I just placed an order with this new service (some HDMI cables for our office).
The selection is pretty decent, definitely comparable to Google Shopping Express.
One very odd note though: they ask for a variable tip to the delivery courier (something Google doesn't do). So even for "free" 2 hour delivery, you're paying for delivery. While I see how this is better for the courier, I think it's a big mistake—people hate navigating the social dilemma of how to tip properly, and solving social dilemmas is a key advantage of digital services.
Tipping is a nuisance, something that goes in the "Con" category in a Pro & Con analysis. The vendor is implicitly warning you that you shouldn't count on getting good service included just because you officially paid for it. They're warning you that they have no real control over their service providers, and "it would be a shame if something unforeseeable, like getting caught in traffic, were to happen to a delivery you were counting on", so you'd better work something out with them privately and hope the "service" provider is pleased with the result.
Like many people, I have a lot of options when it comes to who I buy from. I now have to pay sales tax to Amazon, and there are often other vendors who are cheaper, or charge no sales tax, or have stores five minutes away where "shipping" is instantaneous and always free for even the smallest purchase. Even so, I'll often pay more and buy from Amazon anyway because of their service. Anything that reduced their service quality would shift some of those purchases away from Amazon.
I haven't seen this new Amazon system for myself yet, so maybe there's no real problem, but if "free" 2-hour delivery turns out to require air-quotes around the "free" along with a nudge, nudge, wink, wink, "it would be a mistake to disappoint me" attitude from the delivery guy, I'll use the system a lot less.
There's a pizza chain that does this for online orders, and it drives me crazy. I don't tip until after service is rendered, because tipping ahead of time insures nothing. There's no place to put a custom note on the order either, so I have to order by phone. It's good for them that they have great pizza, because I'm sure this turns off a lot of potential customers, but not me.
Just as Amazon is trying to use 1 hour delivery to compete better
against brick-and-mortar companies, Google is trying to help the
brick-and-mortar companies compete with Amazon by providing a competing
delivery service called "Google Express" (previously called "Google
Shopping Express") [1]. It's been mentioned a few times on hn [2,3].
> Google is trying to help the brick-and-mortar companies compete with Amazon
I'm not sure that wording is accurate. Google is leveraging the brick-and-mortar companies to compete with Amazon and collect more data about its users. Arguably some of the most valuable data they could get; spending and buying habits.
I doubt Target is thrilled that Google is looking to inject themselves as a middleman between them and their customers. Target has historically leveraged customer buying habits pretty aggressively [1]. I'd be surprised if their execs aren't frantically trying to figure out how to keep Google from "helping" them compete with Amazon.
It's hard for me to see how this doesn't hurt local vendors badly. Of course, it depends on what the the 25,000 items are, but that was one of the key differentiators between Amazon and local stores--if you needed something and you needed it now, the local store was the only option (things like cabling for a new TV, gifts for a party that night, etc).
Now, for prime members in NYC at least, Amazon is a viable option.
What other moats do local stores have? Amazon wins on:
* selection
* cost
* convenience
* reputation
* knowledge (this depends on the local store)
What does the local store win on?
* feel good factor (supporting local business and employment)
* hold the item in your hand (not sure there is one word for it in English, but the Germans probably have one)
Sure, in the short-term, Amazon can do what they do and undercut on price, but in the modern age, Wal-Mart has pretty much figured out the optimal model of inventory storage/distribution and the model of keeping inventory on-hand and having customers come to them enables them to do this at an incredibly large scale and at razor-thin margins. Yet they are still margins.
As we have seen before, delivering products at that scale and selection via delivery is extraordinarily challenging to do profitably. Amazon can do a lot of things, but one thing I don't think they will ever be able to do is bring products to peoples' doors at a cheaper price than Wal-Mart can store inventory in large stores and distribute to customers who come to them. There are just too many complexities around the delivery/customer service/quality control processes to make the economics work out.
For example, try buying a car fob battery -- in my case, a cr2016. You'll see dozens of such batteries, some name brand, some not. But if you read the comments, you'll find that even the purportedly (from the listing name and image) name brand batteries often aren't. eg [1] After spending 30 minutes trying to find a single listing that actually would send me a bloody name-brand, within expiration date battery, I just gave up. This was far more hassle than just going to my local hardware store.
Another place amazon is very vulnerable is personal / body goods and food. I'm fine buying books and flashlights from them, but for food, deodorant, sunblock, lipsticks, etc, I want real goods not fake ones. Ideally purchased by amazon directly from the originating company. Instead, I'm confident that when you purchase those goods, even if directly from amazon and not one of the marketplace vendors, amazon will look to find the closest warehouse with such an item in it (even listed from one of the marketplace vendors) and send that to you. Amazon also makes it quite difficult to just purchase directly from amazon and not from a marketplace vendor. I think there's going to be a huge scandal when people realize lots of those goods are fake.
If a store is close to your commute route, for example, the delivery costs will probably never be low enough to match with that.
