Comment on Amazon Artificially Discounting Items $0.01 Below the Free Shipping Limit

• rumba@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Saved me $4, I’m fine with it.

  We need another amazon to beat the existing amazon up, retail sales are just bloated and dead.

  OR, how about we start getting mom and pop shops to do local ecommerse with delivery.

  source

  • DicJacobus@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    I dont think you understand how “Amazon” exists as we know it.

    Amazon, the store. the store that sells stuff at “unbeatable” prices and has convenient fast shipping options. exists because Amazon, the corporation, makes most of its money through platforms that are NOT the store.

    for example the AWS division, which handles web hosting, Makes money hand over fist compared to the store. so they can afford to sell stuff at either a loss, or breaking even. (and they’re still somehow making money off the ordeal. dont ask me where)

    source

    • ricecake@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      I’m not sure that’s entirely true.

      Image

      Most of their money comes from retail, either the site, subscriptions, or the seller services they provide. AWS, while massive, isn’t what’s keeping them afloat.

      You’re entirely correct though that competition with Amazon is difficult because of those additional sources of revenue. Having additional stable sources of income gives them the ability to accept lower margins in retail with less risk.

      The way they make money selling things with no profit or at a loss is to ensure that someone else is always paying the difference. “Free shipping” with a paid subscription means that rather than providing shipping for a loss, they just need to do it for less than the subscription. Turns out “guy with a van” can deliver a lot of packages for quite cheap. So many that he’ll be out delivering from 3am to 9pm, and for $5 they’ll drop your package off first and call it overnight.
      In some cases they can get the seller to pay for shipping as a promotional incentive, since Amazons conditioned people to look for free shipping as a precondition to considering a product.

      Only give away for free what you got someone else to pay for.

      source

      • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        Revenue is not profit.

        source

        • -> View More Comments
    • dan@upvote.au ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Amazon, the store. the store that sells stuff at “unbeatable” prices and has convenient fast shipping options. exists because Amazon, the corporation, makes most of its money through platforms that are NOT the store.

      They were also famously unprofitable for a very long time, longer than most businesses would consider reasonable. They were founded in 1994 and it took until 2001 to make a profit.

      source

      • AutistoMephisto@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        Exactly. A systemic issue with capitalistic markets is that they inherently select for short term thinking.

        Does it make sense to destroy 90% of your profitability 5 years from now for a 20% bump in profit this quarter? Well, yes, it does, because that’s 20% more profit to expand and take over the market.

        Even if a business were to try to make good long term decisions, it would immediately be crushed and pushed out of the market by all of its competitors willing to make those shortsighted decisions for immediate profits.

        Except in the case of Amazon, thanks to AWS they were able to make good long-term decisions with their e-commerce platform by making short term decisions with AWS.

        source

        • -> View More Comments
    • rumba@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Walmart and Target already do it. Just get rid of the public facing store part and send it to me as cheap as retail.

      There are companies in china already doing this.

      source
  • underisk@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    How have you ‘saved’ money that you spent, exactly?

    source

    • rumba@lemmy.zip ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      I need a $40 screwdriver and 12v battery

      They reduce the price of the screwdriver kit $4 to make it not free shipping on it’s own

      I buy them both for $40.

      I would have to buy them anyway, I spent $40 instead of $45 and still got “free shipping”

      source

      • underisk@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        If they bundled the item with a pack of batteries in a retail store and sold it for 39.99, would you still consider it cheaper?

        source

        • -> View More Comments
    • WolfLink@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      It’s still cheaper than it would have been without Amazon’s discount

      source

      • underisk@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

        Cheaper on Amazon, or anywhere else?

        source

        • -> View More Comments
    • dingus@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Supposed you were going to buy batteries elsewhere anyway. So you saved money by doing it in one go there.

      source