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55 Percent Of Online Shoppers Start Their Product Searches On Amazon (recode.net) 141

Posted by msmash from the how-you-buy-stuff dept.
Another year, another data point showing Amazon has surpassed Google as the default search engine for shopping, a report on Recode reads. Fifty-five percent of people in the U.S. now start their online shopping trips on Amazon.com, according to results from a 2,000-person survey commissioned by the e-commerce startup BloomReach. That stat marks a 25 percent increase from the same survey last year, when 44 percent of online shoppers said they turned to Amazon first. From the report: Over the same time, the percentage of shoppers who start product searches on search engines like Google dropped from 34 percent to 28 percent. The number of online shoppers who check out a retailer's website (other than Amazon) first also shrunk, from 21 percent to 16 percent.
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55 Percent Of Online Shoppers Start Their Product Searches On Amazon More

55 Percent Of Online Shoppers Start Their Product Searches On Amazon

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  • I want to find a MAX7219 display multiplexer chip. Where do I look? Amazon. I can get several of those chips, including shipping, for the price that Adafruit charges for a single chip. Drawback: have to wait several weeks for them to arrive, probably from China. But if I'm not in a rush, no problem.

    Want 7-seg LED displays? Some other kinds of chips? Breadboards? Test instruments? I mean obscure things that most soccer moms don't order -- Amazon has it.

    • Or you can order through Jameco.

      http://www.jameco.com/ [jameco.com]

      If you spend $25+ on your order, you get free shipment on your next order.

      http://www.jameco.com/Jameco/Content/free-shipping-club-electronic-components.html [jameco.com]

      • Well to the point Amazon means you are not having to hunt and peck specialty stores. Even if you will save a few bucks.

        • Well to the point Amazon means you are not having to hunt and peck specialty stores.

          Amazon doesn't provide a link to the datasheet. If you're designing a circuit and don't know which component you need, datasheets are quite valuable.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Doke ( 23992 )

            Amazon's descriptions are almost always deficient. Worse, they prevent you from improving them. I recently posted a review of a SMT transistor book. I included datasheet links for every part in the book. Amazon deleted all of the links, replacing them with [...]. Their search is also terrible, especially for electronic components. They don't have anything close to the parametric searchs available on mouser or digi-key.

    • *cough*

      Digikey

      Next day shipping for most items for $8.

      • $8 shipping on a $9 part. Hurray.

        No thanks.

        • $8 shipping on a $9 part. Hurray.

          I usually order a minimum of ten to get the volume discount. The first chip will inevitably go up in smoke as I test the limits of what it can do. Or I connect the V+ and GND pins backwards.

        • It's even more painful for me. I live in the same state that Digikey is located, so I have a real problem paying that much for shipping when it's not going very far. However, I live far enough from their location so that it's not worth it to drive there. (I don't know if they even offer will-call)

    • I still use search engines to look for retailers other than Amazon to buy stuff, because I like to give the little guy some business.
      But nowadays it seems like Amazon is ALL there is for many products that I want. Either Amazon is driving many businesses out of business, or it is doing a great job completely dominating search engine results for several different search engines.

      • Either Amazon is driving many businesses out of business, or it is doing a great job completely dominating search engine results for several different search engines.

        It's a bit of both. Amazon is definitely the 800lb gorilla of ecommerce. Even companies like Walmart are having a hard time dealing with them. And to be honest Amazon has earned their place. Honestly I do most of my shopping there these days because there isn't anything else remotely as convenient in most cases. They have the best selection, usually reasonable prices, excellent customer service, and checkout is a breeze. With Prime their shipping costs are very reasonable as well. I seldom have to g

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by DogDude ( 805747 )
          Just keep feeding Big Brother, and fuck your neighbors. Great attitude! Congratulations for having absolutely no scruples.
          • Parent is talking about picking amazon over walmart and staples. Excuse me as I shed a tear for these beleaguered small businesses that are above reproach in their business practices.

    • Since others mentioned Jameco and Digikey, I'll also offer Mouser as a source for electronics bits.

      There are punishingly few components on Amazon worth the price and shipping time. If I ever buy electronics there, it's always part of a larger order and thrown in for shits and giggles rather than something I specifically need.
      =Smidge=

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jrumney ( 197329 )
      For electronics, I'd hit aliexpress, ebay, digikey and google before I went to Amazon. I know they sell other stuff now, but to me Amazon is still a bookstore.

    • Want 7-seg LED displays? Some other kinds of chips? Breadboards? Test instruments? I mean obscure things that most soccer moms don't order -- Amazon has it.

      I find Amazon is frequently not the best source for any of those. I'm UK based and find RS pretty good for a lot of tech stuff. It's not as good as digikey or mouser for components (a smaller range, though sometimes they have sometheing the other's don't), and has free next day shipping on any size of order.

      It also has the RS Pro brand which is basically

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Doke ( 23992 )

      Aliexpress has the best price: 5 for $2.71 + $0.12 shipping to US. They'll take a month to arrive. :-( https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-shipping-5PCS-LOT-MAX7219CNG-MAX7219-DIP-24/32633578636.html.

      Adafruit has one for $9.95 + ~$7 shipping, but you'll get it in 3 to 5 days.

      Amazon has several offerings, but none are prime. None seem to have delivery times even close to what Adafruit can offer.