I would also dispute on knowledge. In this case, knowledge is a matter of time: you can always google exactly the product you need, but that's going to cost you time. If you're not sure about the exact specifications of what you need, reading reviews isn't necessarily going to help either. Salespeople, if available, can tell you what you need and what's the best cost-benefit (probably leaning towards the more costly).
There's an additional aspect you didn't account for: entertainment. I don't get entertainment off of shopping, but i know a lot of people do. You get some of that while looking things online, i.e. 'browsing' items, but it's not the same experience. Also, shopping is often tied to other entertainment like eating out, movies, etc -- this is done strategically for mutual benefit of mall venues -- and of course can't be replicated online.
It's easy to imagine even if the whole catalog of Amazon were available today for 1-hour delivery for $7.99 (or less), a big part of the average urban dwellers' shopping would still be done offline.
Honestly, I like getting out of the house and going to the store. Not every day, I do my share of buying online. But there are plenty of times I'd rather go out and I'm not tempted to sit around and wait to be brought something, even if it could come within the hour.
I often do reverse show-rooming. I'll browse through a real bookstore, which is fun, but I'll look up reviews on mobile and factor that into my buying decisions.
It's in no way clear that Amazon wins on selection. In 25K SKUs, Amazon will have electronics, but almost certainly hace fewer SKUs than a dedicated electronics store. They will have groceries, but not as many as a grocery store. They will have clothing and housewares, but surely only a small sampling relative to Macy's.
I shop at Amazon Fresh in Seattle sometimes, and the selection is significantly trimmed relative to pretty much any local grocery store I can walk into. The tradeoff is the convenience of not having to go to the store and spend my time traversing the aisles.
If a Mom and Pop store can't differentiate, why would it be good for them to stay in business?
The ones that provide something extra will raise their prices and be more expensive, and people will go when they're willing to pay the difference; look at the independent book shops in London as an example.
It's a romantic idea and all, but beyond that I don't think "local vendors are de facto a good thing" is a reasonable starting point.
Don't forget the time you spend commuting to said brick-and-mortar store. Who wants to waste 45 minutes driving to and from Target, only to wait in line listening to screaming kids? There are only so many hours in a day.
I'll do my best to support my neighborhood hardware store, but I'll definitely delegate many purchases to Amazon Prime delivery if it means saving a trip to Target, Best Buy, or other big box store.
I was thinking recently that at this point, I'd only feel comfortable opening up a retail business if a significant part of the business was oriented toward short notice purchases, as that would be somewhat protected from Amazon and other online retailers.
With this development that "short notice" protection doesn't seem so concrete.
You missed customer service, a huge one for me. I actively try to avoid brick and mortar shopping ever since a hardware store owner refused to take back a defective stud finder. Amazon will bend over backwards to make things right for a customer, and accepts returns for any reason.
The local stores I visit are almost never mom & pop shops anyways, but huge franchises like Home Depot, Walgreens, Safeway, or Target. So the feel good factor is non-existent.
Somewhere, Kozmo.com CEO Joseph Park is reminding someone that this is Jeff Bezos's second attempt at one hour delivery, and that he was already doing this for Bezos back in the 20th century.
What I don't understand about the big retailers is why they haven't been doing something similar all along to compete with Amazon.
Amazon has been building warehouses all across the country near cities to reduce shipping times. But the retailers already have what amounts to hundreds of warehouses at every population center, plus the inventory management systems. Why haven't they put their inventories online and offered same day delivery to neutralize Amazon?
Just heard about Shyp yesterday. Seems like it's the same idea but selling the concept of regular people helping each other for a more personal service (like Uber, Lyft). I kind of like that approach. http://www.shyp.com/heroes
What most don't realize is that Amazon is taking on Fedex, UPS, and the USPS by doing it themselves for profit. This is actually very smart if you can solve the logistics problem long term because this model can be leveraged in many other cities.
Having the ability to pickup and deliver from multiple locations throughout a city like Postmates or Instacart does is a huge advantage. At least for a one hour delivery. Density of drivers in a city is an important factor as well. If you can route a driver to a location nearby instead of a single warehouse you can be more efficient. Instacart and Postmates also both have high frequency categories that they can use to leverage less frequent items, e.g essentials over time and potentially at lower costs.
Amazon could just have OnTrac create a product called One-Hour Delivery, and have OnTrac claim that they tried to deliver but that the recipients weren't home.
If Dominos can do it for pizzas, amazon can do it for much bigger ticket items.
PLUS they are not incurring the cost of shipping the item to a prime member. Right now for every physical good prime purchase they spend money on shipping.
Also see:
Amazon is not worried about short term profit [1]
They have probably planned to not profit for a while in exchange for increased cashflow. Again for Amazon, profit isn't first, the customer is.
Are they outsourcing the couriers in this case? The promo video looks like as if these guys are sourced straight from a Chrome Industries / Rapha commercial.
