If I order toilet paper via my Google Home, where does it come from? Wal Mart or Target? How long for shipping? If they send me dog food instead, how do I get in touch with customer service? Is it Google's customer service or Target's?
I don't see how this is a threat to Amazon. People don't shop there because they have voice -- they shop there because I can Prime myself anything in 2 days or less and if it's messed up I can talk to a human being and find out why. I'd hate to try and get the same kind of service via Google and Target.
With that said, I’m really irked that amazon is using “private” shipping companies, I’m tired of seeing joe schmoes ring my bell in their Honda Civic or uhaul rental van, with my goods, my address, and seeing my house and family. They even take pictures with cell phone of package at door, wtf. Is there any background check, nope. Stick to a professional shipping company and not fly by night, random folks please
Big retailers don't do well in this type of online marketplace. Target and Toys"R"Us already tried partnering with Amazon and both deals failed [1][2].
Google should start developing warehouse technology and a delivery network in order to start competing directly with Amazon. Their current strategy is just a coat of paint on declining businesses.
I order by price, so that means not ordering things like paper towels from amazon. Their grocery and household goods are often more expensive than just going down the street.
Also target has amazing returns. You can return online orders to the store - not like you can do that with amazon. I believe Walmart is the same.
Amazon has been messing up most of my deliveries lately and they make it as difficult as possible to talk to someone to find out why. When I do talk to someone, they always pretend to check the status, say that the item has been lost in transit, ship another one, and extend my prime membership by 1 month. Now I've got a hassle, a late shipment, and often a duplicate on the way that I'll have to deal with later.
Really? Because if an order is screwed up with Target you can either call and talk to a live person, or walk into a store and talk to a live person. I love Amazon but they've got nothing on target from a service perspective (IMO).
> they shop there because I can Prime myself anything in 2 days or less and if it's messed up I can talk to a human being and find out why.
Really? Amazon is often very late with Prime deliveries in my experience, only hitting the 2-day mark maybe 60% of the time. And when the miss the delivery (which I am paying $100/year for!!) there are no options presented for customer service or support, just "check back here in 3 days and if your package still hasn't arrived we'll present you with more options".
Meanwhile I can call Google any time and get great customer support for the products I pay for. I'd vastly prefer the Google delivery experience that I'd expect them to create compared to what Amazon Prime is now.
I talked to various developers from a few retail stores a few years ago and they said their companies are absolutely terrified of Amazon. Developers would be happy to use AWS but they are not allowed because it would be giving business to Amazon.
But when there is fear, there is opportunity. So Google is using that opportunity here. Not a bad move. Walmart is on-board as well it seems.
Saw news about Microsoft partnering with Amazon recently for some machine learning API. But wouldn't Microsoft compete with Amazon too? Though wonder if they are more worried about Google, "enemy of my biggest enemy is my friend" kind of thing.
So far I've ordered twice from Costco, and once from Walgreens, using google express. Both the times my order got 'canceled' with no reason specified. There's no "why?" link/button/reason either.
When I went to Costco and talked to the folks there, they said they don't deliver via Google Express. And I've no idea what went wrong with the Walgreens order, and I don't feel like trying again either.
Google needs to set higher standards for themselves and their business partners if they want to compete with Amazon.
Just last night I was talking with a friend about how good Amazon is compared to any other of the tech companies. They weren’t blamed for the elections, they haven’t gotten mixed up with terrorists, their “personalized” recommendations are sometimes so cutely wrong its actually pleasant to see.
I mean they still probably have too much power, but more in the sense of Walmart in the 1990’s. Amazon might be a monopoly, but at least they don’t undermine democracy (yet). Google as I am typing this is undermining the electorate.
That being said, my praise of Amazon is really more praise of Jeff Bezos. If he dies, or has a change of heart, we could be in trouble.
Also these partnerships mean nothing. I remember at Oracle an exec telling us how many “partnerships” he announced with Apple/Samsung/whatever at SAP. They whole point of the partnership wasn’t to “collaborate”, it was to release a press release. What do people think happens in the end?? That the most brilliant engineers of each company fly to a secret location, get into a room, and then diagram (“ideate!”) a solution on a whiteboard like it’s an episode of Numbers or Law and Order: Criminal Intent??
Trump has taken some shots at Amazon (primarily b/c Bezos owns WaPo), so they have been "in the mix" w/ respect to the current political climate.
> That being said, my praise of Amazon is really more praise of Jeff Bezos. If he dies, or has a change of heart, we could be in trouble.
Also, if you read some other threads on HN, there is a strong sentiment that Bezos is "shaking down" North American cities to determine which one is most willing to bend to his will for a secondary headquarters
Google should be called out on their pathetic support culture. Are they afraid of hiring support folks, if this is not ideology driving business decisions what is? There is no way they can compete even 1% with Amazon's customer service.
