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I'm very interested to see how Amazon's entry into the Swedish market plays out. I used to shop a lot on Amazon back when I lived in the SF Bay Area and thought

I'm very interested to see how Amazon's entry into the Swedish market plays out. I used to shop a lot on Amazon back when I lived in the SF Bay Area and thought I would miss it when I moved to Stockholm but honestly that has not been the case. I get 1-2 day shipping from other online retailers in Sweden anyway (like CDON and Webhallen) and there is quite fierce competition between a few of the bigger names in the game which keeps prices low. The only thing I miss about Amazon was their very generous return policy and same-day shipping on some items, but I think the latter is limited to larger markets.

redgc 6y ago
I always attempt to shop from Amazon Germany because (a) larger variety of items, and (b) I feel I can trust the reviews there. Have you found Swedish e-commerce sites to have enough reliable reviews to buy anything with confidence, or do you tend to buy products that you can find reviews of elsewhere? I joke to my wife, "If 500 Germans say it's good, I'm sold"
- luckylion 6y ago
  As a German, don't trust the reviews, they're heavily manipulated. I guess at some point (e.g. top seller with thousands of reviews) manipulation doesn't move the needle as much, but for plenty of products with < 100 reviews, there's often dozens that are likely fakes (even without counting the paid Vine reviews).
- toyg 6y ago
  > I feel I can trust the reviews [on Amazon Germany] I... wouldn't do that.
  - me_me_me 6y ago
    Read 3/4 star reviews, they are usually good indicator of quality. There are few type of those, and you are looking for someone who knows what they are talking about and talk about shortcomings of a given product. They are usually pro's that have some experience with given category of a product. So they know what they want. If you find one like that its ease to judge what features you need vs features pros need. Usually, 1 stars are by entitled complainers (unless product is cheap knockoff) and 5 stars are by people that don't know what they are talking about or brought reviews.
- kalleboo 6y ago
  When I lived in Sweden I was a religious user of prisjakt.nu and thought the reviews there were decent
  - navidfarhadi 6y ago
    I use prisjakt regularly as well but mainly for the price comparison feature between retailers. The reviews on the website are decent as well though but there are typically a couple orders of magnitude fewer reviews on products than on Amazon DE/UK/US.
    - Yetanfou 6y ago
      The question here is whether the reviews on prisjakt.nu are fewer because they're true reviews while those on Amazon often are fake. The prevalence of fake reviews - both positive as well as negative - has made it more or less impossible to rely on them as a guide.
  - Yetanfou 6y ago
    Yup, that's what I'm using as well, usually in combination with a check on ebay.de and ebay.co.uk for products which fit the bill - i.e. not for heavy, bulky goods like fridges and washing machines but certainly for smaller electronics and tools. For larger computer hardware - servers etc - I tend to look towards Germany and the UK since prices tend to be quite a bit lower than here in Sweden. I have only bought something at Amazon once, using the French version, my reasons being that they tended not to want to ship to Sweden and even if they do the price tended to be matched by other sellers. I do not want to get an Amazon monoculture so I'll continue to do so unless the price difference ends up so big that the offer is "too good to refuse". Swedish prices tend to be on the high side but they have come down, most likely due to competition from abroad. The Swedish postal service does its best to counteract this by putting a fine on parcels from outside the EU - they call it a handling charge but that is just word play, the intention is both for them to pad their budget and for you to stop buying from overseas - so I've been exploring ways to get around this by having goods delivered to the Netherlands (where I'm originally from) to import them myself when I happen to be there.
