Amazon vs. Direct: A Comparison

I have ordered from the small business Minoya through Amazon before. 

They are in the same region and I know they have good products. So I ordered directly instead of using Amazon. Let's see how it went.

What really surprised me was the price. I'm not gonna save the best for last, it's first in line.

Price Comparison

Product A (one kilo of raw almonds)

Minoya: 1680 yen; Amazon:1955 yen

Product B (one kilo of raw walnuts)

Minoya: 1576 yen; Amazon: 2028 yen

Product C (a kilo of pistachios with damage)

Minoya: 1150 yen; Amazon: 1280 yen (plus 750 delivery - not available from Amazon warehouse)

Not only was it cheaper to buy each of the three products directly, it was substantially cheaper!

Service and Experience

Minoya's website is in Japanese only but searching and ordering was straightforward, plus you could always apply a browser translation plugin as needed.

There are a lot of options for payment (local credit card, convenience store, Amazon pay, and bank transfer to UFJ or with the local post office bank ATM).

Communication and order confirmation was by email.

I find the “Suggested” and “Amazon Choice” products are annoying when I specifically search for a different product on Amazon. There is a lot to sort through / compare and it makes it more difficult to make decisions without losing patience.

Delivery and Packaging

When ordering through Amazon, Minoya shows a longer expected delivery date than Amazon warehouse products. As they are local, the actual delivery time is much faster. I found this to be the same when ordering directly. The order came a couple days after my bank transfer was processed.

Minoya ships orders over 10000 yen for free and for 750 yen to my region otherwise.

By comparison, Amazon shipping is free for orders over 3500 yen when the product is in their warehouse, otherwise it varies by product and supplier.

This company requires signiture on delivery, so you won't get leave at the door service. I actually prefer this but understand concerns about theft. (Although I always request to leave deliveries at the door, Amazon's sometimes require it randomly anyway.)

Everything was delivered packaged in a tidy and properly sized box.

There were two free product samples included too!

The results are that I will definitely be using Minoya over Amazon in the future.

I don't know if I'll be using Amazon for other products, but there has been no need to as I'm not living in a remote area and there are plenty of other online stores in business.

The only positives I see for using Amazon are being able to use a foreign credit card and I suppose to order from different companies at the same time.