Josh Porter (a social design expert and author of the blog Bokardo) told an interesting story about Amazon. He was doing some user testing for a competing e-commerce site, and the tester he was interviewing asked if they could go to Amazon.

"Sure. Is it to compare the prices?" he asked.

"No," replied the tester. "It's so I can check the customer reviews."

I'm impressed by the extent to which Amazon has cultivated trust. They tell you what customers like you think about virtually every product on their site; they help you find products you might like more than the one you're browsing; they give you the chance to buy a cheaper used version of the product from a third-party. And so on.

Throw in their speed, low prices, and reliability, and it's no wonder they've captured such a strong slice of the e-commerce market.

makes sense, if I need something I usually just go to amazon first, since they usually have the lowest prices anyways

For me, it's also the ease and simplicity of being able to use a single payment system.

Ditto. Amazon makes it so easy to buy.

Amazon very rarely has the lowest prices on anything if you shop around. Books, for instance, are usually cheaper on Overstock. I have a Prime membership nonetheless, due to the convenience and incredible customer service.

But without having to shop around I know they are near the lowest. Within a few clicks I can have it on my door in a couple of days--no time wasted checking around. I buy tons of stuff on Amazon (literally the jeans I'm wearing now to the pans I cooked dinner in).

Wal-Martazon.

interesting that it counts the third-party partners in its metrics. wonder what it would look like if it were only amazon-handled products.

And further: if they are including third parties for Amazon -- presumably including the new-and-used sellers -- that implies they are including Ebay in the "third of all e-commerce" calculation. Is Amazon actually facilitating more commerce than Ebay at this point?

No. It was $3B versus $16B last year.

mind-boggling stuff. Bezos is a killing machine - and there was a time when people wrote amazon off in the bust of 2000 - 'selling books online ??? - wasnt getting rid of print the whole point of the net anyways'