Everyone knows you can automate untill you need review at which point you need people. No amount of machine learning can take away human review and misguided attempts to do so simply pretend the world is perfect and ignore reality in favour of fairy tales and ideology. Of course the customer is left paying the price for these insane assumptions.
> Google should be called out on their pathetic support culture. Are they afraid of hiring support folks, if this is not ideology driving business decisions what is? There is no way they can compete even 1% with Amazon's customer service.
"Google...is institutionally so used to its ‘customers’ actually being its products that when it gets into businesses where it actually has customers it really has little sense of how to deal with them."
It seems to vary a lot by product. I had awful billing support on GCP (quite some time ago now so it might be better now like the Googler who replied to me last time I talked about it on HN said it would). Project Fi support has been fantastic though.
This is just Shopping Express. On the times they got my order wrong, they just let me keep the wrongly sent item and sent the correct thing. That's how they automate support in this product.
These alliance or partnership deals rarely work out in the long-term. Voice shopping is still very nascent. Having two companies in the shopping pipeline can only cause problems and/or miss blind spots. Being vertically integrated is a huge advantage for Amazon.
Surprised this hasn't happened sooner, IMO Google controlling the online UX/AI for products sourced from brick and mortars is the only viable e-commerce competitor to Amazon's continued dominance.
I'm a happy Amazon customer so I wouldn't switch, but as it's always healthy to have competition, I'd be a customer of both.
Either way handing over the user-facing UX to a major tech company doesn't bode well for the long-term future of Brick and Mortars as Google's brand will only become stronger with consumers who'd be a front for their suppliers that are ruthlessly competing in a war for the lowest price.
Why would I order from Target, Walmart or others and then wait unknown amount of time for delivery, when I can order anything I need on Amazon and have it in my hands in two days delivered for free, or sometimes even same day? I think Amazon spend great amount of money into delivery infrastructure and it works: I rarely shop now anywhere else, because I hate uncertainly: when I paid for something, I want it in my hands NOW. I doubt Target, Walmart or others will able to provide this. They are not ready for online shopping. Amazon is. And alliance will fail at some point in future, when all these stores will decide to deliver goods themselves to avoid middle men. So no, sorry. I don't get it!
I can weigh in on this since I ordered some kitchen stuff and non-perishable groceries from Walmart last week. I'd looked up the prices on Amazon first and they were inflated by ~50% compared to buying locally (hypothetically if my grocery store carried them), while Walmart had the prices matching what you'd see in stores.
Prime used to be a deal, but now it seems that base prices on anything Prime eligible have had the price jacked up to cover Prime shipping, and are usually available from a "non-prime" seller for $5-10 cheaper.
If you're ordering a Prime eligible item and don't have a membership, it's always a crappy price because the fast shipping fee has been built into it, but you get slow shipping instead. And if you do have a membership, what's that $100/year going toward? Apparently not the shipping, since Prime items are consistently priced higher. I'd speculate it's funding their other ventures like Music and TV instead.
Walmart does free shipping on most orders over $35 (in some cases 2-day), no price inflation, no membership required. And as far as I know, they don't have Amazon's counterfeiting problems. I'll be checking on them in the future before I buy anything else on Amazon.
I feel the same way as you, and the unpredictability and unreliability of AMZL has really turned me off of Amazon lately. They're constantly lying about deliveries, saying they handed a package directly to me when they left it at another building or claiming they couldn't get through the gate when they lost the package or missed the deadline.
I think we need a good competitor in this space, and can't think of another company that could help to leverage retailers enough. To me this is like google vs apple. Only good can come out of this for the consumer.
If they are fighting how will they become Googlezon ? :-)
I don't think Google saves itself by being a federated shopping platform (aka the Uber for Amazon). It would do much better by continuing to attack Amazon's AWS offerings with its own, after all if Google can keep Amazon from making a profit on their infrastructure it goes back to be a cost/liability at Amazon rather than an Asset. That cuts into profits eventually.
Were you referring to this [1]? If you s/Friendster/Facebook/ I think it seems very interesting. The information-security-state is already here, we just don't have most of the benefits (those accrue to the advertisers and TLAs).
Until they solve the selection issue I just don't care what else they can offer.
Amazon has won in my book by being a one stop shop for literally everything. I almost never price compare anymore because it's just so damn convenient being able to go on there, search, and have it in 2 or fewer days.
I just went through my last two months of Amazon purchases and searched for them on Target:
No results: 16 items
Results, but inferior products I wouldn't have purchased: 3
Equivalent item but far more expensive (double or more): 3
Identical item or equivalent I still would have purchased: 11
In the end, they could have "replaced" Amazon 33% of the time for me. That's low enough I'm never going to bother.
