Avoiding enshittification: Building Consumer-First AI for E‑commerce
Enshittification describes how platforms slowly become worse for users over time. Cory Doctorow coined the term to capture this three-stage decay. At first platforms attract users with quality and value, but then they prioritise profit. They add more ads, push sponsored listings, and degrade discovery, a process called platform decay or crapification. As a result, trust erodes and user experience collapses.
In e-commerce today, enshittification matters for businesses and consumers alike. AI can help reverse the trend by improving personalised recommendations and relevance. However, AI also risks becoming another tool for monetisation and lock-in. Therefore designers must build consumer-first systems that prioritise helpfulness and fairness. Because shoppers feel overwhelmed by choice and low-quality listings, trust falls.
If companies act in customers' best interest, they can earn long-term loyalty. This introduction outlines why avoiding enshittification matters for AI and commerce. It also previews practical strategies to keep platforms useful and humane. We will cover product discovery, content quality, and monetisation choices. Moreover, we will show how transparent incentives protect user value. Read on to learn practical steps for consumer-first AI design in retail.
Why enshittification happens: psychological and economic drivers
Enshittification grows from human incentives and market pressures. Because platforms balance users and paying customers, decay can start quietly. However, the result often looks sudden to regular users.
Psychological drivers
Attention bias and novelty chasing. Users click flashy or new items first, so platforms reward surface-level engagement. For example, feeds prioritise sensational posts because they get fast clicks, not because they help users.
Choice overload and decision fatigue. When shoppers see thousands of similar products, they feel overwhelmed. As a result, they scroll without joy and trust falls.
Trust erosion and cognitive shortcuts. Over time, users rely on heuristics like top results and badges. Unfortunately, paid placement and fake reviews exploit these shortcuts.
Economic drivers
Advertising pressure and short-term revenue goals. Platforms monetise attention aggressively, so they show more ads and sponsored listings. Therefore user experience declines as monetisation grows.
Platform capture and two-sided markets. Sellers pay for visibility, and platforms must balance both sides. As a result, platforms favour paying customers more than users.
Scale, automation, and AI slop. Companies use automated content generation to cut costs. Consequently, low-quality descriptions and fake listings flood marketplaces.
Concrete example
Amazon search now shows heavy sponsored placement for some product types. Meanwhile, small brands report falling organic reach because sponsored slots take priority. This shift shows how monetisation changes discovery, and why enshittification feels like a betrayal.
For a deeper take on the concept, see Cory Doctorow’s essays on platform decay at https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/?utm_source=openai
Before you scan the table, note what it shows. This comparison highlights common platform changes during enshittification. You will see how user experience drops, while monetisation gets aggressive. As a result, overall value to consumers falls. The table uses clear examples to make the shift obvious and relatable.
| Platform or Service | Before enshittification | After enshittification | Key metrics or features impacted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Social feed (example) | Clean chronological or relevance-based feed. High user trust and engagement. | Heavy sponsored posts and algorithmic clutter. Lower organic reach. | User experience down. Engagement becomes pay-to-play. Trust erodes. |
| E commerce marketplace (example) | Relevant search and curated discovery. Honest reviews and good product data. | Sponsored listings crowd organic results. Fake or low-quality listings increase. | Discovery quality falls. Conversion rates decline. Return rates rise. |
| Search engine or discovery | Results focused on relevance. Clear organic signals. | SEO gaming and paid placements push down useful results. | Relevance down. Time-to-find increases. Ad density rises. |
| App store or platform | Well curated apps and honest ratings. Good onboarding for users. | Flood of low-quality apps and incentivised rankings. | App quality drops. Discovery costs rise for developers. |
Read the table and connect the examples to your product. Then ask which incentives you must change to prevent similar decline.
