Amazon 30 Years of Ecommerce Triumph and the Transition to a Struggle with Walmart.

Amazon

Amazon is celebrating 30 Years today of Ecommerce. It has much to celebrate as it is one of the world’s biggest websites and is sitting as a titan. Jeff Bezos has become a household name and had a wedding in Venice which showed the man’s immense power and influence. However, the company faces a new rival from a traditional brick and mortar sector, Walmart. These two giants are competing this week to offer incredible deals to their customers. What does this say about the future of Ecommerce.

Walmart in the 2000s had a rather poor reputation. Its customer base was always diverse but there was feeling it was too working class for some. They wanted higher quality goods as well as healthier items in the deli and meals section.

Now, Walmart is having ads that are much more youth oriented than many of their previous ads in the past. They have more young people who are fit and look like they belong in the wealthy areas of America than what was once Walmart’s traditional customers, working class Americans.

Amazon had the advantage for years as it was a digital only store. It’s customers from the start were more wealthy and had more social mobility. They also were more chatty about their interests, as can be seen by the usage of customer reviews.

Walmart has begun to transform itself into that Amazon style store.

Amazon better watch out as Walmart has a huge retail presence and they are even expanding into drone delivery which is another area that Amazon still hasn’t made progress in. Walmart has shown itself to be a resilient and strong company.

The battle of the Ecommerce giants is in full swing and we shall see which one wins the battle of the online stores.

How to search and buy effectively with Amazon Rufus

Amazon Rufus

Introduction: Amazon Rufus, the Shopping AI.

Amazon has generally been a pretty straight forward website. It is a place where you buy things or if you are a seller, sell your items on the Amazon storefront similar to eBay. Unlike many other dotcom businesses in the 1990s, Jeff Bezos had a vision and a sustainable business model. However, this does not mean that Amazon is lying on its laurels and has been continuing to innovate in many areas.

Amazon’s Rufus is named after a dog who was in Amazon’s office in the early days. It’s function is very much like a digital golden retriever: it seeks out information about the items you want to buy on the site.

Rufus is available on desktop as well as the mobile app. On the desktop site, Rufus is located on the upper left side of the screen.

How to search with Amazon Rufus Chatbot.

To start, you need to start typing something into the Amazon search box.

Amazon Search Bar

When you type in something into the Amazon, Rufus will analyze it and it will provide relevant questions.

Amazon Rufus Rings

When you click on the question bubbles, Rufus will provide answers to your questions here. It combines ChatGPT with the Amazon customer review system which helps to create a unique AI.

I chose a Runic Ring to buy, the first result on the page.

Nanafast Viking Rings

When you click on the link to the product page, Amazon has now integrated Rufus into many aspects of the site.

Amazon Rufus AI Specific Info Questions

One of the best aspects of Amazon’s AI integration is that it is holistic. Unlike the older versions of chatbots that would you see before ChatGPT, companies such as Amazon are integrating throughout the site. It is not an annoyance on the side bar; it now greatly enhances your ability to shop on Amazon and save time instead of spending it on the annoying search engine in Amazon.

Amazon’s s Rufus is much better than Google’s AI overview as it curates the Amazon customer review system in order to provide better responses.

Amazon Rufus Queries

Amazon smartly chooses to have Rufus located throughout the page for each product that you click on the site. While it may seem overbearing for some, this approach means that Amazon is not just treating like a feature that is being hidden away on the screen. In many ways, Amazon is the prefect site for such implementation of Shopping chatbots.

Amazon Haul is great for budgeting in this inflationary economy

The inflation crisis we are currently has been roiling through our economy for some time since the outbreak of Coronavirus. However, it is clear the times of spending recklessly and not building savings are not on the table now. Building savings is important now and sites such as Amazon Haul are important in this area.

I just got a bunch of socks for a cheap price at the website. These socks are your basic socks. They were not Hanes but a generic brand which meant they were basically quite cheap. I spent less money than I would have spent if I have bought it on regular socks at the regular Amazon site. They were coming from a Chinese warehouse instead of coming from Amazon’s warehouses. This meant that I am getting a cheaper price on these items here.

The shipping time on these socks is about 1 to 2 weeks. The Chinese sellers are quite prompt with shipping it. Within hours of ordering in the night, I get a notification in the morning that it is shipping out of the Chinese city the warehouse is in.

Amazon Haul is great for budgeting in a way that other sites are not. Most sites online such as Etsy tend to be pretty expensive and the shipping is not uniform. Amazon has well established logistics networks and this helps the company with getting those packages to you on time. This also means that costs are cheaper than an ordinary person online trying to go to their local post office in order to ship something to another country. Amazon Haul is a great place to shop for cheap items.

With the cost of living being such an issue, it is important to have options.

The socks that I have gotten so far are comfortable. Unlike other brands that I get in American stores, they seem actually durable and not just items you have to keep buying every couple of months.

In a time in which money is tight, Amazon Haul is a great addition to the website.