Amazon is in a weird place right now. In the recent past, Amazon was the place to get stuff online - cheaper than most places and Prime shipping was a big win. I don't think they're going anywhere, but there's still an awful lot of stuff you can't buy on there, or is difficult to find.
Now some departments are getting more like Etsy - a Shenzhen marketplace. This is good, because there's a lot of random stuff you can get that you don't need to import. It's also bad because it's virtually impossible to know what you should buy if you don't know the brand reputation (and that matters to you).
Brands include Rephoenix, Luoriz, Ugreen, Syncwire, RAVPower, Rankie, Benestellar, Onson, Jecent, Emmabin, Brightsnow, Maxteck, choetech, Volutz, Kinps, the list goes on. I got to page 3 before I gave up.
What about headphones? Mpow, OneOdio, BienSound, Alihen, Sephia, ZIYE, Sadon, OMORC, etc.
I'm genuinely curious as to when sellers decided that they must have a brand name for every product, and to hell with the meaning. It's like they all read those "how to sell on Amazon by importing" tutorials.
Even though deep down I know that they're probably just as good as anything you can buy on the high street, the sheer volume of random brands is really off-putting to me for some reason. A bigger problem is that you can miss stuff in the noise - e.g. if you didn't know that Anker have a good reputation, could you tell the difference from any of the other names in that list? Seller churn is also high, so it's not like you can rely on reviews either - that product might be gone in a month.
On a brighter note it really highlights how much you're being ripped off when you buy from a 'name brand' company that's just rebadging stuff from China.
> the sheer volume of random brands is really off-putting to me for some reason
Your example of 'usb cable' is a very good one for highlighting this problem. You are seeing so many brands because of an army of "Amazon Associates Sellers" / FBA - Fullfilled by Amazon Sellers ( I like to refer to them as scam artists) who identify various electronic gadgets, household items, and other things that are in demand, that are light (so cheap to ship) and that are available in bulk in Alibaba or Alibaba Express. They simply slap on their brand logo / name on packaging, pay a few select reviewers to do a 5-star review on amazon and make a whole bunch of sale.
So in essence, the chances are that these 10+ brands you are seeing for 'usb cable' are all sourcing the same exact 'Made in China' product from the same factory in China through Alibaba. Do a search for 'Strawberry corer' and you'll see what I mean :)
This is a very real problem that amazon has been very slow to resolve.
Where is the problem? Should selling imported generic goods on Amazon only be allowed for major brands? That would make the cost go up as there would be less competition.
1. The search engine is pretty bad. Anecdotal example was when I search for a eye mask: there were two different categories — eyes masks and eyes masks / face pillows. Both gave me the same products, but in different order. Why is that?
2. Sometimes there is no guarantee of quality. When I look for an iPad case or screen protector, it seems that the item either has low ratings or the reviews don’t seem genuine.
Scratch that — third problem is that item description is not uniform or standardized. That makes it hard to compare products; only option is to compare reviews which leads back to problem 2.
And then I get off Amazon and use Reddit to find reviews.
Careful with that - there's another saying: buy cheap, buy twice.
Amazon reviews are a pretty bad indicator of quality. You often need to make educated gueses about whether the reviewer knows what they're talking about, whether their standards are the same as yours, whether they're a shill (which is very common on off-brand items), whether the review actually reflects the product and isn't referring to the shipping or customer servie experience, etc.
You could always go for big brands... Sony or Sennheiser or Apple.. you get QA from buying from big brands because their name is on the line. Small unknown sellers.. not so much.
It's become so bad that I personally don't use the amazon search to discover products at all anymore. It is simply too bad at discarding all this chaff. Any reasonably generic search will only include the cheapest no-name brands. I can no longer trust the search and product listings, which was for me at least the only reason to use Amazon at all. If I already have to leave the site to search, why not just buy somewhere else?
I found it especially shocking to search for "hoodie" lately... Pages and pages of ripped-off designs superimposed on generic hoodies. If they can't even be be bothered to make an actual picture of their product, how can I trust them to deliver a reasonable product?
My first soldering station was a cheapo whitelabel that died spectacularly after a few months: glowing metal, wicked 60Hz buzz, smoke. Too late for a refund, but the seller offered to swap it out if I paid shipping. I declined, as I intended to move to a name brand. The seller then spent 4 messages trying to argue with me that they were in fact a "name brand". I didn't understand why they cared or bothered.
Now I get it: they were told that establishing a brand name was important, and they must have convinced themselves that it was somehow possible to establish a brand name by white-labeling the same product as a dozen other stores on Amazon.
Branding is a requirement to protect your product on Amazon, and any seller who isn't registered is highly vulnerable.
Regardless if that is a good or bad thing, I'm not sure, but most brands are manufactures, though I'm sure many are white label sellers. White labelling is a dangerous strategy on Amazon, and I'm not sure who is successful at it long term.
White labelling is hugely common on amazon and in the low end consumer technology business as a whole. The chance that any of those brands are a manufacturer is incredibly low, they will have close ties to a factory but their operation is must likely a marketing company with a logistics department.
Now some departments are getting more like Etsy - a Shenzhen marketplace. This is good, because there's a lot of random stuff you can get that you don't need to import. It's also bad because it's virtually impossible to know what you should buy if you don't know the brand reputation (and that matters to you).
Take 'usb cable' for example, have a look: https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias...
Brands include Rephoenix, Luoriz, Ugreen, Syncwire, RAVPower, Rankie, Benestellar, Onson, Jecent, Emmabin, Brightsnow, Maxteck, choetech, Volutz, Kinps, the list goes on. I got to page 3 before I gave up.
What about headphones? Mpow, OneOdio, BienSound, Alihen, Sephia, ZIYE, Sadon, OMORC, etc.
I'm genuinely curious as to when sellers decided that they must have a brand name for every product, and to hell with the meaning. It's like they all read those "how to sell on Amazon by importing" tutorials.
Even though deep down I know that they're probably just as good as anything you can buy on the high street, the sheer volume of random brands is really off-putting to me for some reason. A bigger problem is that you can miss stuff in the noise - e.g. if you didn't know that Anker have a good reputation, could you tell the difference from any of the other names in that list? Seller churn is also high, so it's not like you can rely on reviews either - that product might be gone in a month.
On a brighter note it really highlights how much you're being ripped off when you buy from a 'name brand' company that's just rebadging stuff from China.