Why not? Most Amazon search results for non-branded goods (towels, furniture, appliances) are going to feature identical products from Chinese companies with unmemorable, nonsensical names. They cannot differentiate on anything besides price, and search position, so Amazon may as well give the largest bidders top billing.
They might not be able to differentiate between the products, but they should know you, and they should know what you're most likely to buy. If they show ads but you don't click on them because they weren't relevant to you, they've failed. At least they ought to know whether you'll buy Chinese brands like HNWERZ or will prefer a household name you'll recognize.
Essentially, they should be better than a great sales person in a regular store. You tell them what you're looking for "towels", and they'll show you some and quickly reiterate based on your feedback. Amazon has lots of advantages over a human sales person: they don't see you for the first time today. They have a perfect memory of all your orders of the past 20 years. They'll often even know what family members have bought recently. I don't believe they couldn't make you spend more money if they showed you an ad for the brand name your wife loves.
> products from Chinese companies with unmemorable, nonsensical names
> They cannot differentiate on anything besides price, and search position
I could think of many more things they could differentiate on. Or even let me filter explicitly. I can think of one thing in particular that would greatly improve the product targeting for me.
Why not? Most Amazon search results for non-branded goods (towels, furniture, appliances) are going to feature identical products from Chinese companies with unmemorable, nonsensical names. They cannot differentiate on anything besides price, and search position, so Amazon may as well give the largest bidders top billing.