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How do you define "competing against Amazon"? If you define it as general retail (who manages to capture the consumer dollar), then Walmart and its physical st

by niggler 14y ago

How do you define "competing against Amazon"? If you define it as general retail (who manages to capture the consumer dollar), then Walmart and its physical stores can be considered a competitor. If you take the article's concept: "build a massive online database and offline infrastructure to transport boxes from warehouses to hundreds of millions of doorsteps.", then clearly stores aren't competing with Amazon.

potatolicious 14y ago
I actually think brick and mortar stores are competing with Amazon - and there is also an emerging hybrid approach that threatens Amazon as well. In many places, suburbs and cities alike, people don't want stuff delivered to their doorstep. The existence of Amazon Lockers is proof enough of this - sotres now offer online shopping with local pickup (Best Buy, Staples, and IIRC Wal-Mart). This competes with Amazon. Wal-Mart is also attempting to reposition itself as an Amazon alternative (i.e., pure online shopping) and has the capital and existing supply chain infrastructure to do so (they are one of very few). On top of that Amazon continues to struggle with specialty goods. Amazon is very, very effective at selling mass-market products, but their attempts to move upmarket have been extremely mixed. Lower-volume, premium goods are not their forte, and brick and mortar stores (as well as niche online shops) still have a firm grip on that. Not to mention we know that the public is extremely price-sensitive. Amazon continues to price-compete with Wal-Mart, despite its substantially lower volume, leading to even thinner margins. They do this out of necessity, because at this point for many people the conveniences of online do not trump a quick trip to Wal-Mart if the product is cheaper. I don't think it's at all prudent to discount pure brick and mortar businesses as competitors to Amazon. Amazon very much exists in the same sphere as all retailers, online and off.
- niggler 14y ago
  Amazon Lockers and local pickup solve different problems: the Locker solves the delivery guy issue (will I be there to sign) but doesn't provide the immediacy of in-store pickup for those items that are available in store.

by niggler 14y ago

potatolicious 14y ago

I actually think brick and mortar stores are competing with Amazon - and there is also an emerging hybrid approach that threatens Amazon as well. In many places, suburbs and cities alike, people don't want stuff delivered to their doorstep. The existence of Amazon Lockers is proof enough of this - sotres now offer online shopping with local pickup (Best Buy, Staples, and IIRC Wal-Mart). This competes with Amazon. Wal-Mart is also attempting to reposition itself as an Amazon alternative (i.e., pure online shopping) and has the capital and existing supply chain infrastructure to do so (they are one of very few). On top of that Amazon continues to struggle with specialty goods. Amazon is very, very effective at selling mass-market products, but their attempts to move upmarket have been extremely mixed. Lower-volume, premium goods are not their forte, and brick and mortar stores (as well as niche online shops) still have a firm grip on that. Not to mention we know that the public is extremely price-sensitive. Amazon continues to price-compete with Wal-Mart, despite its substantially lower volume, leading to even thinner margins. They do this out of necessity, because at this point for many people the conveniences of online do not trump a quick trip to Wal-Mart if the product is cheaper. I don't think it's at all prudent to discount pure brick and mortar businesses as competitors to Amazon. Amazon very much exists in the same sphere as all retailers, online and off.

niggler 14y ago
Amazon Lockers and local pickup solve different problems: the Locker solves the delivery guy issue (will I be there to sign) but doesn't provide the immediacy of in-store pickup for those items that are available in store.