Edit: I saw Wal-Mart in the article so I did the same items with them. They were only missing 4 items for an 88% success rate and a few looked higher quality than I got. Not sure if they're any less "evil" (whatever that means here) but they fared much better than I expected.
Target has big problems with their online ordering. I've ordered items from them, had the order lost and no contact from the company at all. If you go to a local store where you can also have items delivered, they have no order info, and can't help you. There is a reason why Amazon is popular.
My counter anecdote: I had a fantastic online ordering experience at Target about a week or two ago. I needed something during the work day, so I placed an order with the nearest store to my office over the Internet and they had my order ready for in-store pickup in under a half hour. Stopped by, walked in, picked it up, and left. Still had time to go get lunch.
I can now talk to an "intelligent" AI when my shipment doesn't arrive on time or if I have to complain about a product I bought. May be a post in Google Forums.
Google is building an anti-Amazon alliance, and Target is the latest to join
and the source article:
Google is essentially building an anti-Amazon alliance, and Target is the latest to join
The one word changes the article from providing an interpretation of a set of facts to a declaration of a proven fact. Since Recode has some gravitas the difference is even greater than if it was a blog mill churning out click bait.
Voice shopping doesn't work well if it offers choices of vendors for a single product. The voice interface is a bit awkward for that.
Google will end up being a kingmaker in this space. I suppose they could round robin suppliers, but to do this well requires tight integration, which also pushes you to fewer suppliers.
Won't competition be both good for Amazon and for consumers? Right now, Amazon is a monopoly (because of Prime and good selection [although still lots of room there for improvement], and I also use Amazon Prime a lot, but a second option would probably improve things, I think.
I know a guy who knows some Google VPs who say Google is afraid people will go directly to Amazon for all their shopping searches rather than starting with Google, hence ad spend is threatened. Big deal for Google.
[+] [-] hbosch|8 years ago|reply
I don't see how this is a threat to Amazon. People don't shop there because they have voice -- they shop there because I can Prime myself anything in 2 days or less and if it's messed up I can talk to a human being and find out why. I'd hate to try and get the same kind of service via Google and Target.
[+] [-] viperscape|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] anindha|8 years ago|reply
Google should start developing warehouse technology and a delivery network in order to start competing directly with Amazon. Their current strategy is just a coat of paint on declining businesses.
[1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB100017752821017751 [2] https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB113798030922653260
[+] [-] dawnerd|8 years ago|reply
Also target has amazing returns. You can return online orders to the store - not like you can do that with amazon. I believe Walmart is the same.
[+] [-] daveFNbuck|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bitmapbrother|8 years ago|reply
Well, you would specify where it came from by mentioning Walmart or Target.
>If they send me dog food instead, how do I get in touch with customer service? Is it Google's customer service or Target's?
The same customer service you ordered the product from and was clearly stated in the email confirmation you received from either Walmart or Target.
[+] [-] tw04|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] danudey|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cryptoz|8 years ago|reply
Really? Amazon is often very late with Prime deliveries in my experience, only hitting the 2-day mark maybe 60% of the time. And when the miss the delivery (which I am paying $100/year for!!) there are no options presented for customer service or support, just "check back here in 3 days and if your package still hasn't arrived we'll present you with more options".
Meanwhile I can call Google any time and get great customer support for the products I pay for. I'd vastly prefer the Google delivery experience that I'd expect them to create compared to what Amazon Prime is now.
[+] [-] rdtsc|8 years ago|reply
But when there is fear, there is opportunity. So Google is using that opportunity here. Not a bad move. Walmart is on-board as well it seems.
Saw news about Microsoft partnering with Amazon recently for some machine learning API. But wouldn't Microsoft compete with Amazon too? Though wonder if they are more worried about Google, "enemy of my biggest enemy is my friend" kind of thing.
[+] [-] Jagat|8 years ago|reply
When I went to Costco and talked to the folks there, they said they don't deliver via Google Express. And I've no idea what went wrong with the Walgreens order, and I don't feel like trying again either.
Google needs to set higher standards for themselves and their business partners if they want to compete with Amazon.
[+] [-] Top19|8 years ago|reply
I mean they still probably have too much power, but more in the sense of Walmart in the 1990’s. Amazon might be a monopoly, but at least they don’t undermine democracy (yet). Google as I am typing this is undermining the electorate.
That being said, my praise of Amazon is really more praise of Jeff Bezos. If he dies, or has a change of heart, we could be in trouble.
Also these partnerships mean nothing. I remember at Oracle an exec telling us how many “partnerships” he announced with Apple/Samsung/whatever at SAP. They whole point of the partnership wasn’t to “collaborate”, it was to release a press release. What do people think happens in the end?? That the most brilliant engineers of each company fly to a secret location, get into a room, and then diagram (“ideate!”) a solution on a whiteboard like it’s an episode of Numbers or Law and Order: Criminal Intent??
