If you’re trying to buy anything on Amazon right now, you’ll likely be frustrated by shipping times. It’s super inconsistent. For example, I got a keyboard delivered to me next day, but if I wanted to have cloth delivered it would take a month. So I’ve started sourcing things that I want to buy directly from the manufacturers.
I really like the Shopify model, as they (currently) don’t compete with their customers unlike Amazon. I was rather surprised that I didn’t see more Shopify stores at some of the sites that I bought things from recently. My one recent example (a ski movement analysis sensor called Carv) was incredible - one click checkout using Apple Pay without having to enter anything to order. I’m hopeful that we can get a credible competitor to Amazon for independent manufacturers in the near future.
Personally, this is the issue with the largest effect on my willingness to try other e-commerce sites. When 1-2 day shipping becomes normal, it's hard to want to shop somewhere else like eBay when shipping times are usually in the 1-2+ week time frame. So when Amazon started telling me it would be 3-4 weeks before I got what I ordered (because apparently their definition of essential doesn't overlap completely with my own), I started looking other places.
I really like the Shopify model, as they (currently) don’t compete with their customers unlike Amazon. I was rather surprised that I didn’t see more Shopify stores at some of the sites that I bought things from recently. My one recent example (a ski movement analysis sensor called Carv) was incredible - one click checkout using Apple Pay without having to enter anything to order. I’m hopeful that we can get a credible competitor to Amazon for independent manufacturers in the near future.