Hi folks! I’m here with another idea. Let’s make an amazon alternative. I know! I know! That was asked for a couple times already but lets discuss some details.

Amazon is basically glorified dropshipping by now. What if we just made federated (not sure if over activitypub would work) ads and sales, powered by fediseer (the “trust” network of the fediverse).

Example 1: So you buy at toms groceries, you trust them. they have experience with tina’s hardware store and they trust them. so you can buy both toms and tinas wares on both sites.

Example 2: So for example, I run a small business that sells computers. You run a small business that sells mice and keyboards. I have worked with you before so I mark you as trusted in my local website, which federates with yours, showing your products in my shop. If a customer buys my computer and buys your keyboard on top, my site sends you a buy order with customer address and payment. I get a small fee for my electricity of say 1%.

Can someone try and poke holes in this idea? It feels like this could work!

Have a nice weekend.

  • irelephant 🍭@lemm.eeEnglish
    9·
    18 hours ago

    I don’t see why we can’t just buy directly from shops. Maybe an aggregator of links for products, so there is an rss-like feed of products, prices etc?

    • haui@lemmy.giftedmc.comOPEnglish
      1·
      13 hours ago

      Because this does not work in reality. You have many mechanics that are hidden to the casual user but play a significant role from a vendor standpoint.

      You have ui change which means you slow down the users purchase due to them finding buttons and informarion, leading to similar websites which is bad for variety and gives corporare unified marketplaces an edge

      Then you have trust. Leaving a website you have learned to trust means you have to check if the next website is trustworthy which isnt feasible.

      Unified order overview and checkout so you know what you bought and when its coming. Especially for a complex multi stage order.

      Unified payment of course as well as claims, returns, etc.

    • MajorHavoc@programming.devEnglish
      1·
      18 hours ago

      I think we will see this continue, but with federated product search, soon.

      Small business vendors cannot afford to continue to leave their search results to Google and Amazon to control.