Amazon vs. Target
I have recently shopped both at Target and Amazon, and had a different experience with both.
It was a bit tricky to find what I needed at Target (black socks, if you must know). I couldn’t see all of signs overhead and it wasn’t obvious to me whether to look where the shoes were or where the boxers were. It reminded me of old school web portals that used to keep a categorized directory of the web by topics. Google’s is [still online][gd].
Web portals were dominated by search engines once they started working because search engines were far faster — only one page had to load rather than three. Moreover, users don’t have to go through the entire conceptual hierarchy that leads to the concept they want.
The search-engine for Target would be something like the search kiosks in Borders, or better yet a Target iPhone app (or mobile webpage!) that would tell me where things were located.
Amazon on the other hand has a great search experience — if I don’t find what I want right away from a search on Google, I’m usually only a few clicks away thanks to the “Users who viewed this purchased..” feature among other things. The problems with Amazon are immediacy, it takes to long to get things I need, expense, it’s more expensive to ship things than to pick them up, and exploration, I’m much more hesitant to buy a new product if I haven’t held it in my hand or seen it in person.
I think at least in the short run, Target’s problems are easier to overcome. Amazon now has it’s own brands, so maybe they’re becoming more of a traditional retailer. I wouldn’t be surprised to see some sort of clever brick-and-mortar manifestation of Amazon in the next 10 years.
