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Everyone knows you should never get involved in a land war in Asia, never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line, and most importantly, never get in

Everyone knows you should never get involved in a land war in Asia, never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line, and most importantly, never get involved in a price war with Amazon.

baybal2 8y ago
Alibaba, somehow does it still. It seems to me it is more like Amazon is adapting to Alibaba's moves than the other way around. For example, their move towards opening up to Chinese dropshippers is totally is a preemptive castling maneuver against Alibaba getting more foothold, and them lobbying for America to quit UPU is that too.
- TeMPOraL 8y ago
  > their move towards opening up to Chinese dropshippers This is something I don't understand in general. How is dropshipping products from China anything more than scamming the few people who either didn't realize they're dealing with a dropshipper, or aren't aware Aliexpress exists? What actual value those dropshippers provide?
  - baybal2 8y ago
    > How is dropshipping products from China anything more than scamming the few people who either didn't realize they're dealing with a dropshipper Given how well they are doing, that is not so few people. > What actual value those dropshippers provide? Turn that around. What value their collaborators on American side of the border provide them with? The answer is their English and marketing skills.
    - TeMPOraL 8y ago
      > Turn that around. What value their collaborators on American side of the border provide them with? The answer is their English and marketing skills. That makes sense. Thanks.
joefourier 8y ago
Is that really the case? Most of Amazon's offerings from what I can see are priced at a premium. AWS is much pricier than competitors, and the physical goods they sell (at least here in Europe) are either on par or more expensive than dedicated European online stores, let alone Aliexpress/Banggood/Gearbest/etc. In the UK/Ireland at least, the main attraction from Amazon is convenience - for those items that are available with Amazon Prime, the shipping is much faster than competitors. Beyond those however, I've honestly had better deals and faster shipping with eBay.
- smacktoward 8y ago
  The thing is that Amazon is so big and has so many other profitable lines of business that, if they want to, they can swallow losses on the one that happens to compete with you for as long as it takes to choke you out. You can try to keep up with that, but since you’re not as big and diversified as they are, you will inevitably fail. What to them is just a paper cut will be more than deep enough to bleed you white. (They’ll raise the prices once they’ve driven out enough competition to assume a dominant position in the sector, of course, but that will come too late to do you any good.)

Everyone knows you should never get involved in a land war in Asia, never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line, and most importantly, never get involved in a price war with Amazon.

baybal2 8y ago

Alibaba, somehow does it still. It seems to me it is more like Amazon is adapting to Alibaba's moves than the other way around. For example, their move towards opening up to Chinese dropshippers is totally is a preemptive castling maneuver against Alibaba getting more foothold, and them lobbying for America to quit UPU is that too.

TeMPOraL 8y ago
> their move towards opening up to Chinese dropshippers This is something I don't understand in general. How is dropshipping products from China anything more than scamming the few people who either didn't realize they're dealing with a dropshipper, or aren't aware Aliexpress exists? What actual value those dropshippers provide?
- baybal2 8y ago
  > How is dropshipping products from China anything more than scamming the few people who either didn't realize they're dealing with a dropshipper Given how well they are doing, that is not so few people. > What actual value those dropshippers provide? Turn that around. What value their collaborators on American side of the border provide them with? The answer is their English and marketing skills.
  - TeMPOraL 8y ago
    > Turn that around. What value their collaborators on American side of the border provide them with? The answer is their English and marketing skills. That makes sense. Thanks.

joefourier 8y ago

Is that really the case? Most of Amazon's offerings from what I can see are priced at a premium. AWS is much pricier than competitors, and the physical goods they sell (at least here in Europe) are either on par or more expensive than dedicated European online stores, let alone Aliexpress/Banggood/Gearbest/etc. In the UK/Ireland at least, the main attraction from Amazon is convenience - for those items that are available with Amazon Prime, the shipping is much faster than competitors. Beyond those however, I've honestly had better deals and faster shipping with eBay.

smacktoward 8y ago
The thing is that Amazon is so big and has so many other profitable lines of business that, if they want to, they can swallow losses on the one that happens to compete with you for as long as it takes to choke you out. You can try to keep up with that, but since you’re not as big and diversified as they are, you will inevitably fail. What to them is just a paper cut will be more than deep enough to bleed you white. (They’ll raise the prices once they’ve driven out enough competition to assume a dominant position in the sector, of course, but that will come too late to do you any good.)