How Retail is Done in 2009

[sailaway21]

I happened across this article on the Amazon company and it mirrored my own experiences with them. I like to shop locally as much as I can but there are a wide variety of areas where my local merchant cannot either compete due to lack of space/inventory or on price. Amazon fits the bill for those areas.

How Amazon.com is thriving in a horrendous retail climate. - By Farhad Manjoo - Slate Magazine

It does seem the norm to order something at ten o'clock at night only to arrive home the next day and find it delivered one or two days early. Someone, somewhere is a protege of old Malcom MacLean who never wanted to let a ship sail empty. Obviously, if UPS has a flight leaving partially full Amazon is upgrading some customers to overnight service to fill up the flight. Basic economics dictates that UPS, Amazon, and JQ Customer all benefit.

Not coincidentally, Amazon showed growth in the past holiday season against losses by virtually all other retail firms. The economy and the world is changing. Amazon is a big part of it. I haven't done the research but I'd expect that UPS and FedEx have ridden their coattails.

I've also used their UK branch for a shipment to the Portagee. Same level of service there. The return policy is ridiculously easy in practice. These guys are the new Sears-Roebuck Company of the 21st century.

[camaraderie]

Actually...in the earlier days of E-commerce, I had considerable experience competing against Amazon and ended up in a partnership with them for a bit as well. Regardless of the product being sold...they were always the leader in making buying something on the web quick and painless. They have never stopped in their quest to make each customers' shopping experience better and better and a decade after becoming the leader...they continue to expand their lead over their competition.
I have nothing but admiration and envy for the job they've been able to do and I reward them with the lion's share of my web purchases each year.

Now we all know that Amazon is not much on Marine Equipment...but look at how they treat a Garmin GPS76.
Amazon.com: Garmin GPS 76 Handheld GPS Navigator: Electronics
If you were Sailnet or West Marine or Defender...might you not learn a few things from this presentation? How much time will elapse do you think before Amazon focuses on the Marine Market and what added value will marine specialists bring to their sites to compete with goliath?

[JohnRPollard]

That's interesting. My experience with Amazon is more mixed, and I rarely use them.

Perhaps the best example of my irritation with them was when my son received a US$25 Amazon gift card for a birthday present. With all the shipping and processing fees, he was able to purchase an item costing about $7.00. The balance -- about 2.5 times the cost of the item -- was gobbled up by S&H.

Maybe they make more sense for higher priced items.

[camaraderie]

JRP...there are no processing fees from Amazon. You may have been dealing with one of their partners that sells things ON Amazon.
My most recent purchase from them was a 6 pack of Pur water filters. Shipping was free. The price was $51.99 with NO sales tax.
Walmart has a 4 pack of the same filters for $40 + 6.75% sales tax...or $43.70 total + a round trip of 36 miles...so 2 gallons of gas.
The entire transaction took me LESS than 2 minutes. Arrived in 5 days.

The only trouble I've ever had is when I've dealt with their third party vendors...but even there...they stand behind the transaction to help if needed.

I did not buy a single Xmas present from a brick and mortar store this Christmas. Amazon's wish lists made it easy.
That said...I do shop elsewhere on the web and I have found others beating them on price occasionally or having something that suited my needs better. Just find them so easy and the best so often.

[sailaway21]

Thanks, Cam.

My experiences mirror your's. The way they display the Garmin for instance, along with the functions of showing similar products and what other people bought at the same time as the Garmin makes for far fewer returns I'd expect.

The sailnet store, god love 'em, sells on a wing and a prayer that you know what you're ordering.

Purchasing a camera and printer for my daughter this Christmas past was made much easier because Amazon made it obvious that I'd need a case and a larger memory card for the camera right off the bat. Sort of like a modern, "batteries not included".

The frustration with other on-line shopping resources, particularly marine, is that they do not display even the simple information available from the manufacturer. One would think that it wouldn't be too much trouble to open the damn box and print out the manufacturer's data and instructions in use for their products. Referring to the manufacturer's web-site is no panacea for this lacking. And it's unconscionable in a dedicated site such as the sailnet store where one comes to look for clarity and not confusion.

As the article stated, customer service often triumphs all. My return experiences, what few there have been, mirror the authors. Amazon is doing what the Big Box stores are rare to do; stand behind the product. Basically, they're willing to say, even though you bought the wrong thing through congenital stupidity we're willing to take it back to keep you as a customer. that's the type of thing that brings all of us back to our local hardware store versus the local Big Box.

Amazon seems to have lit upon just the right amount of follow-up e-mails for similar books and products as well. I bought a pair of Sperry dinghy boots from Zappos recently and they apparently think I need shoes every day. Amazon checks in about once a week with news of a sale or a new product I might be interested in. Given the range of their product line, I find that not to be excessive.

[JohnRPollard]

Originally Posted by camaraderie

JRP...there are no processing fees from Amazon. You may have been dealing with one of their partners that sells things ON Amazon.
My most recent purchase from them was a 6 pack of Pur water filters. Shipping was free. The price was $51.99 with NO sales tax.
Walmart has a 4 pack of the same filters for $40 + 6.75% sales tax...or $43.70 total + a round trip of 36 miles...so 2 gallons of gas.
The entire transaction took me LESS than 2 minutes. Arrived in 5 days.

The only trouble I've ever had is when I've dealt with their third party vendors...but even there...they stand behind the transaction to help if needed.

I did not buy a single Xmas present from a brick and mortar store this Christmas. Amazon's wish lists made it easy.
That said...I do shop elsewhere on the web and I have found others beating them on price occasionally or having something that suited my needs better. Just find them so easy and the best so often.

Cam,

This was a couple years ago. I no longer recall all the specifics, but the dollar figures I set forth above are accurate.

To the best of my knowledge, we were dealing with Amazon directly -- although they may have been selling someone else's product. We were certainly at Amazon's website.

My son initially was pretty excited about his gift card, but he kept having to reduce the value of his purchase in order to have all fees covered by the $25 card. It ended up being a complete waste of money - the individual that gave him the card really got ripped off.

Compare that to say, i-Tunes, where a kid gets a $25 gift card and can by 25 songs with it.

[xort]

politics/war/religion/government???? WTF?

jrp, you are such a dissapointment for allowing this abuse of sailnet!

I'm going over to buying a boat and posting my nieces wedding pictures!

Actually, my experiences are similar to both jrp & cam. some things were great to buy but other stuff got ridiculus with shipping. It's mostly the third party stuff that gets to be too expensive. order 5 $5 items from amazon and you get combined shipping. order 5 $5 items from a bunch of third party re-sellers and you'll get dinged for $10 shipping on each item.

[JohnRPollard]

Originally Posted by xort

jrp, you are such a dissapointment for allowing this abuse of sailnet!

Some people are religiously devoted when it comes to their shopping experiences!

[tommays]

I am very unhappy with the two local marine stores i buy paint from BOTH did a normal winter closeing/vacation and did not reopen on there normal date


They did not even bother to update there phone message or websight as to when they do plan to open SO i guess i will be driving to freeport