Amazon is now Aliexpress with (sometimes) local shipping.
For years we've been told that the worker in Shenzhen is cheaper than the one in Seattle. Now I tell you, Jeff, that the entrepreneur in Shenzhen is cheaper than the one in Seattle.
For years we've been told that the worker in Shenzhen is cheaper than the one in Seattle. Now I tell you, Jeff, that the entrepreneur in Shenzhen is cheaper than the one in Seattle.
Furthermore, it is stupidly obvious when something is just being dropshipped vs coming from Amazon's warehouse, just look for the Prime logo on the items. At least with Amazon I get things relatively quickly even compared to other US based options such as Ebay or even going through the retailer directly
It never makes sense to intentionally return inapplicable search results. Think about it: product search is the ultimate advertising opportunity. A customer with money to spend is proactively telling you exactly what they want to spend it on. And you're going to go out of your way to piss this customer off?!
Bold strategy, Jeff, let's see how it works out for you.
Inapplicable to whom?
> product search is the ultimate advertising opportunity
To me, this is what lends confidence to the idea that the results are hardly "inapplicable". The results may be quite applicable from Amazon's perspective.
This is just a guess, but it seems unlikely that all Amazon cares about is returning the exact perfect set of results that lead you directly to what you're intending to purchase. They may know that showing seemingly random results increases impulse sales of high profit items they have in local "get it today" warehouses. Or they know that people who search for the thing you searched for are n times more likely to buy Product X impulsively, but only if they show it to you on the first Monday morning of the month.
Or maybe they've lost their minds, and have tried to optimize and maximize profits from their recommendations that they're blind to much simpler approaches.
Then there's the business of repeating the same search in a private browsing window and getting substantially different results. Another great way to flush business down the drain.
I started doing this for my components and won't be going back to Amazon. I switched after getting some counterfeit components, and others so poorly soldered they didn't work.
It will be more expensive than AliExpress, but much less than Amazon and you'll actually get what you order...
You might want to check your DNS settings. I think they may have been hijacked.
This is using canadian Amazon and canadian Digikey, since that's where I'm from. We will compare single unit prices, since getting into bulk deals complicates things quite a bit, and is not what most inventors/hobbyists will need.
Since OP was talking about humidity sensors, the only one I'm familar with is DHT11.
On Amazon.ca this comes up as $11.30 CAD. [1] On Digikey this is discontinued but comes up as $7.67.[2] Yet even the Grove branded BOARD is cheaper at $9.37. [3]
Anyways, maybe not the best example since it's ancient and discontinued, was just off the top of my head. Lets look at something more recent like the SHT31-D:
Amazon: $14.69 [4] Digikey: $12.82 [5]
Also you can buy the sensor without the board for like 9$ on digikey. The selection is just way larger.
Out of curiosity though, have you personally used chinese boards on Amazon that are cheaper and generally reliable? If so is there a brand I can search for?
I'm down for cheap reliable chinese stuff (that you don't have to buy for like $50 in packs of 5 - 10 to get a discount...) off Amazon, just haven't been able to find any at all.
[1]: https://www.amazon.ca/Robojax-Temperature-Relative-Humidity-...
[2]: https://www.digikey.ca/en/products/detail/adafruit-industrie...
[3]: https://www.digikey.ca/en/products/detail/seeed-technology-c...
[4]: https://www.amazon.ca/DAOKI-Temperature-Humidity-Interface-G...
[5]: https://www.digikey.ca/en/products/detail/dfrobot/SEN0331/12...
When I spent 2x as much from a US vendor from Amazon, they worked. No messing around. Probably they are built in the same regions, but US designs by US vendors I've had much much better luck with.
I don't buy lots of things from Amazon for fear of fakes. When you're on niche products that nobody cares to duplicate it's much safer.
It's almost comical the supply chain understanding you have to have to make sure you get the right thing.
If you're willing to wait a month Aliexpress is all the same stuff for 1/10 the price.
The issue isn't so much that you buy something and then the process of shipping from China starts. The issue is that it's often the exact same crap being sold on AliExpress, but has been filtered into the Amazon Warehouse for those SKUs.
Can't possibly be worse than Amazon's search experience.