Retail Apocalypse aka The E-Commerce Thread

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Frenzied Wombat

Frenzied Wombat

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Chukzombi said:
that they do, but they are also buying online more. so they still go into the store and try on clothes and buy up the items online. the big clothing chain around here Mandees/Annie Sez are closing down like crazy. dunno what B&M stores these chicks are still buying/exchanging clothes at, but it aint those stores anymore.
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Go down to Victoria's Secret or BCBG and the stores are packed with chicks. They can get the same deals in store as they get online, plus the ability to try things on first. Unlike you or me, women enjoy the act of clothes shopping-- they don't see it as a matter of wasted/lost time. My sister works in fashion -- she's the brand manager for Herve Leger and BCBG, and trust me fashion retail is still going strong. Most women like to try shit on first, especially since sizing is so inconsistent between brands.
 
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Araysar

Loser Araysar

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Like I said, "lifestyle clothing"
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What Will We Wear for the Resistance?


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Kiroy

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Araysar said:
Honestly its this that turned me off so much to retail shopping. I still have to deal with this at supermarkets but its gotten to the point where I just loathe to go food shopping. You'll have a line of 3 people at Vons that takes 15 minutes to get through.

The chip shit is especially infuriating, since the chip seems to break more often than the mag stripe used to, and when it does - you have to run the card through the chip reader 3 consecutive times and THEN it will finally let you use the mag stripe.
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Amazon gonna have our backs on this one. I can't wait for the day we get no check out grocery shopping. The whole checkout process is a fucking nightmare almost every time. I want to grab and shake the manager everytime and yell at them that this is all coming to an end and they are completely fucked if they don't get their heads out of their asses.
 
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Araysar

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Kiroy said:
Amazon gonna have our backs on this one. I can't wait for the day we get no check out grocery shopping. The whole checkout process is a fucking nightmare almost every time. I want to grab and shake the manager everytime and yell at them that this is all coming to an end and they are completely fucked if they don't get their heads out of their asses.
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I can input from scratch my name, billing and shipping address and type in all my CC info faster into an online form (at a site where I never shopped before) than I can run my card through a supermarket card reader (not even counting the time I spent standing in line which is another 10-15 min). It's insane.
 
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ZyyzYzzy

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Araysar said:
For sure. I wear 16.5 34/35 dress shirts and its a crapshoot each time even if you know your size perfectly. Some shirts are baggier than a parachute, especially in the waist, some shirts are too tight, and some go to your knees almost
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God. My wife bought be some J Crew shirts. Can't even tuck them in.

Even neck and length varies. I'm a 17 36 at Jos. A Bank and a 16.5 34/35 at brooks brothers
 
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Araysar

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ZyyzYzzy said:
God. My wife bought be some J Crew shirts. Can't even tuck them in.

Even neck and length varies. I'm a 17 36 at Jos. A Bank and a 16.5 34/35 at brooks brothers
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Yeah, also Jos A. Bank and B&B use american style tailoring which is always baggier in the arms and waist, it was basically for fat middle managers in US in mid 20th century. So the shirts are always more... billowy.

European brands (like CK) will have more of the slim fitted dress shirts that actually fit much better, unless you're a fat piece of shit.
 
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Gravel

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Speaking of clothing, I was tempted to buy some jeans on Amazon the other day, but I realized that jeans vary so much from pair to pair. I don't know why this is, but the coloring, cut, and sizing can all be vastly different even with the same brand/style/sizing.

So I'll end up going to a B&M to find a pair I like and actually try them on.
 
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Kiroy

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Gravel said:
Speaking of clothing, I was tempted to buy some jeans on Amazon the other day, but I realized that jeans vary so much from pair to pair. I don't know why this is, but the coloring, cut, and sizing can all be vastly different even with the same brand/style/sizing.

So I'll end up going to a B&M to find a pair I like and actually try them on.
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Unless you know some exact ski jacket you want or something, shopping for clothing online for men seems bonkers to me. Woman are in a bit of a different category because they don't mind playing the return/exchange game, but another issue with shopping for non-commodity cloths on amazon is if you don't really know what you want you're just swamped with a bazillion pages to look through, which is why most woman will find smaller niche boutique that also do e-commerce. Once they find one they like they'll remain pretty god damn loyal.

Non-commodity shopping on amazon is a pretty shit experience in general, regardless the category. I'm a prime member and we order shit all the time but it's something we know we want / need. I don't think i've ever just gone browsing randomly on amazon and bought something.
 
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Araysar

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Same here. I'm a Prime member and I do pretty much all my shopping there with exception of food, and clothes.

