Ask HN: Why do we still buy things by browsing catalogs?

Description

Every time we want to buy something online, we go through the same ritual. Open a marketplace. Search. Scroll endless catalogs. Skip ads. Ignore “recommended” products. Compare listings that look almost identical. Eventually fatigue wins and we click something — not because we’re sure it’s the best option, but because we want to stop spending time on it. It’s strange that we’ve normalized this. Buying online often means navigating noise: catalogs, ads, rankings, and persuasion systems comp