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Google didn't kill e-commerce. Amazon killed it. People are sick of creating accounts on every single web site out there. Who wants to enter your credit card in

Google didn't kill e-commerce. Amazon killed it. People are sick of creating accounts on every single web site out there. Who wants to enter your credit card info on some random web site? How do you know if you can trust them? And then, when you do successfully place an order, you end up having to pay shipping and handling, and it doesn't come for two weeks. Compare that to one click shopping on amazon.com, and one-day free shipping. Independent e-commerce sites just can't compete with that.

dingaling 9y ago
In no country does Amazon have more than 40% online market share and in many it is far lower; 16% in the UK for example. Other retailers can compete on many aspects; for example in the UK Amazon is completely locked-out of online groceries by the big supermarkets. Or hobby specialists who know their market well, a UK example being Hannants who work closely with the model-kit industry. And most other retailers don't require an annual fee for decent service, such as dispatching within a week...
- dazc 9y ago
  'in the UK Amazon is completely locked-out of online groceries by the big supermarkets.' Last year I was due to return from Spain on Christmas eve. Tesco, Waitrose, etc were not accepting any orders for about 3 days before. I had no such problems with amazon. I think it will be a while before I buy groceries on a regular basis from amazon but I wouldn't be surprised if I was in 5 years time? 'And most other retailers don't require an annual fee for decent service, such as dispatching within a week...' Yeah, I get that 'preparing for dispatch' bull sometimes too and it is quite annoying. Sometimes cancelling and re-ordering fixes it but you have to be quick before the window shuts.
adventured 9y ago
Nobody killed ecommerce. Amazon is not going to have a majority share of all ecommerce. As the total market expands, doubling in the next decade, Amazon's share will decline. Amazon has a very early lead due to having invested more heavily into it, and sooner, than any other major retailer. Despite being a quarter century in, this is still early into the shift to ecommerce in the US and most developed economies (eg only 6% of retail sales in Italy are online). Online is all that Amazon was. It makes sense they'd have an outsized position at this point versus everybody else. They're benefiting from that aggressive early mover advantage (it took Walmart 20 years just to get an effective online strategy going, probably because they rested on their laurels, as most giants do; and now their online sales are booming). Amazon isn't going to be a trillion dollar sales company, their current ecommerce market share is not going to hold. The fear, paranoia, propaganda, etc. is very overblown at this stage. We're at peak Amazon mania, similar to Microsoft mania in the late 1990s when Microsoft was going to own everything and each proclamation about them conquering the planet was breathlessly read and believed. Here's the reality of Amazon: they're the latest Walmart, which was the latest Sears. It's meaningless. They're a great retailer, and some day 20 years into the future there will be a superior retailer that supplants them. Amazon retail is a giant online catalog of goods & services. Building it up into something more than what it is, doesn't make sense. Online isn't special.

dingaling 9y ago

In no country does Amazon have more than 40% online market share and in many it is far lower; 16% in the UK for example. Other retailers can compete on many aspects; for example in the UK Amazon is completely locked-out of online groceries by the big supermarkets. Or hobby specialists who know their market well, a UK example being Hannants who work closely with the model-kit industry. And most other retailers don't require an annual fee for decent service, such as dispatching within a week...

dazc 9y ago
'in the UK Amazon is completely locked-out of online groceries by the big supermarkets.' Last year I was due to return from Spain on Christmas eve. Tesco, Waitrose, etc were not accepting any orders for about 3 days before. I had no such problems with amazon. I think it will be a while before I buy groceries on a regular basis from amazon but I wouldn't be surprised if I was in 5 years time? 'And most other retailers don't require an annual fee for decent service, such as dispatching within a week...' Yeah, I get that 'preparing for dispatch' bull sometimes too and it is quite annoying. Sometimes cancelling and re-ordering fixes it but you have to be quick before the window shuts.

adventured 9y ago

Nobody killed ecommerce. Amazon is not going to have a majority share of all ecommerce. As the total market expands, doubling in the next decade, Amazon's share will decline. Amazon has a very early lead due to having invested more heavily into it, and sooner, than any other major retailer. Despite being a quarter century in, this is still early into the shift to ecommerce in the US and most developed economies (eg only 6% of retail sales in Italy are online). Online is all that Amazon was. It makes sense they'd have an outsized position at this point versus everybody else. They're benefiting from that aggressive early mover advantage (it took Walmart 20 years just to get an effective online strategy going, probably because they rested on their laurels, as most giants do; and now their online sales are booming). Amazon isn't going to be a trillion dollar sales company, their current ecommerce market share is not going to hold. The fear, paranoia, propaganda, etc. is very overblown at this stage. We're at peak Amazon mania, similar to Microsoft mania in the late 1990s when Microsoft was going to own everything and each proclamation about them conquering the planet was breathlessly read and believed. Here's the reality of Amazon: they're the latest Walmart, which was the latest Sears. It's meaningless. They're a great retailer, and some day 20 years into the future there will be a superior retailer that supplants them. Amazon retail is a giant online catalog of goods & services. Building it up into something more than what it is, doesn't make sense. Online isn't special.