I can get 50 lbs of cat litter, some obscure hair pomade, a mop and a bucket, a single serving blender, 5 painting brushes and a quart of white latex point delivered to me in 24 hours without having to leave my house and without having to go to 4 stores.

(this was an actual order I placed a few days ago)
 
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TomServo

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we have switched to hello fresh for our dinner meals, and use online grocery delivery for the rest.
 
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Kiroy

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Araysar said:
Same here. I'm a Prime member and I do pretty much all my shopping there with exception of food, and clothes.

I can get 50 lbs of cat litter, some obscure hair pomade, a mop and a bucket, a single serving blender, 5 painting brushes and a quart of white latex point delivered to me in 24 hours without having to leave my house and without having to go to 4 stores.

(this was an actual order I placed a few days ago)
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I've thought about doing the amazon pantry to set up recurring deliveries on a weekly or bi-weekly basis for all the normie shit we eat, but people say it sucks and i'm not a huge fan of amazons in house 'uber' style delivery system. I've actually had to move away from ordering business supplies via amazon prime because their fucking tardo 'uber' driver system doesn't prioritize commercial areas so they could be trying to deliver paper or tags to our warehouse at eight o clock at night and there's not a god damn thing we can do about it. It's fucking retarded.
 
Araysar

Loser Araysar

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I love the e-com topic, i could talk about it for hours. Anything from merchandising algorithms, price wars, OEM'ing, competition, site scrapers, etc.

AMA.
 
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Kiroy

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Araysar said:
I love the e-com topic, i could talk about it for hours. Anything from merchandising algorithms, price wars, OEM'ing, competition, site scrapers, etc.

AMA.
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I may hit you up for best practices for general e-com advertising/growth strategies if that's in your wheelhouse.
 
Frenzied Wombat

Frenzied Wombat

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Araysar said:
Same here. I'm a Prime member and I do pretty much all my shopping there with exception of food, and clothes.

I can get 50 lbs of cat litter, some obscure hair pomade, a mop and a bucket, a single serving blender, 5 painting brushes and a quart of white latex point delivered to me in 24 hours without having to leave my house and without having to go to 4 stores.

(this was an actual order I placed a few days ago)
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Between Amazon and Favor I was able to finally unlock the Epic Recluse achievement of not leaving the house for five days straight-- something that I have tried and failed at multiple times through life.

I don't even fucking have to go to Home Despot anymore -- the usual bane of my existence and probably my most frequent errand destination. Amazon can deliver almost anything same day, even on Sundays, as long as I get the order in by 11am or so. Hell, last week I ordered a water meter key, a Mr. LongArm, a Dremel, and a bunch of random screws delivered same day, on a Sunday. It's glorious.
 
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Araysar

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Kiroy said:
I may hit you up for best practices for general e-com advertising/growth strategies if that's in your wheelhouse.
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Thats very much in my wheel house. By the time i shut down my company after 5 years, i grew it from 0 to $15M in annual gross revenue in under 5 years
 
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Kiroy

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Araysar said:
Thats very much in my wheel house. By the time i shut down my company after 5 years, i grew it from 0 to $15M in annual gross revenue in under 5 years
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You've probably said but why shut it down? Shit margins? Sell it?
 
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Araysar

Loser Araysar

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Kiroy said:
You've probably said but why shut it down? Shit margins? Sell it?
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No, i never talked about it because i violated a bunch of NDAs and NCAs to start it so i kept it on down low. I didnt even use my real name to run it. It was in a partner's name. I answered the phones with my fake name. But all those NCAs are far in the past now and none of that shit matters anymore.

I ended it because the run on our industry products was so massive in 2013 that I sold $15M in product but shipped less than 5%. I was selling ammo, mags and weapon optics along with some other accessories. Sandy Hook shooting destroyed us.

Its why I harp a lot on custom and unique product, and OEM'ing existing product because if you sell same product as everyone else, you constantly run into supply chain issues and debilitating price wars, since everyone violates MAP. I was trying to get that going in 2011 and 2012 but no one would front the investment capital to make OEM mags and ammo
 
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Uriel

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We have a fairly new Amazon B&M store here, it's awesome. Everything has it's star rating and # of reviews listed, and if you have prime you get a discount on almost everything, paying online prices. Checkout is also super easy, and no one really bothers you in the store while you shop around. There's a lot of books, but also a lot of top-seller, highly rated type of things. It's probably my favorite store now, for the prices, the convenience and the fact that the employees stay out of your hair unless you need help. For you other Portland area folks (quite a few surprisingly), it's over at Washington Square Mall.
 
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