19 ms·

> The truth is that each of these is feasible for a large competitor to replicate and it’s reasonable to think that Walmart could build or acquire these capabil

• mabbo 9y ago
  > I've also had tons of problems with Amazon deliveries since they switched to their own logistics company. In comparison, Walmart is looking better and better by the day. Complain. Call Amazon customer service and let them know what you think. This benefits you in the short term (they'll pay you for your trouble) and the long term (enough complaints, even Amazon will respond).
  • draw_down 9y ago
    I ordered an air conditioner right before a big heat wave where I live last summer. I also subscribed to Prime at the same time to get the free shipping, because I figured why not. Here's why not: when they completely dropped the ball and never gave the air conditioner I ordered to the shipping company, their bright idea to make up for it was to give me a free month of Prime. Hooray.
  • creepydata 9y ago
    Honestly, do you believe your complaints will get passed the call center worker in Banglore who doesn't even understand the problem up to someone who can do something other than give you a free movie rental to shut you up? Hint: the answer is no.
    • sfennell 9y ago
      Do you honestly believe that complaints are not classified and plugged into some sort of analytics system at the absolute minimum? I could never imagine that any company with half a clue would not be trying to quantify their support requests in some way.
      • creepydata 9y ago
        Amazon doesn't seem to have a clue. My experience with Amazon as a third party seller is they run their operation like a trainwreck. I'll give you just one example. Once I shipped a box of commingled items to Amazon's wearhouse. It was received, checked in, and I sold all my inventory quickly. A month later I started randomly selling more inventory without restocking. How could this be? I ran though my reports and figured it out. My inventory was checked in a second time. Amazon didn't even have a database constraint to prevent that. They gladly sold all my "inventory" a second time and paid me for it. It's been two years, nobody has noticed. Heres another example(s): http://www.orensmoneysaver.com/2016/03/amazon-and-mysterious-case-of-lost.html http://www.orensmoneysaver.com/2016/03/amazon-and-mysterious... >I sent in 14 [items]. 14 were received, 1 was lost and 1 was found. How many should have? 14. How many does Amazon say I should have? 11. How many units do I actually have? 9. I stopped selling expensive items on Amazon. Every single time I listed one I got 10+ messages a day from scammers. I reported all of them to Amazon but their report button seems to go to /dev/null. They just don't care enough to filter out the obvious scammers. I then got my seller account dinged for marking too many messages "no response needed." So I got dinged for not replying to scammers. Here's another take on some of the unresolved problems with scammers on Amazon and why it's not taking action https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2017/01/12/why-amazon-is-losing-its-battle-against-chinese-counterfeiters/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2017/01/12/why-amaz...
  • dawnerd 9y ago
    This was true for amazon years ago but these days just just say too bad. And maybe if you're lucky they'll give you more prime. I wouldn't consider that paying me for my trouble.
  • wccrawford 9y ago
    Anecdote supporting this: When they used DHL in the US, I complained about how bad DHL was for a few reasons. I was told that they would log my complaint, but there was nothing they would do until enough complaints had been logged. A few months later, Amazon no longer used DHL. (At least in my area.) So it does matter if you complain about their systems.
• onion2k 9y ago
  This is a great example of a challenge that every business faces - if the customer doesn't know about your product then it doesn't matter how good it is. You can't sell to someone if you've failed to communicate your product to them in a way that they understand. In this case Walmart has a product (2 day delivery) that customers don't know about, which means Walmart completely fail to compete with Amazon for customers who want that service. If you can't communicate your product well enough to the customer then the product effectively doesn't exist as far as that customer is concerned. This is why sales and marketing are really important to a startup.
  • simplehuman 9y ago
    Except in this case many of us know about Walmart's product. This seems to be just lazy journalism.
    • maxerickson 9y ago
      Even worse, it isn't a journalist making the mistake, it is someone patting themselves on the back for having unique insight into the advantages Amazon has over competitors.