[+] [-] busyant|8 years ago|reply
Trump has taken some shots at Amazon (primarily b/c Bezos owns WaPo), so they have been "in the mix" w/ respect to the current political climate.
> That being said, my praise of Amazon is really more praise of Jeff Bezos. If he dies, or has a change of heart, we could be in trouble.
Also, if you read some other threads on HN, there is a strong sentiment that Bezos is "shaking down" North American cities to determine which one is most willing to bend to his will for a secondary headquarters
It's not all rainbows and ponies in AMZN land.
[+] [-] gtsteve|8 years ago|reply
[citation needed]
[+] [-] bitmapbrother|8 years ago|reply
It would seem you missed the part about their studio chief being suspended for sexual harassment.
[+] [-] throw2016|8 years ago|reply
Everyone knows you can automate untill you need review at which point you need people. No amount of machine learning can take away human review and misguided attempts to do so simply pretend the world is perfect and ignore reality in favour of fairy tales and ideology. Of course the customer is left paying the price for these insane assumptions.
[+] [-] Chaebixi|8 years ago|reply
"Google...is institutionally so used to its ‘customers’ actually being its products that when it gets into businesses where it actually has customers it really has little sense of how to deal with them."
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/a-serf-on-googles-farm
[+] [-] eco|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lern_too_spel|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] laluser|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ceejayoz|8 years ago|reply
https://www.geekwire.com/2011/target-finally-parts-ways-amaz...
[+] [-] mythz|8 years ago|reply
I'm a happy Amazon customer so I wouldn't switch, but as it's always healthy to have competition, I'd be a customer of both.
Either way handing over the user-facing UX to a major tech company doesn't bode well for the long-term future of Brick and Mortars as Google's brand will only become stronger with consumers who'd be a front for their suppliers that are ruthlessly competing in a war for the lowest price.
[+] [-] sashk|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wlesieutre|8 years ago|reply
Prime used to be a deal, but now it seems that base prices on anything Prime eligible have had the price jacked up to cover Prime shipping, and are usually available from a "non-prime" seller for $5-10 cheaper.
If you're ordering a Prime eligible item and don't have a membership, it's always a crappy price because the fast shipping fee has been built into it, but you get slow shipping instead. And if you do have a membership, what's that $100/year going toward? Apparently not the shipping, since Prime items are consistently priced higher. I'd speculate it's funding their other ventures like Music and TV instead.
Walmart does free shipping on most orders over $35 (in some cases 2-day), no price inflation, no membership required. And as far as I know, they don't have Amazon's counterfeiting problems. I'll be checking on them in the future before I buy anything else on Amazon.
[+] [-] daveFNbuck|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tyingq|8 years ago|reply
Walmart, at least, was moving that way. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2017/06/01/w...
[+] [-] sourthyme|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ChuckMcM|8 years ago|reply
I don't think Google saves itself by being a federated shopping platform (aka the Uber for Amazon). It would do much better by continuing to attack Amazon's AWS offerings with its own, after all if Google can keep Amazon from making a profit on their infrastructure it goes back to be a cost/liability at Amazon rather than an Asset. That cuts into profits eventually.
[+] [-] ISL|8 years ago|reply
As long as companies can make money on float, sheer volume can be its own profit center.
[+] [-] r00fus|8 years ago|reply
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPIC_2014
[+] [-] AndrewOMartin|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mxuribe|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] scrooched_moose|8 years ago|reply
Amazon has won in my book by being a one stop shop for literally everything. I almost never price compare anymore because it's just so damn convenient being able to go on there, search, and have it in 2 or fewer days.
I just went through my last two months of Amazon purchases and searched for them on Target:
In the end, they could have "replaced" Amazon 33% of the time for me. That's low enough I'm never going to bother.Edit: I saw Wal-Mart in the article so I did the same items with them. They were only missing 4 items for an 88% success rate and a few looked higher quality than I got. Not sure if they're any less "evil" (whatever that means here) but they fared much better than I expected.
[+] [-] beagle3|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vondur|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ocdtrekkie|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gizmodo59|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] forgotAgain|8 years ago|reply
This post heading:
Google is building an anti-Amazon alliance, and Target is the latest to join
and the source article:
Google is essentially building an anti-Amazon alliance, and Target is the latest to join
The one word changes the article from providing an interpretation of a set of facts to a declaration of a proven fact. Since Recode has some gravitas the difference is even greater than if it was a blog mill churning out click bait.
[+] [-] tyingq|8 years ago|reply
Google will end up being a kingmaker in this space. I suppose they could round robin suppliers, but to do this well requires tight integration, which also pushes you to fewer suppliers.
[+] [-] dfps|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] heurist|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] faragon|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] daveFNbuck|8 years ago|reply