[carlosjobim]

It's just an example, and it holds true even if it's reductive. If businesses made just 5% of the effort with their online experience as they do with their physical stores or social media campaigning, then they would see massive returns on effort.

[bellgrove]

Respectfully, this argument reads like it is completely ignorant of the e-commerce landscape over the past 30 years and how much Amazon has shaped and innovated in the space. Not to mention that today they have several verticals beyond e-commerce that make up their valuation.

[carlosjobim]

Okay go on and count only half for the sake of argument. That's still a trillion. Any business can do what Amazon does for their products and their customers. But they don't and they won't. Those who do experience great advantages.

[ZYbCRq22HbJ2y7]

> Any business can do what Amazon does for their products and their customers

No, they can't, as evidenced by not everyone else in e-commerce doing that.

[carlosjobim]

What kind of argument is that? Not doing something is not evidence that it is impossible to do.

[ZYbCRq22HbJ2y7]

Yer trollin', but yeah, I'll reply, normally when things are successful, people follow suit, so doing something is evidence that it is possible to do. Like, take nuclear weapons for an example...

[carlosjobim]

I think you misunderstood this part:

"Any business can do what Amazon does for their products and their customers."

What I meant is that any business can do for their products and their customers what Amazon does. Not that any business can do everything Amazon does.

There would be little reason for online marketplaces like Amazon to grow so huge, if businesses had cared enough to provide a reasonable online experience. 20 years ago, 10 years ago, or 5 years ago. Now we are in 2025 and most businesses offer worse online customer experience than what good businesses were offering 20 years ago. You can't be 20 years behind the times and say that it's impossible to compete. It's very possible to make a great customer experience and make money online, even for small businesses with limited means. As evidence by many companies doing that.

It's the same with any marketplace like Booking.com or restaurant delivery apps. They wouldn't be half as big if the businesses they serve wouldn't be too lazy and worthless to make a decent online experience for their customers. But here we are.

[danaris]

Amazon has built out a tremendous logistics network that no one else in the world has.

Statements like this are just staggeringly ignorant of how businesses like Amazon operate.

[carlosjobim]

Can you make your point without resorting to insults?

Businesses don't need to be as good as Amazon or deliver as fast. Amazon is just an example. But business need to take their online experience seriously if they don't want to be pushed aside by Amazon and the likes. And few businesses seem to do that even though it's not hard.

[nulbyte]

I...don't have this experience. It doesn't hold true for me, and I suspect I am not alone. There are certainly some online stores that are not very great, but by and large, I just don't have problems with them. I prefer the seller's website over Amazon.

Amazon, on the other hand, is plagued with fake or bad products from copycat sellers. I have no idea what I am going to get when I place an order. Frankly, I'm surprised when I get the actual thing I ordered.

[ndriscoll]

A couple years back I tried to buy some parts on digikey and literally could not get the checkout to work without completely disabling noscript (assuming that would've helped). They had like a dozen 3rd party tracking scripts. Eventually I gave up and used Amazon.

[zzzeek]

it's still the case today, in 2025, that when I bought a Focusrite 18i20 mixer from Sweetwater that turned out to be defective, I had to spend a week with a lengthy and super-long-delayed conversation with their support department convincing them that the unit was in fact defective, that I was using it correctly, and finally getting the prized RMA to return it. Whereas if I had bought it from Amazon, I would have received the original package more quickly, and when defective, I could have had it in a box and shipped off from any local shipper that same day with no emails/phone calls required with a new one to arrive the next day. Amazon even as the leader in "enshittification" still offers a dramatically better experience for a wide range of products (though certainly not all of them).