      • rhizome 9y ago
        The author is nothing if not confident about their predictive senses: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8943297 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8943297
    • freehunter 9y ago
      I had no idea. Last time I used Walmart.com (maybe 5 years ago?), I had the option of in-store pickup if it's available, ship to store for free if it's not (sometimes takes several weeks, what's up with that?) or shipping to my house (5-7 days). Maybe the problem with Walmart is they have a toxic brand for a certain market segment. Even with free same-day in-store pickup, I would still use Amazon's two-day shipping in order to avoid going into my local Walmart.
• Finnucane 9y ago
  > The truth is that each of these is feasible for a large competitor to replicate and it’s reasonable to think that Walmart could build or acquire these capabilities within the next few years. This sounds like the way we talk about other nations developing nuclear weapons.
• martin1975 9y ago
  Second this. Walmart is definitely milking their brick n mortar advantage here and Amazon even followed suit, they used to have free shipping w/out Prime for anything over $55 or $50 I think, then as soon as WalMart did > $35 for free shipping, Amazon followed suit. If anyone can derail Amazon at what most people need, it's Walmart. Obviously, WalMart isn't a tech outfit like Amazon, but with a few choice acquisitions (e. g. Jet :), and ramp up time, they will certainly have Amazon wondering what hit them really soon... Walmart needs to do a better job of advertising their online offerings though.
• javiramos 9y ago
  Couldn't agree more. I stopped my Amazon prime membership and now almost exclusively use Target and Walmart. Both offer free shipping for orders >$35 without a membership. And most of the items I buy are cheaper at Walmart and Target. I find Amazon to be overpriced.
  • ashark 9y ago
    > And most of the items I buy are cheaper at Walmart and Target. Even used products aren't cheaper on Amazon. Ebay's usually cheaper (and, these days, maybe more trustworthy) and for books in particular both Abebooks and Alibris are usually cheaper, even with shipping, and sometimes way cheaper—which is weird, since Abebooks is owned by Amazon. Blindly using Amazon is a great way to be ripped-off. One cannot trust their prices or products, at all. Even non-tech-savvy relatives are starting to catch on that whole categories of products ought not be purchased on Amazon, ever.
    • dawnerd 9y ago
      If you want to see a ripoff just look at prime pantry. Most of those items you can use clicklist on and pickup same day at a Kroger store. Walmart has the same as well.
      • dcosson 9y ago
        If you can easily get to a Kroger or Walmart and don't mind this errand, I don't think you're the target market for Prime Pantry. If you live in a city without a car, lots of things are either less convenient or more expensive. The grocery stores themselves are expensive, and if I'm going to have to walk or Uber home with my groceries that adds an extra hassle or cost. At that point something like prime pantry can be very worth it.
        • dawnerd 9y ago
          I get that, completely fair use case. There's Jet.com as well and no memberships and free shipping (opposed to the 5.99/box) prime pantry charges. Target does some things on a subscription basis that beats out amazon pretty much across the board too.
• dcosson 9y ago
  To be fair you can often get free delivery on a ~$7 item on amazon, and that difference between firing off 1-click purchases on amazon whenever you want vs saving up a list of 5 things you need so you can hit the delivery minimum is a big qualitative change in how I buy stuff online. Reminds me of the difference of having to keep a running total of which friends owe money to whom because no one has the right amount of cash vs Venmo-ing immediately to settle any purchases. On the other hand, sometimes that $7 Amazon item would be a $3 item at CVS or some other store and you really are paying the full cost of shipping, it's just hidden from you.
  • rhizome 9y ago
    firing off 1-click purchases on amazon whenever you want vs saving up a list of 5 things you need so you can hit the delivery minimum is a big qualitative change in how I buy stuff online Has there been a quantitative change, too?
  • sofaofthedamned 9y ago
    But with Amazon, without prime, they take as long as possible to deliver. My last delivery took 8 days and was only dispatched the day before.
    • deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
  • deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  • dkrich 9y ago
    I think it's important to remember what's good for the customer isn't necessarily good for the business. There's a reason the $35 minimum is in place- because for orders totaling less than that the business is likely losing money.
