WiiM does not appear high in Amazon US searches

[Wiimer]

In my experience nothing helps against Amazon's search algorithm. It's known to be the most refined in the world ...

... just not the way you want it.

Everything can make a difference (this time the audiophile saying is true): Amazon can and will alter the results based on the device you are using (mobile or desktop, iOS or Android, Windows, MacOS or Linux, ...), app or browser (which one?), your geographic location, the Amazon site (or Country selection) you're using, your individual product search and browsing history, the time of the day (literally!), your screen resolution (as part of a fingerprint to identify you if you're not logged in and try to avoid cookies and other means of local storage) and plain everything they know about you.

On top of that come sponsored products, which may or may not be clearly identified based on legislation, and search and sort options you might have really applied yourself.

The German Amazon page displays a link to a help page explaining some (few) of these known mechanisms.

View attachment 24876

Finding Products in the Amazon store - Amazon Customer Service

You can find, discover, and shop for products in the Amazon store in multiple ways. You can enter a specific query into the search box. You can browse selection by product department. You can discover products grouped by common attributes or through ads. You can also shop by voice with Alexa.

www.amazon.de

(To show a localised/translated version of this page you must set the Amazon language on amazon.de according to your preferences, see below.)

The WiiM store banner (marked as sponsored). didn't show until I changed the Amazon language setting to English.

This screenshot was taken from Firefox for Android, not logged in, system language set to German, Amazon language set to English (which mostly means automated translation).

I suppose you're pretty bored by now. So here comes a little fun game to get you over the day: In a web browser of your choice, try to scroll to the bottom of the Amazon page of your country, so you can even find and use the language selector while not logged in.

That should keep you busy for a while.

I appreciate for the very very long explanation . That is a convincing rationale.

The strange thing is that this happened just recently. And that every other audio brand search is normal. (I have tried quite a lot of keywords...)

 

[Wiimer]

In my country we don't have Amazon locally but can bye from other countries. When searching for WiiM products on the web outside Amazon I get multiple results from multiple local retailers, most of them to a lower price than I see on e.g. Amazon.de.

Do you all just bye from Amazon or can you also get WiiM products from retailers directly to a better price?

I got my WiiMs with 3 years of warranty 15% below Amazon prices.

Depends on time and place.

The fixed price is the same in all shops, but sometimes it is cheaper in sales, both on Amazon and in retail shops. In retail shops, I pay 5% of the price and get a 5 year warranty. (Some shops are free.)

In the case of online shops, I can sometimes get almost 20% points, resulting in a better price than Amazon.

However, only Amazon offers a 30-day return policy and the return procedure is easy. (Although I have never returned a WiiM..)

 

[harkpabst]

In my country we don't have Amazon locally but can bye from other countries. When searching for WiiM products on the web outside Amazon I get multiple results from multiple local retailers, most of them to a lower price than I see on e.g. Amazon.de.

Do you all just bye from Amazon or can you also get WiiM products from retailers directly to a better price?

I got my WiiMs with 3 years of warranty 15% below Amazon prices.

There even is an official German distributor for WiiM products and a couple of dealers.

I hope my write-up did not sound like advertising Amazon.

 

[rubato]

Do you all just bye from Amazon or can you also get WiiM products from retailers directly to a better price?

I got my WiiMs with 3 years of warranty 15% below Amazon prices.

Other than the A10 WiiM edition, which is only available from Amazon, I bought mine from Crutchfield. Same price, but I like Crutchfield better.

 

[Machiavelli]

amazon does not offer me a cup of coffee and cookies, no nice chat with other lunatics and not the joy of taking something home I have seen and touched before buying . for a frequent customer it is no problem with bringing a piece back if sth does not suit at home or is broken. as well if that happens it gives me another reason to visit them, have another coffee, cookies, chat and eventually buy sth new. joking. a bit.

 

[Wiimer]

This problem has been resolved.

I entered California postcode in the Amazon shipping address and the WiiM product was successfully displayed

Thanks to everyone.

 

[Burnside]

Yeah, I always use 10101 as a zip code (don’t know why other than it’s easy to remember) on the Amazon US site so I see what’s available there as it can otherwise mask out items that won’t ship to the UK.

 

[Wiimer]

Yeah, I always use 10101 as a zip code (don’t know why other than it’s easy to remember) on the Amazon US site so I see what’s available there as it can otherwise mask out items that won’t ship to the UK.

