything, almost without exception.

Selling everything invites people to extend "everything" in thereby place anything under an Amazon/Facebook logo. Letting anyone place anything under one's brand is not a traditional way to maintain brand value ;)

https://archive.is/p68h1 BTW

> I just hope something new will come along soon.

I have a feeling that the something new will be the sort of supply-chain verification that rules marks like 'fair trade', 'conflict free', etc.

Any system that can verify the materials and labor practices along the supply chain will make it much more difficult to spoof the consumer.

Interesting thought. Yeah, I could imagine that.

Exactly why you shouldn't shop at Amazon. (Or one of the reasons.) You can't trust the products. You're much better off using specialty retailers for the kind of product you're looking for. Saving a few percent but getting a crappy product is no bargain at all.

I've stopped shopping on Amazon, and elected to shop at traditional retails such as Target, Costco, Walmart and Best Buy. They have some issues, but at least they tend to vet products they distribute nationally to all their stores.

This is definitely becoming epidemic. Online sellers like Amazon should start adding "Verified" checkbox for actual companies. There should be clarity and filter on "Made in XYZ". The 3rd party sellers should be clearly identified. The UX can quickly show near-duplicate products and price spectrum. Shoppers needs tools to fight this epidemic.

The tool is not to shop at Amazon, as much as the Washington Post (owned by Jeff Bezos) may loathe to admit.

When possible, order directly from the website of the company that makes the product you want. The list price may be lower on Amazon or wherever, but nowadays that is just a "discount" for buyers ignorant of or unconcerned with uncertainty.

You forgot to mention how to check that the "website of the company that makes" is that. Claiming to be a manufacturer is really simple. I am the manufacturer of the chair you're sitting on, trust me, you know I wouldn't lie. If you still are distrustful I can use some photos from gettyimages on my website. Do I look like a liar? Doesn't my factory look real, too?

And even if it is the real factory for a real company, how do you tell that the products aren't "as sturdy as paper party favors", as the article quotes?

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