[mseebach]

The space (from my online shopping experience) seems to be divided between Amazon (with one click checkout, fast delivery etc) and everyone else (42 click checkout and one week delivery, if you're lucky).

If the one-click patent was a major inhibitor of competition, I'd basically expect to see a lot of two-click check out options. Instead I find myself creating a million redundant user accounts, telling people that my mothers maidenname is "khhsyebg" (she's got some Dothraki blood, it seems) and parsing "don't not uncheck the box if you wish to prevent us from causing the absence of non-delivery of our newsletter and also not abstaining from passing on your details to third parties".

[dingaling]

> and everyone else (42 click checkout and one week delivery, if you're lucky)

Certianly in the UK the friction of buying from "non-Amazon" websites exists ( create an account, enter payment etc ) but Amazon just uses the same delivery networks as everyone else.

In fact a small company often dispatches faster in my experience than Amazon; for non-Prime at least they've been stretching the 'Dispatching Soon' timelines to nearly a week[0]. Of course once it's in that status you can't cancel the order.

[0] As a third-party seller through Amazon I am required to dispatch within two working days. One rule for them and another for the little folk.

[0xffff2]

That's surprising to me as a US customer. Unless I'm notified at checkout that something is out of stock, I fully expect Prime deliveries to arrive within two days of ordering. In fact, I've seen items that took an extra day to process get shipped overnight to make up the day.

The US Amazon checkout shows an estimated delivery date for Prime items that includes processing time and is >95% reliable in my experience.

[mseebach]

Amazon prime is consistently next day in the UK (and I'll happily pay a non-trivial premium to order something on Prime) - even sometimes same day, although that's never promised, just an occasional nice surprise. GP is talking about "marketplace" which has wildly varying delivery time (a lot of the products are drop-shipped from China), but generally do arrive within the promised window.

[AnssiH]

The parent was talking about non-Prime, though, and they didn't claim the estimates weren't accurate.

My non-Prime sold-by-Amazon in-stock orders from Amazon US consistently take 3-6 business days to process but they still arrive by the estimated date (so it is fine by me). If I pay for faster shipping they ship on the day I order.

[mseebach]

The issues I've had (in the UK, indeed) has not been with the delivery time itself (which is often stated, correctly, as "next day" or "2-3 days") but with the time to process my order, some times taking several days. Most severely, two months, as they had neglected to account for the time it takes to customs process a container from China. But the items did arrive one week (plus two months) after the order was placed.

But yes, a lot of small vendors do ship very quickly. They do still generally require me to create an account and unsubscribe from their newsletter, regardless of unticking the box during signup.

[icelancer]

>but Amazon just uses the same delivery networks as everyone else.

Definitely not true in the US. They've coerced USPS to deliver on Sundays and have their own courier service. Internally their ability to get items to the couriers is much faster than almost every single business out there.

[djhworld]

> Amazon just uses the same delivery networks as everyone else.

Maybe at different points along the chain, but in terms of the last mile, my Amazon purchases seem to be mostly delivered by "Amazon Logistics"

[biggc]

> "don't not uncheck the box if you wish to prevent us from causing the absence of non-delivery of our newsletter and also not abstaining from passing on your details to third parties"

Most companies don't even have that checkbox anymore, the amount of accounts I've had to make that lead to more emails demanding my attention is shocking

[starsinspace]

Which country is it that it's so bad?

At least here in .de, there's plenty of other online retailers which are just as fast, or at least almost, and while the checkout sometimes has a step or two more than amazon, it's rarely that bad.

[mk89]

> The space (from my online shopping experience) seems to be divided between Amazon (with one click checkout, fast delivery etc) and everyone else (42 click checkout and one week delivery, if you're lucky).

Ahaha, you are so damn right!!

[distances]

> with one click checkout, fast delivery etc

I have actually never seen the famous one click checkout despite being a frequent Amazon customer. Could it perhaps be illegal in Europe? Not sure what else would explain this.

[djhworld]

One thing that astounds me about Amazon is just how quick it is.

Last week I ordered something at 10:45pm, it arrived the next morning at 9am.

I'd imagine that's very difficult for other companies to compete with.

[vlunkr]

Unless you don't pay for Prime, then you get the same week-long shipping and have to be careful not to click any of the boxes along the way that will make you a Prime member.