Ecommerce – Page 2 – My Game Reviews

Is Mercari the future of Japanese E-Commerce dominance on the Internet?

Mercari, Japan's Biggest E-Commerce site.

Mercari is a website that offers casual selling for internet users. It was founded in Japan, making it one of those odd Japanese native sites that actually has a presence in America. The site has been struggling to make money in America but I just created an account today and I just listed my first item, a Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones DVD, widescreen; this DVD came in an age when DVDs were important to the revenue stream of movie companies. I have already gotten 10 views after putting it on the site.

The question that I am asking here is this: Is Mercari the future of Japanese E-Commerce dominance?

Japan, being a society driven by the willingness to maintain its traditions was slower to embrace the internet than the United States. The Japanese mentality was to focus more on integrating mobile internet into their daily lives. However, this also meant that Japan was focused on its hardware not the software. This focus on hardware would prove one of the reasons why Japan fell behind in Information Technology while America and China continued to innovate in software engineering.

Mercari is the odd one out and represents something interesting in Japan. This is a Japanese site that has gotten much traction among the public in the country. In America it has been struggling somewhat but based on my interactions with the site, it seems that there is steady number of users who are trying to sell on there.

eBay is already heavily entrenched in the ecommerce market in America. Can Mercari really make a difference and gain a foothold in America.

What I think that Mercari has is the ease of use. Unlike the eBay app, Mercari makes it easy to sell items online. Ebay has entrenched buyers who have been on the site for many years and it makes it tough for someone just starting out to sell on there.

All it takes to list an item is to put in a couple boxes and you have a listing and people are ready to buy it. Ebay is better for power sellers, but it can be very confusing for a generation of users who grew up mostly interacting with the internet on phones not their desktops. Mercari is prefect fit for many Millennials and Gen Z types who simply want a storefront without all the messiness involved with it.

That is why I think in spite of the struggles it has having now, Mercari will probably be successful in at least Japan and then spread out to other countries. It is great that we are now going to get some competition in ecommerce. Competition will make the internet great again.

How to search and buy effectively with 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.

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

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.

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

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 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.

Yamibuy-An Upstart marketplace for Asian Groceries

While sites such as Temu and Shein get all the attention, there other upstart e-commerce sites. Some like AliExpress, are just getting people’s attention. However, some are literally under the radar, such as the site I am going to talk about, Yamibuy, an ecommerce site devoted to higher quality Asian products.

Yamibuy, an entrance towards Chagee Tea.

The reason why I stumbled upon Yamibuy was because I saw a video about Chagee tea online. This video was on YouTube, and it came up on my recommended feed and I was intrigued as I am a big tea consumer. However, most of my exposure to tea was through an American brand known as Herbal Essences. This is a brand that began in the heady days of the New Age culture of the 1960s era. However, the taste is getting a bit stale now even though its great but I always had an opinion that Chinese tea was better.

Chagee Tea is a competitor to Starbucks Coffee in China. Along with Lunkin Coffee, these two giants of modern Chinese culture are challenging the American coffee chain with a uniquely Chinese twist.

Chagee Tea is really my interest here and they have some interesting flavors available for sale. They have Peach Oolong Tea and Ceylon Black Tea among others. While Chagee is focusing on their Milk tea, they also have Pure Teas available to the public.

Some of these Pure Teas are only available Yamibuy.

So I made a choice to create an account on Yamibuy.

Is YamiBuy better than Temu?

In my opinion, YamiBuy is a better store than Temu. Currently, Temu is all about prices not about the quality. YamiBuy is giving people options and that is what makes it better than most other Chinese websites that engage in global ecommerce.

One thing that Yami does better than Temu is that they are so aggressive at advertising. While I understand why Temu in its early days needed to have more aggressive advertising in order to get attention in an already saturated with many competitors.

In comparison, YamiBuy is focused on getting Asian products to Asian Americans.

Temu has been focusing on essentially being a flea market for many types of customers. This has been diluting the brand of Temu and made it more difficult for it to be more than a flea market for many customers.

Building a reputation rather than just selling things is what is important in ecommerce.

What Yami shows a shift in Ecommerce

In the beginning, Ecommerce was dominated by American companies. As time has gone on, it seems that there is going to be more diversification in what companies are available online.

Amazon is going to be the Walmart of the Online store space. There will be a place for sites such Yami.

In my opinion, that makes the internet more interesting and more efficient to use for customers as well as businesses of many shapes and sizes.

Yami is a great site to use

I would recommend using Yami honestly. If you are Asian-American, such a site is must to have if you do not have a H-Mart or other Asian grocery nearby in your area. Managing to stumble upon it has made my ecommerce experience a bit more diverse than just using Amazon Prime for everything.

Considering that Chagee’s Tea was only on there. I would recommend it to get just a hint of the taste of this up-and-coming teahouse in America.