- navidfarhadi 6y ago
  I actually use Amazon DE/UK/US for to look at reviews but I more often than not end up purchasing from a Swedish e-tailer. There are some exceptions though, like when the price is just much lower on Amazon DE. I had to buy a label maker last week and the price on Amazon DE for a specific model was almost 40% cheaper than buying it from a local store in Sweden.
  - henrik_w 6y ago
    Same here (mostly buying books). I look at the reviews on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Goodreads.com (great because it has reviews of Swedish books as well), then order from Adlibris (mostly) and Bokus (occasionally). Often the prices have been about the same. Even if they weren't, I don't mind paying a bit more if it means the warehouse workers are treated fairly.
  - apexalpha 6y ago
    The local Amazon in NL is Bol.com (along with the actual amazon). But whenever I see: "sold by X" through their platform you can usually find a cheaper offer on their own website.
- arrrg 6y ago
  I don’t trust the reviews and the selection is such a grab bag of garbage. Besides some obviously branded stuff (I don’t know, any Apple product for example) it feels like playing Russian roulette, especially if you just want something random like, I don’t know, kitchen utensils.
- ornornor 6y ago
  Aren’t amazon reviews one of the most gamed review system ever? Also, stock co-mingling. That alone makes me buy as little from amazon and as much from elsewhere as I can.
  - Semaphor 6y ago
    There are far fewer fake reviews at amazon.de (well, compared to what I read on HN) and surprisingly many that are high quality. I think it might be partially because the reviews would need to be in German so you have fewer low-cost ways to have them created. And I’m not sure we have co-mingling here because I never heard of the problems that seem to be common in the US (/ on HN) with it and also never experienced it myself (I spend around 2.200 € on Amazon per year)
    - AnssiH 6y ago
      > I’m not sure we have co-mingling here We do, the seller setting for that ("Barcode preference") is there in the Seller Central Europe and the help text explicitly talks about commingling.
      - Semaphor 6y ago
        Thanks. Do you know why the counterfeit problem does not seem as much of a problem here?
        AnssiH 6y ago
        No idea. I haven't experienced that either and I use amazon.de a lot. I've had one item sold by Amazon as new that was clearly a fraud return, though, i.e. the item inside the product package was switched for a different model.
        shajznnckfke 6y ago
        I think HN commenters also overstate the problem. I’m in the US, use Amazon a lot, and haven’t noticed counterfeits. Maybe I’m just bad at identifying them. I think it’s the type of issue where it would be a major problem for the producer of a specific product that got ripped off, and any customers who are fans of that product, but may never affect the average buyer.
- mattmanser 6y ago
  How do you feel you can trust Amazon reviews? In the UK they've become really bad, obvious fakes, loads of low quality products dropshipped from Alibaba/China with tons of 5 stars. The only reviews you can vaguely trust are the non-5 star ones.
- alkonaut 6y ago
  I never read a review on a site that sells anything. I just google "productname review" and find something in depth and trustworthy.

