Ask HN: What sucks about online shopping?

Living in non-USA (Canada) what sucks about online shopping is having stuff shipped across the border, paying duty and brokerage fees, having to wait while stuff is stuck in customs. I often shop at Canadian sites (even though it costs more) or at the few sites where they actually handle the border crossing. I would love a site that would aggregate these types of sites.

- I can't see the packaging of what I'm buying. Sometimes the packaging shows a lot more information on a product than the online description. - Not enough pictures. Especially when I'm buying electronics, I need a picture of the back of the TV/monitor/pc/electronic so I can see what kind of connections it has. I want a picture of the side, front, back, top, and bottom. Why? Because when I'm at the store I can see a display model, but online I only see 1 or 2 static pictures. Store owners put products on display for a reason. If I'm going to spend money on it, you better let me see exactly what I'm getting. - Instant gratification is missing in online shopping. You buy something and then you have to wait a week or two for it. Sometimes when you expect something to come in the mail in 7 days, after the 8th day you begin to worry. And this happens often. - The insane amount of packaging and waste after I receive something in the mail. Rather than throw it all away, I stuff it in a closet somewhere hoping to reuse it. only to through it out 3 years later. I wish there were a place where people could drop off and pick up boxes and packaging. - Junk Mail and Catalogs. U-Line is notorious for this. Order 1 thing from them and you'll be bombarded with thick heavy catalogs every month or so. - Having to create an account to complete checkout. No. I don't have to do that shit when I shop at Walmart and I refuse to do it online. - Having to fill out a ton of information every time I want to checkout. - The 3-5 email confirmations and receipts that await me after checkout. There's 1 for the account confirmation, then another for the checkout confirmation, another letting me know the product has now been shipped, and a forth for the feedback/rate my product/survey email. Jesus, leave me alone.

Use search facets for <i>every</i> attribute of <i>every</i> product. When I was shopping for a car a few years ago, I had to click 8billion ways in order to construct a shopping list based on the length of the car. This isn't the kind of thing that people can tell you when asking "how do you choose the best GPS?" It's a reason for you not to know what people want but to be able to give them the information more easily.<p>Put it this way, what do you mean when you say you want to be sure you've found a "quality item with great value?" If you can't explain it in terms of a few (and which) clicks to perform on Amazon, then you're asking the wrong questions.<p>What sucks about online shopping? The minimal amount of data entry that companies seem to think is required to have a good online shop.

You should have a look at <a href="http://www.hidentify.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.hidentify.com/</a> and how they are tackling this market, its pretty cool.