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#amazon #business #money
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Amazon’s business offering is changing… because it NEEDS to change.
The tech conglomerate has so many fingers in so many pies it has found itself exposed to basically every risk (and opportunity) in the market today.
Softening demand from maxed out consumers, pushback from exploited third party retailers, returns fraud, investors who want to actually start seeing some profits on all the AI hype, a growing dependence on advertising revenue, a degrading customer experience, competition from chinese retailers (who are selling a lot of the same crap anyway) and the fact that they are literally running out of human beings who haven’t already worked for them before and quit.
It’s easy (and honestly sometimes a little bit fun) to point out the flaws and challenges in a business that has screwed over so many people, but the Amazon case study is more important than that.
It perfectly encapsulates the strengths and weaknesses of THE modern business strategy as it tries to be so many different things to so many different people.
You might think that all of these problems are just another recession indicator, or yet another case of juicing short term gains at the expense of long term reputation, but the inconvenient truth is that a lot of these challenges were inevitable from the very beginning.
Online retail is the most competitive business in the world. Amazon dominated early e-commerce by offering an incredible service below cost to build a one stop market place, but now that it has that… it cannot maintain it without making a long list of very unpopular sacrifices.
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Remember when we shit on blockbuster, but they were always right.
Amazon's new login password reset system is a piece of garbage. I don't want my effing phone number tied to all of these systems. I will switch away from Kindle and use an e-reader I actually own.
Has anyone thought about the backend usage of "ad's" ? E.g the tracking cookies, multiple interlinks to 3rd parties etc etc etc … term "ad" may as well be "tacking and manipulation "
If current AI chips are going to be worth diddly in the future, then can I have them for free? No? They'll still be worth tens of thousands of dollars? Ok…
"prime day" once a year… even though we charge you for being arime member monthly…. what a crock of shit… they should at least give prime members a monthly prime day…. once a year is like a kick in the nuts, especially if you dont need anything right then or dont have much extra cash around when the once a year sale happens…. gee thanks for looking out for me for being a prime member… i get the same once a year sale as non memebers… thanks amazon…
genuinely surprised amazon is BELOW average return rates, like, genuinely baffled
In the UK it’s fine. I don’t watch Prime Video and only use the subscription for the convenience the delivery options give. Even just ordering bulk bog roll every two months pays for the subscription…
Anti-monopoly is our only chance. It's better for "markets", it's better for investors and it's better for consumers, break up these massive companies to make them more competitive, more product focused and better at customer service.
Advertising.
On my Android/google phone I have DuckDuckGo as my browser.
They claim they don't save/don't sell information.
They offer for free AdBlocker service for apps, then report attempts that they've blocked.
They block 5000 to 7000 attempts PER WEEK.
Almost all from Google and Amazon. Also some advertising companies.
Amazon is NOT selling ME stuff.
They're selling me TO OTHER COMPANIES.
14:30 all those typos were on purpose I hope? 😂
Minimalism 4 the win. Not a globe, does Not spin with local sun .
Some guy at my store left for an amazon warehouse, was new to the country, think his parents forced him into it…im sorry you had to go to the slaughterhouse my guy…
Spent 4.5 hours trying to get help on my account. Zero help given, no compensation for my time. We won’t renew prime as half our deliveries go to other houses. They will be like k-mart. Gone in a decade.
I have boycotted Amazon for over 10 years. And I have asked everyone I know to do the same.
They are the most nefarious retail company to ever exist.
You say automation will make Amazon's retail competitvely profitable to bricks & mortar while undercutting them on price. So decades & 100s billions on robots STILL HASN'T PAID BACK but AI will? AI is a MASSIVE SCAM as AI means self learning like a human who yes needs schooling but even w/o in depth learning can see a scam , a red light next to a maple tree in fall colors…. No one has ANY IDEA how to program a computer to do these tasks w/o EXHAUSTIVE if then rules. All AI has done is give a computer a way to generate 100000 stupid answers to a question & by comparing to data searches of similar words in the question pick a most likely to be right an acceptable. not right. not best. Just acceptable answer.
AND
That us based on millions of people FOR FREE scoring answers
Which barely works for sure automated customer service & shopping searches. Where people will score answers.
