Amazon.com no longer to display customer's product photos

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Discussion Overview

The discussion centers around Amazon.com's decision to discontinue the display of customer-contributed product photos on its website, with a scheduled completion date for the deletion of these images by August 31, 2013. Participants explore the implications of this change, potential reasons behind it, and its impact on the online shopping experience.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants note that Amazon has removed the option for customers to upload images, while allowing sellers to submit more photos.
  • A message from Amazon tech support suggests that the decision was made due to a lack of broad acceptance of customer-uploaded images, aiming to enhance the overall Amazon experience.
  • Others express skepticism about the stated reason, proposing that legal liability concerns might be a more significant factor in the decision to eliminate customer-uploaded images.
  • One participant argues that the absence of customer photos will complicate purchasing decisions for high-end products, as they have relied on these images to inform their choices.
  • Another participant downplays the significance of the change, suggesting that there are more pressing issues with Amazon's practices that warrant criticism.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express differing opinions on the importance of customer-uploaded images and the reasons for their removal. There is no consensus on whether the stated reason from Amazon is valid or if other factors, such as legal concerns, are more relevant.

Contextual Notes

Participants highlight the potential impact on consumer behavior, particularly regarding high-end products, but do not reach a definitive conclusion about the motivations behind Amazon's decision.

Stephen Tashi
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Amazon.com (USA) is quietly deleting all customer contributed product photos from its website. The deletion is scheduled to be complete by Aug. 31. If you browse the site you'll notice the option to upload customer images is gone from most of the pages. (Meanwhile, Amazon has announced that sellers of products are permitted to submit even more photos.)
 
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Why?
 
A message from Amazon tech support being quoted on discussion boards on the Amazon website is:

Further to your inquiry, on July 15, 2013, we discontinued the customer-uploaded image feature. Customer images will no longer show on Amazon product pages. This isn't a decision we came to lightly. While customer-uploaded images has a small, dedicated group of active users, it hasn't been broadly embraced by our customers. Shutting down this feature will allow us to focus on building a better overall Amazon experience for you.

If you have uploaded images to a product page in the past, they will continue to be available until August 31, 2013 for you to view from your customer gallery:

Is that the real reason? I don't know.
 
dipole said:
Why?

I don't know why but I'll bet dollars to donuts that is has NOTHING to do with "... building a better overall Amazon experience for you."

Probably some sort of legal liability thing. User uploads might show products being used improperly, something like that.
 
Well, I don't think it's that big of a deal to be honest. If you want to be mad at Amazon, you can easily find much more questionable choices they've made than this.
 
Stephen Tashi said:
A message from Amazon tech support being quoted on discussion boards on the Amazon website is:
Is that the real reason? I don't know.
The customer uploaded images have been great, IMO, they are widespread and have helped me to understand the products, something the manufacturer failed to do. I'm sure it's some legal liability thing that Amazon doesn't want to deal with, I can't blame them, but it will make online purchasing decisions on high end products much more difficult. I have been convinced to buy expensive products based on the additional customer photos. If there aren't sufficient product photos, I'll buy at a retail outlet. Not taking chances that a product isn't what I expected. Books, meh, don't need pictures unless it's a book where the pictures in the book are of importance.
 
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