I used one from the WiiM office

 

[Burnside]

I used one from the WiiM office

Well, I’d expect you to be exact whereas mine’s a bit random

 

[Wiimer]

Well, I’d expect you to be exact whereas mine’s a bit random

I've already forgotten WiiM number, so next time I'll use 10101 too

 

[taube Taube]

In fact, searching for "wiim" on Amazon isn't particularly important, meaning potential buyers are already familiar with the brand and will find it eventually. Searching for "streamer" is far more important; ranking high on Amazon is incredibly difficult and expensive. I tried searching, and WiiM was easy to find.

 

[BowsAndArrows]

In fact, searching for "wiim" on Amazon isn't particularly important, meaning potential buyers are already familiar with the brand and will find it eventually. Searching for "streamer" is far more important; ranking high on Amazon is incredibly difficult and expensive. I tried searching, and WiiM was easy to find.

The real mystery is why the hell @Wiimer is searching for this stuff on amazon in the first place?? kinda sus if you ask me

Don't you already have everything the company has made? + I heard rumours that you named your first-born after the amp ultra?


but in case anyone was wondering - sponsored results and prime are basically the only 2 ways that amazon makes money on its retail business (which obv excludes AWS etc). they basically sell stuff for break-even or thereabouts... and that's why their search is horrendous

 

[taube Taube]

sponsored results and prime are basically the only 2 ways that amazon makes money

How so? And what about provisions from each sale? Electronics is 7%, I think. Plus, Amazon shipping services. They make money that way.

 

[slartibartfast]

How so? And what about provisions from each sale? Electronics is 7%, I think. Plus, Amazon shipping services. They make money that way.

Amazon sell WiiM stuff at the same price as other sellers so if they aren't making money on each sale then neither is anyone else

 

[Machiavelli]

me: how do you earn your life?
he: i buy eggs for 10 cent per piece, sell them for 8 cent per piece.
me: that is lunatic!
he: no, the masses bring it.

 

[rubato]

I think it was The Register who described Amazon as a cloud giant with a gift shop attached.

 

[EddNog]

Yeah, I always use 10101 as a zip code (don’t know why other than it’s easy to remember) on the Amazon US site so I see what’s available there as it can otherwise mask out items that won’t ship to the UK.

Ah, New York City, my home town.

 

[BowsAndArrows]

How so? And what about provisions from each sale? Electronics is 7%, I think. Plus, Amazon shipping services. They make money that way.

that's kinda what i meant. apart from the prime subscription fees - WE are actually now the main product being sold on their platform (like many web services - it's part of "enshittification" of everything). their main customers now are the sellers on amazon, who pay for preferred listings and, as you mentioned - fulfillment and logistics services.

Amazon sell WiiM stuff at the same price as other sellers so if they aren't making money on each sale then neither is anyone else

well, obviously there is a gross profit on every item that they sell - but this obviously doesn't take into account all the associated overheads which in many cases are MUCH higher for amazon compared to walmart or a small shop... my point is that they run the retail side of things kind of like the way costco does. they only really aim to make a NET profit on the subscriptions sold. and they try to more or less break-even on the actual NET profit on goods sold.

the new thing that's really taken off is the sponsored listings etc that they charge the SELLERS. which is WAY more profitable than selling actual stuff to us consumers...

I think it was The Register who described Amazon as a cloud giant with a gift shop attached.

oh god yeah, for at least 15 years the AWS part of the business is BY FAR bigger - especially the net income from this division as a share of total. we were just talking about the retail side in this discussion... the gift shop part, if you will

 

[slartibartfast]

that's kinda what i meant. apart from the prime subscription fees - WE are actually now the main product being sold on their platform (like many web services - it's part of "enshittification" of everything). their main customers now are the sellers on amazon, who pay for preferred listings and, as you mentioned - fulfillment and logistics services.


well, obviously there is a gross profit on every item that they sell - but this obviously doesn't take into account all the associated overheads which in many cases are MUCH higher for amazon compared to walmart or a small shop... my point is that they run the retail side of things kind of like the way costco does. they only really aim to make a NET profit on the subscriptions sold. and they try to more or less break-even on the actual NET profit on goods sold.

the new thing that's really taken off is the sponsored listings etc that they charge the SELLERS. which is WAY more profitable than selling actual stuff to us consumers...

oh god yeah, for at least 15 years the AWS part of the business is BY FAR bigger - especially the net income from this division as a share of total. we were just talking about the retail side in this discussion... the gift shop part, if you will

I often see the sponsored listings and the normal non sponsored listings for the same item very close together on the search results page which makes you wonder why sellers pay for listings. I always ignore sponsored listings on Amazon and in Google search results but I suppose enough people must pay attention to them to make them worthwhile