Change is a crucial part of life and Amazon online shopping has come to make shopping easier and convenient for everyone.
Although Amazon offers a wide range of services, its e-commerce service where people come to buy, and sell is more popular.
Instead of worrying about how to stock up your house with groceries and other items, Amazon online shopping is here to make your shopping easier. Keep reading to know more about Amazon shopping.
What is Amazon Shopping?
Amazon online shopping provides a platform where people visit to sell and buy products that are up for sale. As an e-commerce website, Amazon provides an online platform for customers to make purchases.
Recently Amazon shopping has become a bit challenging for both the buyers and the sellers.
As you visit Amazon’s store to either sell your eBook online or make purchases, you need to take note of these problems that you can encounter during Amazon shopping.
10 Challenges With Amazon Shopping
Since Amazon is one of the biggest e-commerce sites for online shopping, there is something for everyone. From fresh foodstuff to clothing, books, electronics, sports supplies and household appliances. The list is endless.
However, many challenges are facing both the buyer and the seller during Amazon shopping.
So, before you buy and sell on Amazon, prepare for these 7 challenges that can pop up during Amazon online shopping.
These include:
- Counterfeit products
- No product inspection before purchase
- Fake Reviews
- High Cost of Amazon Prime Membership
- Delay in delivery
- Additional Charges
- Transaction failure
1. Counterfeit Products
Notwithstanding Amazon’s policy that strictly prohibits the sale of counterfeit products in the e-commerce store, people still purchase counterfeit products during Amazon shopping.
Most times, these fake products are available for sale in place of the authentic products at Amazon stores.
Selling of Counterfeit products during Amazon shopping can be in the form of selling imitation products under the name of an already existing brand. It can also be selling unsafe products under the guise of a genuine product.
Some buyers intentionally source and sell counterfeit products, especially during Black Friday sales. Selling fake products during Amazon online shopping poses a huge challenge to both the consumer and the brand.
Due to the huge loss counterfeit products pose to buyers, brands and e-commerce platforms, these parties join forces and pool their resources to fight massively against counterfeiters.
Amazon reports that they seized and disposed over 6 million counterfeit products in 2022.
2. No Product Inspection Before Purchase
Just like every other e-commerce platform, there is no product inspection before purchase during Amazon online shopping.
Therefore, little or no product inspection before purchase is one of the biggest challenges of E-commerce shopping like Amazon shopping.
A lot of customers do not get the value for money during Amazon shopping, since the buyer could not inspect the product before purchase.
Some products leave the seller in good shape but arrive to the Customer in terrible condition due to poor packaging. Some third-party sellers on Amazon, do not use accurate product descriptions, images, and specifications.
This misleads customers to purchase a particular product during Amazon shopping, only to get disappointed when they receive it.
It is important to list a product accurately on the Amazon online store to enable customers to make the best purchasing decision.
Also, ensure that the product is in good condition and well packaged before shipping to the customer.
3. Fake Reviews
Many buyers make their buying decisions leveraging reviews from other customers. Since review is a major way of marketing a brand, the number of fake reviews on Amazon keeps skyrocketing.
Fake review is usually given by people who are contacted by review brokers to write fake reviews of a product to get money, discounted prices and other gains.
They do this to gain the trust of innocent Amazon users and deceive them into buying counterfeit products.
There are ways to identify fake reviews on e-commerce marketplaces like Amazon.
These are spelling errors in the product name and description, blurry text on the body of a product, poor commentary or details of a review after a top rating from a customer and getting 5 stars within a short period.
Another way to not fall victim to a scam or fraud on the e-commerce platform, especially during Amazon online shopping is to check the serial number or model number of a product, and then reach out to the company to confirm the number.
4. High Cost of Amazon Prime Membership
Amazon has a membership option for its users, which is popularly known as Amazon Prime.
To belong to this community of Amazon Prime users, one needs to subscribe with a $14.99 monthly fee or $139 per annum to enjoy exclusive benefits and perks.
Before this time, an Amazon Prime subscription cost $79 per annum in 2005 and $99 per annum in 2014.
Later in 2018 and 2022, Amazon Prime subscription was raised to $119 and $139 respectively.
The hike in Amazon subscription fee provides additional offers and benefits to Amazon Prime subscribers.
