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I suspect there's another reason they're doing this, and they don't actually think this will be a profitable business opportunity. Delivering groceries in 2016

by skewart 11y ago

I suspect there's another reason they're doing this, and they don't actually think this will be a profitable business opportunity. Delivering groceries in 2016 is probably a strategic move in support of a larger effort that will pay off in 2019. Perhaps it's about gathering richer data on consumer preferences and behavior. Or maybe it will help them develop autonomous vehicles in some way (having already been operating a delivery service for a while might be helpful when they start rolling out new tech). Or maybe they're just throwing spaghetti at the wall to see if it sticks.

tiglionabbit 11y ago
Well they do have self-driving cars. Maybe this is the most impressive way to start delivering stuff with them?
pbhjpbhj 11y ago
Yeah it seems reasonable to me that they take on the whole job in order to find where/if they might fit in to generate long-term profits. One might even conceive that they'd do it just to stir up the market and, like you say, see if anything sticks.
Dwolb 11y ago
Yup this is it. Google's bleeding money on these initiatives to preserve its crown jewel: search. More and more people are using Amazon and other services first to find stuff they need - which means lower engagement with search and lower effectiveness of paid ads. If Google can build some of these services themselves it could potentially maintain its reputation as the first stop on the customer journey.
- _asummers 11y ago
  As a slight anecdotal counterpoint to your comment about Amazon, while I often buy the product eventually from Amazon, I initially search "amazon $productname" on Google because I don't like Amazon's search.
  - iofj 11y ago
    It is truly baffling how many online retailers screw up search on their sites. I very often search "site:amazon.com <what I want>" just to avoid having to deal with site searches. Sometimes I think that just putting things like all alibaba products (maybe also put others who also allow this) on your own better functioning site at a 5% or so markup would be a huge opportunity.
  - Dwolb 11y ago
    I hear you. It's telling though you know the product is already on Amazon. You can imagine people going straight to Amazon if they know the product is there.
nickpsecurity 11y ago
I agree it's probably a precursor to something else. They could do all sorts of things with a good distribution chain or more data on consumer purchases. Not sure how many are good business plays but there's potential.
dragonwriter 11y ago
> Or maybe it will help them develop autonomous vehicles in some way (having already been operating a delivery service for a while might be helpful when they start rolling out new tech). They've been operating a delivery service since 2013; this is an increase in the scope of kinds of products it includes (which brings it better in line with its Amazon competition.)

by skewart 11y ago

tiglionabbit 11y ago

Well they do have self-driving cars. Maybe this is the most impressive way to start delivering stuff with them?

pbhjpbhj 11y ago

Yeah it seems reasonable to me that they take on the whole job in order to find where/if they might fit in to generate long-term profits. One might even conceive that they'd do it just to stir up the market and, like you say, see if anything sticks.

Dwolb 11y ago

Yup this is it. Google's bleeding money on these initiatives to preserve its crown jewel: search. More and more people are using Amazon and other services first to find stuff they need - which means lower engagement with search and lower effectiveness of paid ads. If Google can build some of these services themselves it could potentially maintain its reputation as the first stop on the customer journey.

_asummers 11y ago
As a slight anecdotal counterpoint to your comment about Amazon, while I often buy the product eventually from Amazon, I initially search "amazon $productname" on Google because I don't like Amazon's search.
- iofj 11y ago
  It is truly baffling how many online retailers screw up search on their sites. I very often search "site:amazon.com <what I want>" just to avoid having to deal with site searches. Sometimes I think that just putting things like all alibaba products (maybe also put others who also allow this) on your own better functioning site at a 5% or so markup would be a huge opportunity.
- Dwolb 11y ago
  I hear you. It's telling though you know the product is already on Amazon. You can imagine people going straight to Amazon if they know the product is there.

nickpsecurity 11y ago

I agree it's probably a precursor to something else. They could do all sorts of things with a good distribution chain or more data on consumer purchases. Not sure how many are good business plays but there's potential.

dragonwriter 11y ago

> Or maybe it will help them develop autonomous vehicles in some way (having already been operating a delivery service for a while might be helpful when they start rolling out new tech). They've been operating a delivery service since 2013; this is an increase in the scope of kinds of products it includes (which brings it better in line with its Amazon competition.)