Amazon’s New Competitive Advantage: Putting Its Own Products First

Re:Amazon’s New Competitive Advantage: Putting Its Own Produ... by aeturnum on Monday June 08, 2020 @07:25PM (#23461899)

I'm with you as far as generic categories go. Going to the cheese and dairy section in a supermarket is very similar to going to the Amazon cheese and dairy (and eggs) section[1].

Stores maximizing the revenue they receive from their average customer, which they do quite aggressively as you note, feels very different from what Amazon is doing.

>the store has arranged their aisle in such a way that influences which chips you buy, just as Amazon arranges their search results page.

To make a somewhat silly comparison that illustrates how this is is not "just" like Amazon - I have never been in a grocery store that places their brand of chips on both ends of the chips aisle. I might find my chips before I see their brand. Amazon, on the other hand, can rearrange their shelves for every customer, and so their ability to manipulate the consumer experience is much greater.

Ultimately the arranging of physical displays, no matter the amount of zeal or data involved, seems categorically different to me than stores which can arranged differently not only for every customer, but every customer request. I think you're saying they're basically the same thing - in which case we'll just have to agree to disagree.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=lp_16310101_nr_n_6?fst=as%3Aoff...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Amazon’s New Competitive Advantage: Putting Its Own Produ... by txcwpalpha on Monday June 08, 2020 @09:24PM (#23462670)

You're basically saying that because Amazon has better agility, and can effectively rearrange their "shelves" faster than Target can (Amazon can rearrange them between every customer, whereas Target can only do it maybe once a day), Amazon should be punished for that? I just don't really see why or how that makes a difference.

To extend it again to the grocery store example, if I walk into a Target and ask the customer service person for their recommendation for some crackers, and they walk over to the Cracker aisle and point directly at the Target brand crackers instead of the Nabisco ones, are you saying that's problematic?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Amazon’s New Competitive Advantage: Putting Its Own Produ... by aeturnum on Monday June 08, 2020 @10:09PM (#23462940)

Yes, stores that push the products made by them over other alternatives are worse for the customer and harmful to the market.

I don't think there's anything wrong with stores recommending something in general. For instance, I don't think there's anything wrong with the "amazon's choice" label that Amazon uses.

This feels different to me, because as I said originally, this isn't Amazon recommending their brand. Amazon still ranks search results based on some combination of popularity and (probably) profitability.

To return to the in-store scenario: let's say you asked someone in Target to recommend crackers. The employee has a recommendation, but to hear it you first need to be shown the Target brand crackers, and then the employee will give you their recommendation.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Amazon’s New Competitive Advantage: Putting Its Own Produ... by paul_f on Tuesday June 09, 2020 @07:27AM (#23465617)

Brands pay for placement. Promoting a store brand over another brand that paid for placement, not one that is necessarily better, is not a problem IMO. It is good business. You're gonna lose advertising dollars, but that's a business decision. To survive, some brands will need to find a way to cut out the middleman - Amazon

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Amazon’s New Competitive Advantage: Putting Its Own Produ... by vikramkr on Monday June 08, 2020 @08:39PM (#23462396)

How often have you been in a pharmacy and seen the generic CVS brand on both ends of the aisle before seeing the pharma brand? There's a lot of people working on making that 100% without violating their contracts with their suppliers

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Amazon’s New Competitive Advantage: Putting Its Own Produ... by ghaff on Monday June 08, 2020 @10:12PM (#23462959)

Or signs next to their house-branded products that basically say "Buy $FAMOUS_BRAND $X if you like but if you look at the ingredients you'll see we're the exact same thing and we're cheaper."

[ Parent | on HN ]