[dredmorbius]

That's a really interesting observation and substantiates a suspicion I've had: people generally have a good idea in mind of what they're going to buy and about when they're going to buy it. If at a particular moment the opportunity doesn't present itself, they'll simply delay the purchase until it's possible.

This would apply more to purchases from a specific and exceptional point than those which can be made from multiple providers. Say, my usual lunch spot is closed or out of an item, and I can walk down the street elsewhere (or a drugstore, etc.). However if you're selling hard-to-find exclusive items, or we've got an established relationship and the item isn't something I need right now, I'll simply get it later.

On the macro scale, it makes me suspect that shorter interruptions to service don't have a significant regional financial impact.

Though this is all armchair economics.

[ZeroMinx]

> people generally have a good idea in mind of what they're going to buy

If I may, could I suggest another possibility;

People know, and trust, Amazon.

"I can't load the shopping site. Maybe it'll work if I reboot."

It's quite different for a site that's not as well known as this one.

[robryan]

Definitely, we can make sales numbers riding on the back of their reputation in the marketplace on amazon that we can get nowhere near with website sales in the US market.

From a customer standpoint their a-z guarantee probably helps a lot.

[dredmorbius]

Yeah, Amazon's got trust, an established relationship, excellent customer service/satisfaction, and a good payment management history, all of which are crucial in online commerce (and for all of that I still prefer not to use them, for what it's worth).

Musing over my own post, I can think of instances where the same would not be true. A financial trading platform in particular -- trades are already occurring at volume, and lost time would be lost trades.

[jzwinck]

That's exactly right. I'd wager that millions of people have bought from Amazon but no other online store. And I doubt any other online store selling physical goods in the US can beat them by that metric. It's not that people won't shop elsewhere but that they literally are unprepared to let themselves do so. One-click shopping is a great idea to keep grandma loyal to the store, because her son probably set it up, and he's not home now.