When u try to do a biz AI to answer boss at conf table yelling why isn't sales up there us mo one to score the answers Programers have to guess what all the computer will be asked & gets pre programmed responses that programmers w help of biz staff to be fired if AI works then score.
Automated shopping Personal computer assistants ain't gonna work when they is built into systems wildly WRONG responses that can bankrupt one or destroy one's life. Like buy u a car instead of a new car mirror or text your wife instead of your 3rd mistress.
Allegedly AI crap like Alexa exist PRIMARILY TO DATA MINE background conversation in between questions ie spy on u 24 x 7 w AI component being manually programmed monitored tweaked. An expensive procedure.
Will ever be able to let an Alexa 'do all my clothes shopping fir work' & getting u best bang for buck & still get u dares & jobs" like a real personal assistant NO. Will biz trying to make that happen fail YES.
Great post BUT should be how Amazon milks people for $$$$
You repeatedly say gee they don't make anything on retail… until the end when u say Amazon can use 3 mo float period to make money on what people paid until they pay retailers. The float income on billions a day easily adds 2 – 5% onto sales profits. It takes little in way of people or equip to play that game.
You suggest a reason for abusing customers & employees is lack of profit. Two problems w that.
u dont inc profit from float & i bet profit from paying its own brands ie only showing profit from selling the item not making & selling it. Amazon certainly does this as it reduces their taxable profit & if shell co they set up is clever neither do "they". Finally if they can't make enuf profit to treat customers well enuf to retain them they will well coukd leave. While noted bosses belief that cost of lost customers is less than abusing them that only works so long & that would be until TEMU etc wise up ship everything to US using entire fighters then distribute them from US shipping fulfillment center built in a typical cities tax free please help us recover this blighted area zone. It would really just be a mail sorting hub but as long as they report incoming goods as bulk cargo ie a containers worth of jeweled dog collars it doesn't matter they are in 3000 addressed post paid packages already.
To discuss all the biz Amazon does make HUGE profits on without stressing they can ONLY do that thanks to data mining customers is disingenuous. If Amazon sells everything at cost to get what they need to inc share price massively yearly via profit or investor sentiment ITS A SOUND BIZ MODEL. One tgat retailers used for 100s of yrs Selling say groceries at cost knowing many will buy expensive cosmetics from drug store section.
To even HINT Amazon "doesn't msje $ on core biz is kissing Bezos tax avoiding butttttt.
There’s actually 5 of us that watch the rings of power ok?! 😂 and we like it. I don’t care what anyone says. Let me enjoy what I can in this dismal world. Though I canceled my prime membership earlier this year so I’m not watching currently
you list FOUR ai 'why's
promos do not grow sales, they move them around the calendar….
The enshitification of Amazon started years ago, when 80% of the brands sold there started to sound like they were almost a real brand. Meaning, when they became the extended arm of AliExpress only two to three times more expensive on average, while simultaneously keeping competition to their own shitty products from their search results. My last order there was in 2021, and I returned it because it arrived broken as usual with Amazon.
On Amazon, what advertisements are there? When I search and then sort by price, I don't recall seeing any ads. I have an ad blocker—is that why I don't see them?"
I just canceled Amazon Prime, being a loyal customer because they wanted a subscription to remove ads! Even if they wanted to implement that, do it to new customers, not the ones that have been with Prime for years!
Why would you rather take an advertiser's money than your audience's? Wouldn't it make more sense if viewers supported your content instead of your content being influenced by some beverage or car company's financial interests?
I want to challenge your opinion with this fact: Ads didn't always exist on YouTube. Monetization didn't always exist on YouTube.
How would you rationalize advertising to a YT user who was uploading to YT when there was no advertising? How would you demonstrate that things are better for them today?
You shouldn't so readily accept that advertising is a necessary component of streaming video. We'll create a society that accepts advertising anywhere, like healthcare or the night sky. Please think about this some more.
if you want a perfect snapshot of the absolute shitshow that is amazon-based fraud, look no further than the perfume market. you can get cheap perfume that copies the bottle shape but nothing else about the real perfume and get charged hundreds of dollars for it, or order the real deal, dump out all the expensive perfume into another bottle, and then "return" the empty bottle to amazon for a full refund. I was shipped an empty goddamn bottle myself, and lemme tell you: not fun. Ruined what was already a bad day.