Real world evidence of enshittification
Several industries show clear signs of digital decay and platform degradation. For example, Cory Doctorow’s analysis lays out how platforms shift from serving users to milking them. He documents cases like TikTok and Potemkin AI in a Pluralistic essay. https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/?utm_source=openai
Social media platforms have monetised feeds aggressively. As a result, organic reach fell and engagement became pay to play. LinkedIn’s July algorithm changes targeted AI style posts to restore authenticity. Observers noted the update and its effect on reach. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/shalini-mishra-67129b208_linkedintips-linkedinalgorithm-personalbranding-activity-7353024840276066304-68Kv?utm_source=openai
Ecommerce marketplaces illustrate platform degradation clearly. Academic work shows sponsored listings often lower result quality on Amazon. The arXiv study analyses how paid placement displaces relevant organic results. https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.19099?utm_source=openai
Moreover, policy and fee shifts hurt small sellers. For example, Amazon’s new seller fees changed economics for independents. https://apnews.com/article/62517bb98af619341fcf7c173ab83d45?utm_source=openai
Data supports the user experience decline. Criteo’s Spark of Discovery study found that many shoppers call online buying a joyless scroll. The report shows 79 percent say shopping feels lonely. Therefore brands face choice overload and shrinking trust. https://www.criteo.com/news/press-releases/2025/04/online-shoppings-missing-mojo-over-three-in-four-consumers-say-ecommerce-is-functional-but-wheres-the-fun/?utm_source=openai
Taken together these cases show a pattern. Platforms optimise short term revenue rather than long term user value. Consequently, customers lose trust and engagement drops. To fight this digital decay, product teams must rebalance incentives toward consumer value.
Content platforms now show more filler and fewer high quality posts. For example, many creators report that algorithm tweaks prioritise watch time over substance. Consequently, smaller creators struggle to reach audiences.
Similarly, app stores and marketplaces suffer from mass product listings and fake customer reviews. These factors amplify platform degradation and raise moderation costs.
Conclusion
Enshittification shows how platforms can slowly trade user value for short term revenue. However, over time, discovery degrades, trust erodes, and engagement falls. Therefore teams must recognise the risk and act early.
Start by aligning incentives toward consumers not just sellers or advertisers. Measure experience metrics and guard against AI slop. Because transparency and fair monetisation sustain long term loyalty.
EMP0 helps businesses avoid these negative outcomes with practical AI solutions. Specifically, EMP0 offers consumer first AI, personalised recommendations, automation, and data pipelines. They also build n8n workflows and run practical product consulting. Learn more at https://emp0.com and read case studies at https://articles.emp0.com. For automation creators, see https://n8n.io/creators/jay-emp0.
Act now to protect customer trust and long term value. As a result, your platform can grow sustainably and resist digital decay.
Moreover, EMP0 focuses on measurable outcomes and ethical AI practices. Therefore clients reduce churn while improving lifetime value. Start today.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q1 What is enshittification?
Enshittification describes gradual platform degradation over time. It means a service that once served users starts prioritising profit. As a result, user value falls and trust erodes. The phrase captures digital decay and crapification in a single word.
Q2 What causes enshittification?
- Short term revenue focus. Platforms push ads and sponsored content because they pay.
- Two sided pressure. Sellers pay for visibility, and platforms favour paying customers.
- Automation and AI slop. Cheap auto generated listings and fake reviews flood systems.
- Attention economics. Algorithms optimise for clicks rather than genuine usefulness.
Q3 How does enshittification affect consumers?
Consumers face worse discovery and more irrelevant results. Therefore they experience choice overload and decision fatigue. Moreover, fake reviews and low quality listings damage trust. As a result, shopping feels like a joyless scroll for many.
Q4 How does it impact businesses and creators?
Smaller sellers lose organic reach as sponsored slots rise. Consequently acquisition costs climb and margins shrink. Creators see algorithmic churn and less fair distribution of attention. In short, platform degradation hurts long term growth.
Q5 What practical steps prevent enshittification?
Measure experience metrics, not just revenue. Build transparent monetisation and fair ranking systems. Use AI to improve discovery, and audit outputs for AI slop. Finally, align incentives so users and businesses both gain.
Written by the Emp0 Team (emp0.com)
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