Amazon Replacement?
Is it possible to one day replace the privacy nightmare of Amazon with a decentralized merchant network? All I really use Amazon for these day is aggregate customer reviews by query, then buy the items as direct as possible. Why can't respectable tools to this instead? I understand the cost, but could the tech be adopted?
I'm not entirely sure you'd want that, tbh.
Think about how logistics work, and how fuel has to be spent. You don't want a decentralized network for physical goods. That's extremely inefficient and wasteful.
Even if it's just about the final point of sale... we kinda already have these aggregations of individual merchant stalls? We call them "malls" mostly, nowadays, or "markets", depending on type. They exist, but keep in mind that a lot of stuff is centralized behind the scenes, be it maintenance, logistics or chains.
There are malls, markets, things like that. These are just the front end for the customers to buy things, the retailer.
As you said there are centralisation behind. Either through the same company managing all those different malls, or through Wholesalers working in the background selling to a lot of retailers.
I apologize for not being more specific, I'm not interested in a centralized delivery system. I just want vendors to have their inventories posted online (as usual), but for them to be aggregated by category and filterable in one location without depending on a dystopian tech company. MAYBE have a frontend to appear as though everything is centralized, but I would be indifferent
Aaaah, okay. I keep thinking I heard of exactly this in the German city of Hamburg before, or even the entire area. But I can't find anything about it right now. But I'm sure I had heard of this. There was like this meta-shopping-system, and then the orders were fulfilled by each company individually, they just pooled their catalogues basically.
I don't see that happening. I think the problem is not even technical - ActivityPub could absolutely serve the purpose. My pessimism comes from the incredible potential for spam and just shit products. Take current amazon - it's full of rubbish from aliexpress. Now increase that by a few orders of magnitude, since every merchant could just spin up their own shopfront with no supervision.
Indeed, there needs to be third parties who control quality - just like there are moderators here, if you think about it. We already sort of have those moderators : local shop keepers. I'd be satisfied with a service that allows me to leverage all those local shops without having to leave my place (as I mentioned in an other comment on this page : "Uber Eats/Deliveroo for everything").
I think the decentralized but moderated review network is the most important part. I like the idea of local shop keepers with specialized knowledge (I’m thinking of my local goto kitchen store) or just online experts (like the folks at whathifi). I like to research a bit (a lot really) before I decide what to buy and a resource like this would be invaluable. Finding it locally after deciding what to buy can be an issue (especially if you are not in the US), but this aspect could be separate, as is shipping.
Damn, that's a good point. I have no technical coding experience or knowledge (so no one should take what I'm about to say seriously), but I was picturing a lot of scripting pulling information across the web from selected vendors. Maybe that could prevent something like that? Or maybe I'm just making myself sound naive and stupid?
Decentralized online market is just going to the manufacturer/vendor website and buying it from them directly.
I don't know about "decentralized" as centralization is a driving influence in cost of marketing. Amazon is efficient because of every step of the way is centralized, from store front to the warehousing to the shipping. Sure there are some products that don't ship by Amazon, but they're usually at a cost disadvantage unless they're unique. Plus payment processing is centralized and allows for consumer protections which wouldn't be possible with something like crypto.
Amazon could be dethroned, but it would require very specific circumstances and unlikely wouldn't be by a privacy minded entity.
Amazon is cheap because personal data subsidizes a lot. If they couldn't sell targeted sponsor ads to you, they'd make that revenue up elsewhere.
Amazon is as you said extremely efficient on their warehouse and shipping because of their centralization and size. They can build extremely expensive warehouse to keep being efficient and surpass the competition.
There would maybe be possible to get an "enhanced" activity pub in order to protect privacy and financial informations. There is already something similar but without activity pub : a multitude of website where it is possible to buy things.
But there still needs to be some centralization, either through the postal service for small companies, or through centralised warehouse companies, with spzcialized equipments. And both of these things are already in place.
However if the OP wants a decentralized Amazon like efficiency, it won't happen. The costs will increase and it will take more time, because the way the shipment will work will heavily depend on the seller.
Using amazon for it's reviews? Isn't that one of the least trustworthy aspects of amazon?
Have a look at particl.io
I haven't installed it yet, but that sounds exactly like what I had in mind. Is it limited by which companies have adopted it?
The developers have made it clear that they want to have a robust, sophisticated and scalable ecosystem before they do any advertising. The project is therefore mostly known only in cypherpunk and niche privacy communities, and so are the things that are sold on the public marketplace.
However, all the tools and automations to run an efficient online commerce already exist. For example, there is a connection to WooCommerce and scripts that facilitate the listing of items.
So from the technical side, practically everything is already available in the marketplace. What is missing is a web integration which is urgently needed for a broader adoption and easier possibilities to buy PART the native currency. The developers are currently working on the latter by developing Basicswapdex.com.
Amazon is too big. Bigger than some countries economy. Nothing can replace it.
If you count ship to store or home sales, it’s competing with Walmart, Hole Depot, Zoro and EBay. Most of the same garbage sellers are on those sites as well. The problem is none of them are any better than Amazon.
I’m just attempting to shop locally, or if I need something particular , get it from more trustworthy (though unfortunately usually more expensive) sources, usually direct from manufacturers, or industrial suppliers (McMaster or Grainger for hardware or construction parts for example).
Bookshop.org is an attempt to provide an alternative to Amazon as a bookseller by using a network of independent book stores. It's not decentralized technologically or anything like that; it's just a website that bookshops can affiliate with. But it does represent a model to build an alternative that other industries can learn from.
Flohmarkt is probably the closest thing https://codeberg.org/grindhold/flohmarkt
I use Google Shopping. While Google is centralized, its merchant network is decentralized and I often find things that I can't on Amazon.