Why shopping on mobile is broken

andyjsong 13 years ago |

I use my phone in a different way to purchase products. I was recently on a camping trip and we were playing a game of "Cards Against Humanity," I thought it was fun and wanted to buy a set. I fired up Amazon's app and scanned the barcode. Confirmed the purchase and then in a 3-5 days I had the game. It took less than 20 seconds even with limited internet connectivity.

In this case, I got to test out the product, liked it and bought one for myself. I don't know if I would do the same with swiping left and right to get a product that I would ultimately purchase without trying it out first, unless there were some solid reviews backing up the product.

There are apps like Fancy, but they are image heavy and slow to load. I really don't think it's the right strategy in getting people to buy a product.

jeffehobbs 13 years ago |

Amazon works great on mobile. Sounds like shopping on mobile is broken for you.

rickotoole 13 years ago | |

I agree, Amazon has put together a great product for mobile when you know what you are looking to buy, similar to the use case described by andy andyjsong. However, I would argue that this use case does not capture all shopping experiences. Many shoppers are preference oriented and need a way to browse through products while making a decision (e.g, apparel, travel)

codenerdz 13 years ago | |

ditto

codenerdz 13 years ago |

I dont know, its not broken for me: I cant tell you how many times ive compared prices for something im looking at to Amazon and placed an order right there if the price difference was significant enough.

Where does Rockerbox source the products it sells? Is it simply a mobile facade for a shopping.com API or amazon referrals?

rjjacobson 13 years ago | |

Amazon is great for getting a pricing point of comparison - can't argue with that. In fact Amazon is great if you know exactly what you want to be / for finding the best price. I'd argue it's not the best place to find what you want.

We source from each individual retailer. No APIs.

codenerdz 13 years ago | | |

>> Amazon is great for getting a pricing point of comparison - can't argue with that. In fact Amazon is great if you know exactly what you want to be / for finding the best price. I'd argue it's not the best place to find what you want.

Im not sure I understand your argument: are you saying that amazon mobile suffers from item availability and/or discoverability?

rjjacobson 13 years ago | | |

Primarily discoverability.

For example, if I know I want a new iPod dock - sorting through all of the potential products and processing all of the information associated through each one is a lot of work. Amazon doesn't do a great job of making this process simpler.

Availability is also an issue with clothing in particular.

DGCA 13 years ago |

Swipe one way to like, the other to dislike? I do not like that. I'm used to navigating forward and back using those gestures.

Also, and I know I'm being nitpicky, but there's an empty button on the top right of your mockup.

zeckalpha 13 years ago |

What about the additional security implications?