redgc 6y ago

I always attempt to shop from Amazon Germany because (a) larger variety of items, and (b) I feel I can trust the reviews there. Have you found Swedish e-commerce sites to have enough reliable reviews to buy anything with confidence, or do you tend to buy products that you can find reviews of elsewhere? I joke to my wife, "If 500 Germans say it's good, I'm sold"

luckylion 6y ago
As a German, don't trust the reviews, they're heavily manipulated. I guess at some point (e.g. top seller with thousands of reviews) manipulation doesn't move the needle as much, but for plenty of products with < 100 reviews, there's often dozens that are likely fakes (even without counting the paid Vine reviews).
toyg 6y ago
> I feel I can trust the reviews [on Amazon Germany] I... wouldn't do that.
- me_me_me 6y ago
  Read 3/4 star reviews, they are usually good indicator of quality. There are few type of those, and you are looking for someone who knows what they are talking about and talk about shortcomings of a given product. They are usually pro's that have some experience with given category of a product. So they know what they want. If you find one like that its ease to judge what features you need vs features pros need. Usually, 1 stars are by entitled complainers (unless product is cheap knockoff) and 5 stars are by people that don't know what they are talking about or brought reviews.
kalleboo 6y ago
When I lived in Sweden I was a religious user of prisjakt.nu and thought the reviews there were decent
- navidfarhadi 6y ago
  I use prisjakt regularly as well but mainly for the price comparison feature between retailers. The reviews on the website are decent as well though but there are typically a couple orders of magnitude fewer reviews on products than on Amazon DE/UK/US.
  - Yetanfou 6y ago
    The question here is whether the reviews on prisjakt.nu are fewer because they're true reviews while those on Amazon often are fake. The prevalence of fake reviews - both positive as well as negative - has made it more or less impossible to rely on them as a guide.
- Yetanfou 6y ago
  Yup, that's what I'm using as well, usually in combination with a check on ebay.de and ebay.co.uk for products which fit the bill - i.e. not for heavy, bulky goods like fridges and washing machines but certainly for smaller electronics and tools. For larger computer hardware - servers etc - I tend to look towards Germany and the UK since prices tend to be quite a bit lower than here in Sweden. I have only bought something at Amazon once, using the French version, my reasons being that they tended not to want to ship to Sweden and even if they do the price tended to be matched by other sellers. I do not want to get an Amazon monoculture so I'll continue to do so unless the price difference ends up so big that the offer is "too good to refuse". Swedish prices tend to be on the high side but they have come down, most likely due to competition from abroad. The Swedish postal service does its best to counteract this by putting a fine on parcels from outside the EU - they call it a handling charge but that is just word play, the intention is both for them to pad their budget and for you to stop buying from overseas - so I've been exploring ways to get around this by having goods delivered to the Netherlands (where I'm originally from) to import them myself when I happen to be there.
navidfarhadi 6y ago
I actually use Amazon DE/UK/US for to look at reviews but I more often than not end up purchasing from a Swedish e-tailer. There are some exceptions though, like when the price is just much lower on Amazon DE. I had to buy a label maker last week and the price on Amazon DE for a specific model was almost 40% cheaper than buying it from a local store in Sweden.
- henrik_w 6y ago
  Same here (mostly buying books). I look at the reviews on Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Goodreads.com (great because it has reviews of Swedish books as well), then order from Adlibris (mostly) and Bokus (occasionally). Often the prices have been about the same. Even if they weren't, I don't mind paying a bit more if it means the warehouse workers are treated fairly.
- apexalpha 6y ago
  The local Amazon in NL is Bol.com (along with the actual amazon). But whenever I see: "sold by X" through their platform you can usually find a cheaper offer on their own website.
arrrg 6y ago
I don’t trust the reviews and the selection is such a grab bag of garbage. Besides some obviously branded stuff (I don’t know, any Apple product for example) it feels like playing Russian roulette, especially if you just want something random like, I don’t know, kitchen utensils.
ornornor 6y ago
Aren’t amazon reviews one of the most gamed review system ever? Also, stock co-mingling. That alone makes me buy as little from amazon and as much from elsewhere as I can.
- Semaphor 6y ago
  There are far fewer fake reviews at amazon.de (well, compared to what I read on HN) and surprisingly many that are high quality. I think it might be partially because the reviews would need to be in German so you have fewer low-cost ways to have them created. And I’m not sure we have co-mingling here because I never heard of the problems that seem to be common in the US (/ on HN) with it and also never experienced it myself (I spend around 2.200 € on Amazon per year)
  - AnssiH 6y ago
    > I’m not sure we have co-mingling here We do, the seller setting for that ("Barcode preference") is there in the Seller Central Europe and the help text explicitly talks about commingling.
    - Semaphor 6y ago
      Thanks. Do you know why the counterfeit problem does not seem as much of a problem here?
      - AnssiH 6y ago
        No idea. I haven't experienced that either and I use amazon.de a lot. I've had one item sold by Amazon as new that was clearly a fraud return, though, i.e. the item inside the product package was switched for a different model.
      - shajznnckfke 6y ago
        I think HN commenters also overstate the problem. I’m in the US, use Amazon a lot, and haven’t noticed counterfeits. Maybe I’m just bad at identifying them. I think it’s the type of issue where it would be a major problem for the producer of a specific product that got ripped off, and any customers who are fans of that product, but may never affect the average buyer.
mattmanser 6y ago
How do you feel you can trust Amazon reviews? In the UK they've become really bad, obvious fakes, loads of low quality products dropshipped from Alibaba/China with tons of 5 stars. The only reviews you can vaguely trust are the non-5 star ones.
alkonaut 6y ago
I never read a review on a site that sells anything. I just google "productname review" and find something in depth and trustworthy.