• mradamh 9y ago
  Anecdotally (I know, I know), I've ordered a few things recently from Walmart that were cheaper than they were on Amazon. Each time I received the items multiple days later than what the website told me. e.g. "2 day" shipping taking 4 business days. I've had this happen to me maybe a couple of times over several years from Amazon, but its happened each and every time from Walmart.
  • ashark 9y ago
    > Anecdotally (I know, I know), I've ordered a few things recently from Walmart that were cheaper than they were on Amazon. Each time I received the items multiple days later than what the website told me. e.g. "2 day" shipping taking 4 business days. Meh. Amazon does that to me (yes I have Prime) ~1/4 of the time too, and I don't live in the sticks. They also don't use any of their weird non-FedEx/UPS/USPS handlers here. "2 day shipping" becomes 4-5 business days. At least if Wal-Mart does it I haven't paid a membership fee for the privilege.
    • wanderr 9y ago
      The few times that has happened to me (not very often) I've complained and they've been happy to give me a credit for the inconvenience.
      • 55555 9y ago
        You shouldn't have to complain though. Amazon knows exactly when it was ordered, when it was delivered, and the delivery time frame they advertised.
        • rhizome 9y ago
          Hah. Imagine the press if they were as customer-centric and data-driven as they are portrayed, and they proactively sent compensation based on their errors of estimation (i.e. customer expectations).
          • 9y ago
• hawski 9y ago
  I live in Berlin and that got me to thinking that maybe I should research available services from shops here. AFAIK in Berlin there are multiple choices available. It seems that almost every discount brand and Kaufland have delivery service. As my German is pretty weak I can't find a comparison between them. I think that probably Lidl and Kaufland should have the widest assortment. Could anyone tell me their opinion about all these? EDIT: I found a comparison: http://www.bild.de/ratgeber/leben-und-wissen-verbraucherportal/leben-und-wissen/frische-lebensmittel-online-51604826.bild.html http://www.bild.de/ratgeber/leben-und-wissen-verbraucherport...
  • polskibus 9y ago
    Lidl is opening stores in US. Not sure if they are going to do deliveries though. http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN15U2EF http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN15U2EF
  • lis 9y ago
    Lidl does not deliver groceries to your home. If you want a wide assortment, another option would be Bringmeister: https://berlin.bringmeister.de https://berlin.bringmeister.de (Shameless plug - I work at EDEKA, which recently bought Bringmeister)
• WalterBright 9y ago
  I've been in business for decades, and this is a repeating problem. We have feature X for years, nobody much cares about it, our competitor comes out with X and it's lauded as amazing and innovative. Having a competent PR department matters a LOT in business.
  • cbhl 9y ago
    Sometimes I wonder if the story really means, "competitor finally implements feature X, so they can switch away from you to get features Y, Z, and Q, which they've always wanted and you don't provide".
    • redcalx 9y ago
      For instance, there's at least one courier in the UK that gives you a one hour estimated delivery window and a URL where you can check your delivery's progress live. I find this very useful, mainly because I don't have to sit at home all day waiting. Amazon don't currently do this where I am; if they did I'd use it a lot more.
      • cbhl 9y ago
        Amazon's equivalent service is called "Amazon Prime Now". Fewer products, only in select cities, and you can only order with a mobile app (not on the website).
        • martinald 9y ago
          No, it's not the same. What GP is saying is probably DPD, which texts you a tracking link on the day of delivery showing you when your parcel is going to be, and a 'guaranteed' 1hr delivery slot in the AM. So if it's going to be delivered between 6pm-7pm you don't have to sit in the house all day wondering if it is going to arrive. I'm amazed more couriers don't offer the same service, because it is really good.
          • cbhl 9y ago
• dionidium 9y ago
  This is incredible. Walmart has free two-day shipping on orders over $35 right now, with no membership required, and yet people are still writing articles like this asking, "will it be possible for Walmart to get 2 day shipping within the next couple years?" Because Amazon's is called Prime and is described as "free shipping". You can tell your friends about it! "Oh man, have you heard of Prime? You have to get it. It's free shipping on everything!" Wal-mart's doesn't have a name and is described as "two-day shipping included if your order is over $35." There's no equivalent quote because I'd probably never mention that to a friend.
