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Amazon is reinventing the whole daily retailing experience piece by piece. There does not seem anyone on the market now can be a meaningful competitor at all.

Amazon is reinventing the whole daily retailing experience piece by piece. There does not seem anyone on the market now can be a meaningful competitor at all. The close-loop virtuous cycle now extends to a degree that probably only Alibaba can rival (in China). I don't think this is Bezos' original vision, but Amazon grows to a point such ideas just come out naturally. The resistance seems futile now, all retailers should consider how to operate in the model created by Amazon.

whowouldathunk 9y ago
I'm pretty sure the same was said about Wal-mart before Amazon came along.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- justicezyx 9y ago
  Yes, many winning companies have received such compliments before.
- skellera 9y ago
  The difference with Amazon is that they keep innovating which is something WalMart didn't keep doing. Amazon pours money back into the company. As long as they keep doing that, I don't mind that they lead. When they stop, someone else will step in.
  - Spooky23 9y ago
    The real difference with Amazon is that they have this captivating story that allows them to not make money. The whole enterprise is very fragile.
cookiecaper 9y ago
I think that Walmart is a very strong competitor, and too easily dismissed by the tech crowd that wants to pretend they're unsophisticated because they aren't based on the west coast. In many ways, Walmart is in a much stronger competitive position than Amazon, as they have "warehouses"/physical retail outlets within a reasonable driving distance of most Americans, and they're equipped to handle products that are not really feasible for someone like Amazon, who is still almost completely dependent on parcel carriers for access to the customer. Walmart does not have such external dependencies and Amazon is really only needed when the product is so obscure that Walmart wouldn't carry it. Walmart has next-day grocery pickup, electronic receipts and payment via Walmart Pay, and several other high-tech features available. They've been acquiring e-commerce upstarts like Jet and Bonobos. A crew of Walmart delivery drivers that covered a 5 mile radius from each store is Amazon's nightmare. I don't think it's wise to count Walmart out. The biggest challenge for them is internal, and whether forward-looking ecommerce advocates can win out against the visionless MBA types in resource competition.
- joezydeco 9y ago
  Walmart has no centralized warehouses. Everything is custom-picked at third-party logistic facilities for all the suppliers and trucked directly to the stores. So let's compare an order made with Amazon and one made at Walmart. The Amazon order is made with pickers standing at a station while robotic carts move stock around them. The Walmart order is made by a worker that walks the retail store gathering items off the shelves alongside customers. I'm guessing Amazon still has an upper hand at this point.

whowouldathunk 9y ago

I'm pretty sure the same was said about Wal-mart before Amazon came along.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
justicezyx 9y ago
Yes, many winning companies have received such compliments before.
skellera 9y ago
The difference with Amazon is that they keep innovating which is something WalMart didn't keep doing. Amazon pours money back into the company. As long as they keep doing that, I don't mind that they lead. When they stop, someone else will step in.
- Spooky23 9y ago
  The real difference with Amazon is that they have this captivating story that allows them to not make money. The whole enterprise is very fragile.

cookiecaper 9y ago

I think that Walmart is a very strong competitor, and too easily dismissed by the tech crowd that wants to pretend they're unsophisticated because they aren't based on the west coast. In many ways, Walmart is in a much stronger competitive position than Amazon, as they have "warehouses"/physical retail outlets within a reasonable driving distance of most Americans, and they're equipped to handle products that are not really feasible for someone like Amazon, who is still almost completely dependent on parcel carriers for access to the customer. Walmart does not have such external dependencies and Amazon is really only needed when the product is so obscure that Walmart wouldn't carry it. Walmart has next-day grocery pickup, electronic receipts and payment via Walmart Pay, and several other high-tech features available. They've been acquiring e-commerce upstarts like Jet and Bonobos. A crew of Walmart delivery drivers that covered a 5 mile radius from each store is Amazon's nightmare. I don't think it's wise to count Walmart out. The biggest challenge for them is internal, and whether forward-looking ecommerce advocates can win out against the visionless MBA types in resource competition.

joezydeco 9y ago
Walmart has no centralized warehouses. Everything is custom-picked at third-party logistic facilities for all the suppliers and trucked directly to the stores. So let's compare an order made with Amazon and one made at Walmart. The Amazon order is made with pickers standing at a station while robotic carts move stock around them. The Walmart order is made by a worker that walks the retail store gathering items off the shelves alongside customers. I'm guessing Amazon still has an upper hand at this point.