  • I usually don't go to Amazon first when shopping for items, but only because it is easier to type the product into Google and follow the Amazon link I find in the results, with is almost always Amazon if they offer the product. I wonder if that counts as going to Amazon first or not.

  • Good benchmark (Score:4, Insightful)

    by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @10:13AM (#52976483) Homepage Journal

    Amazon provides a good benchmark for prices, and has useful reviews. It's a reasonable place to start.

    • Walmart has something almost like a warehouse of goods, in most medium sized towns. Maybe they could figure out some way to use this new intarweb thingy and offer Amazon like service? In fact, it might be possible for many physical stores to do this. The last big challenge would be grocery stores. But they won't. They'll just let me use Amazon Prime and now be able to order all kinds of household goods from paper towels to dog food. Delivered right to my door. Maybe Donald's son could help -- I hear

  • It's all about the reviews. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Beardo the Bearded ( 321478 ) on Wednesday September 28, 2016 @10:17AM (#52976535)

    I check amazon first because they have more product reviews than anywhere else. For me, it's the reviews, not always the price or shipping rate, that get me to buy something.

    • I even complained to Bezos' personal email about this saying that this attacks Amazon's most valuable asset. They just don't care.

      Everytime I see ""I received this product at a discount in exchange for my unbiased review" I die a little. Such a great service being ruined.

  • This makes using it an inconvenience so I never use it

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by CrashNBrn ( 1143981 )
      Within the last 5 years, Google Shopping changed the requirements to be listed. Number one requirement: Pay to be listed.
      Who pays to be listed? Jet.com. Who is Jet? Walmart.

      Amazon may be an 800lb Gorilla. Walmart? They're just f'n evil, and the sooner they die in a fire the better.

      • Within the last 5 years, Google Shopping changed the requirements to be listed. Number one requirement: Pay to be listed.

        There's a reason that even Google search often points to the Amazon listing near the top of search results. The reviews on Amazon are better than anywhere else, if due to nothing besides sheer volume. It's hard to achieve quality reviews without quantity reviews, which is why Yelp is still relevant.

        How important is Amazon as an aggregator of reviews? Many Amazon reviews specifically state that they bought the product elsewhere but still chose to post their review on Amazon. Why? Because that's where th

    • This makes using it an inconvenience so I never use it

      Yep, was http://froogle.com/ [froogle.com] Many years ago Google dumped shopping, yet the site remains.

  • I usually hit Amazon early for two reasons
    a) They often have product spec sheets that I can look up.
    b) It gives me a basis for comparison.

    However I've noticed that for a lot of stuff their pricing algo's lately are way out of whack, especially for older stuff. For example, a slightly older video card which is going for $100 on eBay or stores (where available) is listed on Amazon at $2500, presumably because they're harder to come by but there's still some demand. For $2500 I could build a whole rig includin

    • Because Amazon is an approved supplier for some companies. eBay is not.

    • Not that others aren't a mess as well. I regularly see people caught up in eBay bids for used stuff that exceeds the price I could buy it new.

      This. I rarely saved money on eBay, and when you consider the time sink to buy anything on eBay it just doesn't make sense to regularly shop there.

  • Funny, I always shop elsewhere before hitting Amazon, even though I'm a Prime member and will (probably) get it from Amazon.

    IIRC there was an issue some years ago about how Amazon would check your system for recent cookies from other shopping sites (like bn.com), offering better prices on the fly if it appeared you'd been shopping around. Dunno if it is still true, but really with internet shopping there's no good reason NOT to do some decent price-comparison if it's something of any great value.

    • IIRC there was an issue some years ago about how Amazon would check your system for recent cookies from other shopping sites (like bn.com), offering better prices on the fly if it appeared you'd been shopping around.

      Cookies don't work that way.

  • But then the 80's came, and they wanted their store back.

  • I check amazon prime, ebay, amazon non prime and then google search. (and if i'm really desperate bing) in that order
    and yes I mean google search google shopping has been worthless ever since they switched to promoted listings.

  • Mind you it's not very good, includes a lot of stuff relevant to one of your search terms but irrelevant to your search because it lacks another keyword, and is missing a lot of options like being able to sort the results by rating but exclude the things with just 1-2 reviews.

    Google Shopping used to be better, but about 1-2 years ago they redid the format of the search results page. Clicking on the name of the search result used to give you the list of all stores which sold the item. Now both it and th
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Amazon or Newegg to see the product and reviews.
    If I'm not in a hurry, aliexpress; otherwise A or N usually has the best price.

    But I do agree with the other poster--Amazon has gotten very tricky in the past few years.
    You have to dig to make sure you get the right price.

    Also the default free shipping option seems to come and go.
    I've gotten burned a couple times at checkout, then have to cancel the order.
    If I catch it soon enough, start the checkout process again. as there's no "backup" as you are herded down

  • Apart from some furniture and decorations, Amazon has little competition for convenience, shipping, and customer service. Whenever something goes wrong, I'm always amazed how quickly and easily they fix it.

    I do still use Wayfair and Overstock for some of above two categories, though. For whatever reason, Amazon still has much smaller selection there.

  • that also 55% of all statistics are made up.
  • I only seem to use Newegg first when I have a specific idea of a type of computer parts, but I don't have a specific brand or anything in mind. They seem to organize their stuff and sort it based on more technical matters. On Amazon I can sort which internal M.2 SSD I want by color, but that's not always what I'm looking for.

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