They enjoy access to exclusive videos and music, free games, free delivery and discount options and Amazon yearly exclusive Prime Day offers.
Notwithstanding the numerous benefit that comes with the increase in the subscription fee of Amazon Prime membership, Amazon users still consider it to be expensive.
Unlike Amazon, Other alternative online marketplaces like eBay provide a wide range of subscription plans for their users.
Ali Express is another E-commerce marketplace that charges no subscription fee as of the year 2023.
There are other alternatives to Amazon shopping, where you can buy and sell your product and they are Etsy, Konga, Bonanza, FlipKart, Alibris, Taobao and Chairish.
5. Delay In Delivery
While you can walk into a nearby store to purchase and replace your cereal quickly, Amazon shopping involves purchasing products online and waiting for the logistics company to deliver them.
This may sound like a luxury but in the real sense, it can be a major setback.
Due to human, technical and mechanical factors, there can be a delay in product delivery during Amazon shopping.
Causes of late and delayed deliveries include traffic congestion, poor weather conditions, long processing times, choosing free shipping options and delivery destinations.
The product seller or the shipping company can be responsible for the delay in delivery during Amazon shopping.
Once a customer purchases on the Amazon website, the product processing, packaging and logistics take place in the closest Amazon fulfilment centres and distribution Channels.
If you intend to buy from Amazon or other third-party partners on Amazon, you should purchase ahead of time when you need to use the product.
This gives time allowance for any delay that may come up during Amazon shopping.
However, Amazon has put some measures and structures in place to ensure timely shipping and delivery of products to Customers during Amazon shopping.
The introduction of same-day delivery, advanced routing algorithm and Amazon Air during Amazon shopping helps in fast product delivery.
6. Additional Charges
The use of online marketplaces for online shopping attracts additional fees.
The additional fees to pay during Amazon shopping include processing fees, card charges, service fees, taxes and delivery fees.
Many times, some sellers add these additional fees as hidden charges to the customer’s product. The seller does not disclose the fee at the initial time a customer signs up or processes the fee payment.
Customers pay some of these additional fees during Amazon shopping on special occasions like Amazon Outlet Clearance, Amazon warehouse, Black Friday deals, Prime Shopping, Prime Day and other Amazon sales.
On some occasions, these additional charges can be exorbitant.
To spend less on additional charges during Amazon shopping, you can choose to make a bulk purchase from Amazon to get discounts.
You can also look out for sellers who offer free shipping to your destination and purchase from them. Using Amazon promo codes and coupons will help you to save up more.
7. Transaction Failure
You can get stuck with fee payments during online shopping. Transaction failure is one of the most frustrating problems to encounter during Amazon online shopping.
During Amazon shopping, payment failure can be a result of technical issues, inaccurate shipping destination, wrong pin and card details, data transmission error and insufficient funds.
To prevent internet fraud during Amazon shopping, use a device with a steady internet connection, enter your correct details and ensure you have sufficient money in your bank account.
Effects of and buying selling counterfeit products during Amazon Shopping
- A brand’s image is put at stake each time a customer purchases an imitation product of a well-known brand.
- Over time, these counterfeits tarnish the image of a genuine brand since the imitation will cut short the expectations of the customers.
- Since Customers who are the major contributors to longevity in every business now perceive your business differently, the next point is bound to happen.
- A remarkable effect of selling fake products during Amazon shopping is a huge loss of Loyal customers to competitors.
- With time there will be a build-up of unsatisfied customers, who will keep laying complaints to your customer service unit, asking for refunds and threatening to give your company a poor review on sites.
- These loyal customers are the ones that recommend your products to people, losing their loyalty means losing a chain of other customers.
- Another consequence of selling counterfeit goods at Amazon is the loss of a network of distributors and retailers selling a product.
- Since the end users of a product have lost interest in a genuine brand, there is little or no sale of the product at retail stores.
Invariably, most of the partners distributing and selling the product will back out with the excuse of poor sales.
In cases, where these counterfeit goods are available in local listings at cheaper prices in the guise of the genuine product, the genuine product distributors experience low sales and soon be out of business.
Conclusion On Amazon Online Shopping
Amidst the convenience one can experience during online shopping, the customer and the retailer face many problems during Amazon shopping.
These challenges can make Amazon shopping stressful.
But if managed properly using cyber security software and others, shopping will become easy and enjoyable.