  • fragmede 9y ago
    I wouldn't bring it up for no reason, but if someone was droning on and on about how Amazon Prime is the best thing ever, I'd certainly mention that Walmart has the same thing but free, and then have a discussion with them about how it is or isn't the same thing , but you have a very good point about branding.:)
    • bluedino 9y ago
      WalMart doesn't include streaming video
• rb808 9y ago
  >> The key component to profitable 2-day (or 1-hour) delivery is the customer’s proximity to a distribution center. >This is incredible. Walmart has free two-day shipping on orders over $35 right now, with no membership required, and yet.. I think the key word in the original article is "profitable", not just 2-day delivery.
  • kristianc 9y ago
    The key word is profitable - it's a nut that Amazon hasn't cracked yet either.
    • nostrebored 9y ago
      ??? This is wrong, Amazon's core business is profitable when not accounting for reinvestment into infrastructure
      • kristianc 9y ago
        Not the case on CPG brands: > So let’s imagine Costco is selling a pack of 10 bags of Doritos for $10 — or $1 per bag. Amazon’s algorithm notes that one bag is $1 at Costco and, in turn, lowers the price on Amazon of a single bag of Doritos to $1. > That is a great deal for customers — something that is likely driving the decision at Amazon, where an obsession with customer value dominates its strategy. > But now, Amazon is selling individual items at Costco prices while not getting the same wholesale price that Costco enjoys. In short, it’s going to be really hard for Amazon to turn a profit on those goods. [1] https://www.recode.net/2017/3/30/14831602/amazon-walmart-cpg-grocery-price-war https://www.recode.net/2017/3/30/14831602/amazon-walmart-cpg...
• product50 9y ago
  My experience has been quite the opposite. Amazon's​ reliable and fast delivery alongwith its amazing customer service have been 2 key influencers in me spending 10,000s of dollars every year there. I have a habit to check Amazon first for any item I want to buy and if I can't find it there (or sellers who are part of Prime fulfillment), only then I venture out to another site or, most probably, buy it from a retail store.
  • 55555 9y ago
    You spend a lot of money on consumer goods.
    • product50 9y ago
      As I mentioned, my default shopping destination​ is Amazon - except for grocery and clothes. So this pretty much includes most of our transactions including electronics for a family of 4.
• draw_down 9y ago
  I've had many problems with Amazon as well. If I buy a physical good from their website now, my operating assumption is that I will not receive it and will need to ask for another one (which I also likely will not receive, then cancel the order). So, I better really want whatever that thing is, in order to put up with the current insanity of dealing with them.
• dawnerd 9y ago
  I actually cancelled my prime yesterday after their support essentially shrugged me off for asking why a prime package was taking almost a week to deliver. Would have had the item by now if I used Jet or Walmart, or just drove to a real store. And you nailed it, it's becoming impossible to actually shop on amazon. It's filled with products that keyword stuff titles, are blatant knockoffs, etc.
• pwthornton 9y ago
  Amazon has free two-day shipping on orders over $35 right now too, but they also let members get unlimited two-day shipping on tiny orders. I just placed a single order for a hard to get $10 item a few minutes ago on Amazon. The other thing is, can Walmart do same-day delivery?
• nullnilvoid 9y ago
  Same here. I am considering cancelling prime too. Amazon is still pretty cheap. But I found the stuff on Amazon has low quality and I had to return stuff too often. Great to see some competition from Walmart. I am going to try it out definitely.
• Leader2light 9y ago
  Walmart is the way to go. I've stopped my prime a long time ago. Amazon needs to spin their video on demand stuff into a separate service, not force those costs on their prime users.
  • jjallen 9y ago
    Already is, you can subscribe to Prime Video for $8.99.
    • vxNsr 9y ago
      But can you get the shipping service separate from the video? I am not interested in a lackluster library of videos, not do I need access to yet another cloud backup, I would gladly spend $40/year on only 2 day shipping membership.
