alt Hacker NewsYup, it's weird to me that companies as big as Amazon haven't figured this out.
Guys, if I buy a photo camera, I might want lenses, or a cleaning kit, or maybe a camera bag. But I'm almost certainly not interested in starting a camera collection, nor am I interested in incompatible brands to what I just bought.
It shouldn't be so hard to run some stats and figure out that there's things one doesn't buy again often, like washing machines, cameras, laptops and other big purchases.
Also, search still sucks. Searching for things like sizes where fuzzy ranges are involved is pain. Like I need to find a recessed light that fits into a 100mm hole, it's a pain to search for still. At this point I think somebody at Amazon could have come up with a way to categorize products and extract parameters automatically. And the pain only increases exponentially if you need 3-4 things in a product to match.
ChatGPT can do it, no reason why Amazon couldn't just have that on their page.
Replies
Once you realize you are the product on Amazon's search page it makes a lot more sense. Over half the listings are paying amazon for higher placement into that search. It's long since stopped being a search experience that works for the shopper.
>> Guys, if I buy a photo camera
If you buy one camera, you are likely a billion times more likely to buy another. And, you have the disposable income to be in the market.
>> there's things one doesn't buy again often, like washing machines
You are not a whale, but you might be. Most people only buy one washing machine but a few people buy dozens (apartment managers and such). Such people, whales, sometimes buy one as test case. So ya, if you buy one then you are a strong maybe for one day buying many more.
Amazon must make more money from camera brand ads than from selling camera accessories. Every time they push a camera to someone who already has one, they get paid for that, and the ad buyer can't easily verify. The person is flagged as liking cameras, after all.
Forget the camera analogy. Use something like a new toilet seat. I buy one, I don't need to buy more. I'm not a toilet seat collector.
> But I'm almost certainly not interested in starting a camera collection, nor am I interested in incompatible brands to what I just bought.
You might not be, but as a guy with easily a dozen cameras from half a dozen brands, we're absolutely out there, and I know plenty of other folks in my network who do too.
(Reason: I travel a lot, I live stream for a living, and my partner does social media.)