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Retailers didn't ignore Amazon, they were just very bad at technology since they were never technology driven companies. They spent decades fighting each other

Retailers didn't ignore Amazon, they were just very bad at technology since they were never technology driven companies. They spent decades fighting each other in a very low margin business and were optimized for that. Walmart did the best but that was through buying out other companies and even they didn't do great.

wongarsu 6y ago
They don't have to compete with Amazon on technology, they can instead offer better service, or a better curated selection of (actually fit-for-purpose) products, or better prices, or better discoverability. But some retailers seem determined to be worse than Amazon in everything, which is quite the feat. It probably is a result from being locked into a race to the bottom against other brick-and-mortar retailers, as you mentioned.
- marcinzm 6y ago
  Without good technology you cannot achieve any of the things you mentioned better than Amazon without spending so much money (on humans, etc.) that you lose anyway. Amazon's technology gives them higher margins and thus they can use that money on things like lower prices, better service, etc. Their other technologies allow them to do recommendations and other automatically curated approaches without spending money on humans to maintain everything. edit: Seriously, retailers have something like 0.5-1.0% profit margin, it's abysmal, they don't have the leeway to compete with on anything that costs them more.
- CountSessine 6y ago
  This is a great point, but I think in 2020 the stakes are a lot higher for offering "better curated selection of products", "better discoverability", and "better service". The first two, for any retailer, really mean either being very very niche, to the point where inventory variety has been reduced to tractability, or it means being data-driven and predictive. And that probably means being tech-savvy.
MattGaiser 6y ago
In the time between when Amazon became a clear threat and now, students have started university and gone on to IPOed billion dollar companies. At this point being bad at technology is just incompetence/laziness/refusal to invest.
- CountSessine 6y ago
  And that's a pretty good description of Canadian retail. Most Canadian retailers just charge what US mail-order retailers do, plus typical shipping and duties. There are a lot of soft targets in Canadian retail. The Hudson's Bay Company is one of them.
  - MattGaiser 6y ago
    I actually wrote a blog post on this when I was purchasing shoes: https://gaiser.io/amazon-is-winning-as-everyone-else-isnt-trying/ https://gaiser.io/amazon-is-winning-as-everyone-else-isnt-tr... I need wide shoes. I could not find a place to buy wide running shoes besides Amazon at the usual places. My typical shoe buying places did not have a way to search for wides online. I admit that I didn't really check all that exhaustively, but past experience has taught me that other retailers besides Amazon are not worth the clicks.
    - CountSessine 6y ago
      Yeah - it's frustrating how bad Canadian retail is still. I had an experience a few years ago with Canadian Tire where I chose in-store pick-up for an online purchase. The people at the store looked at me like I was from Mars. They didn't have the item in stock, and the manager actually told me that 1. he couldn't refund me because it was two separate computer systems (a lawyer would have told him tough sh*t - you're still the same company), and 2. I should do a credit-card charge-back to get my money back! It's been years since, and I'm trying them again now. I ordered a set of dumbbells yesterday and ... still no email to come pick up my in-stock dumbbells. BTW - I have wide feet too. If you're looking for running shoes, ASICS is good (this is the brand I always wear), and I've heard New Balance is pretty wide too. I can't wear Nike or Reebok for this reason.
flokie 6y ago
exactly the void Shopify fills

wongarsu 6y ago

They don't have to compete with Amazon on technology, they can instead offer better service, or a better curated selection of (actually fit-for-purpose) products, or better prices, or better discoverability. But some retailers seem determined to be worse than Amazon in everything, which is quite the feat. It probably is a result from being locked into a race to the bottom against other brick-and-mortar retailers, as you mentioned.

marcinzm 6y ago
Without good technology you cannot achieve any of the things you mentioned better than Amazon without spending so much money (on humans, etc.) that you lose anyway. Amazon's technology gives them higher margins and thus they can use that money on things like lower prices, better service, etc. Their other technologies allow them to do recommendations and other automatically curated approaches without spending money on humans to maintain everything. edit: Seriously, retailers have something like 0.5-1.0% profit margin, it's abysmal, they don't have the leeway to compete with on anything that costs them more.
CountSessine 6y ago
This is a great point, but I think in 2020 the stakes are a lot higher for offering "better curated selection of products", "better discoverability", and "better service". The first two, for any retailer, really mean either being very very niche, to the point where inventory variety has been reduced to tractability, or it means being data-driven and predictive. And that probably means being tech-savvy.

MattGaiser 6y ago

In the time between when Amazon became a clear threat and now, students have started university and gone on to IPOed billion dollar companies. At this point being bad at technology is just incompetence/laziness/refusal to invest.

CountSessine 6y ago
And that's a pretty good description of Canadian retail. Most Canadian retailers just charge what US mail-order retailers do, plus typical shipping and duties. There are a lot of soft targets in Canadian retail. The Hudson's Bay Company is one of them.
- MattGaiser 6y ago
  I actually wrote a blog post on this when I was purchasing shoes: https://gaiser.io/amazon-is-winning-as-everyone-else-isnt-trying/ https://gaiser.io/amazon-is-winning-as-everyone-else-isnt-tr... I need wide shoes. I could not find a place to buy wide running shoes besides Amazon at the usual places. My typical shoe buying places did not have a way to search for wides online. I admit that I didn't really check all that exhaustively, but past experience has taught me that other retailers besides Amazon are not worth the clicks.
  - CountSessine 6y ago
    Yeah - it's frustrating how bad Canadian retail is still. I had an experience a few years ago with Canadian Tire where I chose in-store pick-up for an online purchase. The people at the store looked at me like I was from Mars. They didn't have the item in stock, and the manager actually told me that 1. he couldn't refund me because it was two separate computer systems (a lawyer would have told him tough sh*t - you're still the same company), and 2. I should do a credit-card charge-back to get my money back! It's been years since, and I'm trying them again now. I ordered a set of dumbbells yesterday and ... still no email to come pick up my in-stock dumbbells. BTW - I have wide feet too. If you're looking for running shoes, ASICS is good (this is the brand I always wear), and I've heard New Balance is pretty wide too. I can't wear Nike or Reebok for this reason.

flokie 6y ago

exactly the void Shopify fills