      • antisthenes 9y ago
        You likely can't because the marginal cost of providing shipping is 100%, while the marginal cost of providing access to a shitty video library is 0 (or close to it, at AMZN's scale) Since shipping is the main cost driver here, Amazon is unlikely to offer you such an advantageous a-la carte deal.
• oculusthrift 9y ago
  walmart's website is awful. they try to just scam you and sell you junk from third parties.
  • cvwright 9y ago
    True. Unfortunately Amazon does the very same thing.
• zkanter 9y ago
  You missed the whole point of my post. I said specifically said Amazon's moats have nothing to do with things like 2-day shipping, which are easily copied. The FBA program, as one example, allows any Amazon seller to ship product to Amazon's warehouse, and then have that product be eligible for 2-day (or faster) shipping - with zero effort (and unbeatable fulfillment fees). That program - and the dozens of others like it - will be extraordinarily difficult to copy.
  • SomeStupidPoint 9y ago
    Why would FBA be hard to copy for someone like Walmart that already has the warehouse infrastructure receiving products from different suppliers? It sounds like it's literally just having a corner of the warehouse for their stuff, and applying the same shipping mechanisms already in place in the warehouse. The hardest part would be the interface for the merchants, but even then, Walmart would have most of that in place for tracking their own inventories and interacting with suppliers. I think setting up the infrastructure for 2-Day shipping is harder than the merchant backend for supplying you with items to ship. Of course, Walmart already has 2-Day shipping on selected partner reseller accounts via the marketplace, so I'm not sure why you think they don't already have an FBA equivalent -- they're just smarter than Amazon about brand protection. Which is what Amazon has blundered on, badly: they've created a lot of "Day 2" features that are clearly anti-consumer and it's tarnishing their brand, even as many of their metrics look good. Further, they've taken on a lot of the same anti-employee and anti-small-merchant measures that people dislike Walmart for. That behavior loses them their real moats: customer trust and behavior distinguishers. If Amazon is just a Walmart with the reputation of AliExpress, why wouldn't I just buy off WalMart's website?
    • lkbm 9y ago
      > Which is what Amazon has blundered on, badly: they've created a lot of "Day 2" features that are clearly anti-consumer and it's tarnishing their brand, even as many of their metrics look good. Can you clarify what this means / give some examples of what you're referring to? I'm not sure what would a consumer-facing day 2 feature would be other than returns or shipment tracking, which I think they handle well--but I also just learned the term after looking it up upon reading your comment. :-)
• beamatronic 9y ago
  I have given Walmart a fair chance on a number of occasions. I received damaged and used goods for my trouble. The store gave me a huge hassle when I tried to return the items ( i.e. a PlayStation that had been smashed to pieces ), they treated me like I was a scammer/criminal.
• srathi 9y ago
  True! I don't like visiting walmart in person, but free shipping with a $35 order is incredible. I keep adding items in my cart as needed until the total is $35+ and get it within 2 days. The corresponding free shipping on Amazon is 5-8 days.
• wnevets 9y ago
  but then you have to give money to walmart, which I avoid doing.
• jdminhbg 9y ago
  > This is incredible. Walmart has free two-day shipping on orders over $35 right now, with no membership required, and yet people are still writing articles like this asking, "will it be possible for Walmart to get 2 day shipping within the next couple years?" Free shipping on orders over $35 is useless in the same way that I find Amazon Prime Pantry useless. If I am trying to buy something, I don't want to fish around finding something else to get my order up to the limit. It's a ton of friction -- "do I need to add a pack of socks to this order or should I just pay shipping" -- when with Amazon I just order that book I saw mentioned on Twitter and don't think about it.
  • cowardlydragon 9y ago
    But 80$ / year for Prime isn't friction?
• arenaninja 9y ago
  I have already done this. The Walmart web experience is miles ahead. Amazon customer service has declined, where I have never needed to contact Walmart customer service for web orders. I wonder how long it will take people to see this, but Amazon prime really isn't the proposition it once was. If you ask any Amazon employee they will tell you that you get free shows, music, books, etc. But I just want my orders to show up at my doorstep in two days. As you said, this is incredibly hard to do with Amazon prime in its current state.