Last Updated: February 15th, 2020
Since Amazon hit the market in 1994, initially just selling books, they have since expanded and evolved over more than 2 decades now to become one of the biggest companies around. The statistics on this company are really interesting, especially considering how few other online retailers really have maximized the potential for driving sales as Amazon has.
Generally speaking, Amazon’s biggest competition in any market are brick-and-mortar stores. While Wal-Mart, Target, and all the other chains out there that we know as being physical stores we go to every week have expanded into having online sales operations, they didn’t start out this way. Amazon was in this unique situation from the start – being focused on online sales from the get go.
In the world of photography, Amazon has left a significant imprint on us. We have, unfortunately, gotten into photography at a type when mom-and-pop camera stores are going out of business because of an inability to compete with Amazon and other online retail corporations. While this is, admittedly, unfortunate as sometimes the best buying experience comes from those real life interactions we could have – the reality of our purchasing decisions these days are far more calculated and prepared in advanced.
What we are getting at is this: we almost never go into a store with questions about what we should buy, but instead go to a store with the intention of making a purchase.
It’s certainly possible that your buying decisions are based on input from a store owner or employee, and maybe for you as a result Amazon won’t actually be the best store for you to purchase photography gear.
However, for the vast majority of people these days who self-educate and buy things online, Amazon is the retailer of choice and what we would consider the best camera store.
How does Amazon Compare with Photography Specific Online Stores?
Amazon competes in the photography market online quite heavily with giants like Adorama and B&H Photo. We have actually purchased equipment through all of these, and have a lot of supporting experiences that ultimately translate into our believe the Amazon is “the best” in this area.
We say this not to undersell other retailers out there necessarily.
For sure, Adorama is great – we have purchased a lot of things through there ourselves. When purchasing our Profoto B1X, it did come in defective – and their return process was a pain – which is something that seriously ways into the negatives for them.
As for B&H, we were pretty heavily turned off of them in general just due to poor business practices. If you are unaware, they were sued and ultimately fined $3.22 million to resolve a discrimination lawsuit. That’s not to say other companies don’t have their share of problems, but something about this just left us not feeling overly positive towards them. Add in a bunch of poor reviews through Consumer Affairs, and it’s easy to see why we’ve stopped placing orders there.
Before we go on, you should understand a few things about how we approach purchasing decisions:
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We want affordable prices and consistent quality
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When things go wrong (like an item comes in broken), we want it resolved as quickly as possible and like compensation for our wasted time
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We want an easy shopping experience
As you can see, we’re not hugely demanding customers, but do have some expectations in place. We are definitely understanding that sometimes things go wrong even if it wasn’t intended. The question is: how will these problems be resolved?
Unlike your average consumer, as a small business the things we purchase through Amazon makes a larger impact on their bottom line in more significant ways. We’ve dropped 10’s of thousands of dollars on gear over the past few years, and it certainly adds up. Due to this, our frustrations with bad services tend to get us riled up more because, when we place an order, we need our products in the expected time frame and in working condition – otherwise it can negatively impact our business.
Having a free Amazon Business Account, we’ve actually had no significant issues and take advantage of special business pricing on some items. In the few times things haven’t gone as well as we’d have liked, Amazon’s Customer Service fixed our problems and even gave us promo credit. In the least, it’s shown us that Amazon cares about their customer and puts their money where their mouth is.
Amazon vs. Brick-and-Mortar Stores
There are 2 types of consumers these days:
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People who really like going into a store, seeing a product, talking with a sales rep, and making a purchase – and
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People who like doing their research and buying a product online without even having to leave their bed.
We can understand both mindsets.
Which we prefer tends to be dependent on what we are actually buying.
For furniture and home decor – we actually like being in showrooms like those set up at Ikea to really get a sense of the items we’re buying. This probably makes a lot of sense, because these are things that are really aesthetic in nature and occupy a lot of physical space in our homes (and visual space in our brains when we walk into our home).
For photography gear, most of it is fairly small and, honestly, unexciting to look at. Don’t get us wrong, we certainly gawked at the pretty prism of our Canon 85mm f/1.2 lens when we first got it – but pretty quickly we stopped caring about how it looked, but how it performed. As photographers with a business, this mindset makes sense because the performance of the lens ultimately dictates its value. We wouldn’t be dropping thousands of dollars on it just to have something pretty, we can tell you this.
As a result, our purchases of photography gear are fine to keep online. The look doesn’t matter too much, but the reviews and what it can offer does. Purchasing equipment through Amazon has become a super simple task, and it’s pretty much our go-to for any things we need.
Now – 7 reasons Why Amazon is the Best Camera Store
1). Simple and convenient. The first reason why we like Amazon so much is because making purchases through them is easy to do. We don’t have to drive to a store to make a purchase on a product that may or may not actually be in stock when we get there.
2). Large inventory. The photography gear available through Amazon is not really limited. You can find pretty much any brand name and even older camera models used and refurbished.
3). Reviews. Even when we go to a store to make a large purchase, one of the first things we do is open up our phones and look at the reviews on Amazon (and elsewhere) to see how people actually like the product they bought. As we all know, looks can sometimes be deceiving, and so can sales people needing to meet certain quotas – so having customer reviews helps validate whether a product is actually good or not.
4). Used/Refurbished Cameras. Buying direct from Amazon is not your only option. Anyone can start a shop through Amazon and sell their own already used camera equipment. While, of course, this can be used to pawn off poor equipment – sellers themselves have ratings, and most often when we buy used gear, we buy through reputable sellers who are smaller mom-and-pop shops selling their own products through the site. It’s a weird way the whole brick-and-mortar vs. online shopping scenario starts to come full circle.
5). Customer Q&A’s. On each product page, there is a questions and answers section where anyone can submit a question, and anyone can respond. Often, the responses will be from the product manufacturer or seller, and other times other users of the product will give input. It’s a micro-community that is actually really beneficial when you need answers to common questions. For the Canon 5D Mark IV, we highlighted the Q&A’s from Amazon in a post here on FFL, too!
6). Customer submitted images and video. Going along with the reviews, for cameras, people who purchased can also upload and showcase pictures they took. We look at these quite heavily when deciding on any camera to purchase ourselves. It’s a helpful starting point to see what kind of quality images you can expect.
7). Two day shipping. Thanks to Amazon Prime, gone are the days of waiting around for a week or longer to get a package in the mail. While, obviously, one of the appeals of going to a regular store these days is to be able to get things immediately – Prime 2-day shipping is a quick enough turnaround time for our buying needs, especially given the convenience of not having to run to a store. You can try Amazon Prime for yourself with a free month trial.
The Best Camera Store for Us
The ability to buy our camera equipment through Amazon has streamlined our business purchases pretty significantly. We have bought the vast majority of things for our business including camera bodies, lenses, flash equipment, and so on through them over the years. Any photography business owner definitely has a lot to gain from making purchases through a free Amazon Business account, and even hobbyist photographers can pick up on the great deals and customer reviews available.