I find it really weird that on HN, which in general I find to be a pro-capitalist, let-the-market-sort-it-out kind of place, so many commenters seem irked at businesses 'being cheap' by offloading waitstaff salaries onto tips. I'm just a simple country hyperchicken, but isn't this that 'maximizing shareholder value' stuff I've been hearing so much about?
Can't wait to see how awesome the work environment will be for these couriers! Probably much like Uber's drivers: under constant pressure to meet a quota (in this case, probably minimizing the number of missed 1 hour marks), and if you're injured/hit/cause an accident, it's on you and the employer will be nowhere to be found.
I think most purchases break down into "I need it now" vs. "I need it in a day or two." Currently, Amazon can't get the first category, so it's served by local stores. And four-hour or same-day delivery doesn't really address that market either.
[+] [-] morgante|11 years ago|reply
The selection is pretty decent, definitely comparable to Google Shopping Express.
One very odd note though: they ask for a variable tip to the delivery courier (something Google doesn't do). So even for "free" 2 hour delivery, you're paying for delivery. While I see how this is better for the courier, I think it's a big mistake—people hate navigating the social dilemma of how to tip properly, and solving social dilemmas is a key advantage of digital services.
[+] [-] SiVal|11 years ago|reply
Like many people, I have a lot of options when it comes to who I buy from. I now have to pay sales tax to Amazon, and there are often other vendors who are cheaper, or charge no sales tax, or have stores five minutes away where "shipping" is instantaneous and always free for even the smallest purchase. Even so, I'll often pay more and buy from Amazon anyway because of their service. Anything that reduced their service quality would shift some of those purchases away from Amazon.
I haven't seen this new Amazon system for myself yet, so maybe there's no real problem, but if "free" 2-hour delivery turns out to require air-quotes around the "free" along with a nudge, nudge, wink, wink, "it would be a mistake to disappoint me" attitude from the delivery guy, I'll use the system a lot less.
[+] [-] Chevalier|11 years ago|reply
I'd vastly prefer doing away with tips altogether and just paying a living wage, but the least these services can do is to spare me extra work.
[+] [-] stronglikedan|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jcr|11 years ago|reply
[1] https://www.google.com/shopping/express/
[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8037108
[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8452337
[+] [-] jmathai|11 years ago|reply
I'm not sure that wording is accurate. Google is leveraging the brick-and-mortar companies to compete with Amazon and collect more data about its users. Arguably some of the most valuable data they could get; spending and buying habits.
I doubt Target is thrilled that Google is looking to inject themselves as a middleman between them and their customers. Target has historically leveraged customer buying habits pretty aggressively [1]. I'd be surprised if their execs aren't frantically trying to figure out how to keep Google from "helping" them compete with Amazon.
[1] http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-targe...
[+] [-] mooreds|11 years ago|reply
Now, for prime members in NYC at least, Amazon is a viable option.
What other moats do local stores have? Amazon wins on:
What does the local store win on? It's a draw on Interesting times, indeed.[+] [-] dkrich|11 years ago|reply
I think in the long-run, it'll be price.
Sure, in the short-term, Amazon can do what they do and undercut on price, but in the modern age, Wal-Mart has pretty much figured out the optimal model of inventory storage/distribution and the model of keeping inventory on-hand and having customers come to them enables them to do this at an incredibly large scale and at razor-thin margins. Yet they are still margins.
As we have seen before, delivering products at that scale and selection via delivery is extraordinarily challenging to do profitably. Amazon can do a lot of things, but one thing I don't think they will ever be able to do is bring products to peoples' doors at a cheaper price than Wal-Mart can store inventory in large stores and distribute to customers who come to them. There are just too many complexities around the delivery/customer service/quality control processes to make the economics work out.
[+] [-] x0x0|11 years ago|reply
For example, try buying a car fob battery -- in my case, a cr2016. You'll see dozens of such batteries, some name brand, some not. But if you read the comments, you'll find that even the purportedly (from the listing name and image) name brand batteries often aren't. eg [1] After spending 30 minutes trying to find a single listing that actually would send me a bloody name-brand, within expiration date battery, I just gave up. This was far more hassle than just going to my local hardware store.
Another place amazon is very vulnerable is personal / body goods and food. I'm fine buying books and flashlights from them, but for food, deodorant, sunblock, lipsticks, etc, I want real goods not fake ones. Ideally purchased by amazon directly from the originating company. Instead, I'm confident that when you purchase those goods, even if directly from amazon and not one of the marketplace vendors, amazon will look to find the closest warehouse with such an item in it (even listed from one of the marketplace vendors) and send that to you. Amazon also makes it quite difficult to just purchase directly from amazon and not from a marketplace vendor. I think there's going to be a huge scandal when people realize lots of those goods are fake.
[1] http://www.amazon.com/Energizer-CR2016-Lithium-Battery-5-Pk/...
[+] [-] darkmighty|11 years ago|reply
If a store is close to your commute route, for example, the delivery costs will probably never be low enough to match with that.
I would also dispute on knowledge. In this case, knowledge is a matter of time: you can always google exactly the product you need, but that's going to cost you time. If you're not sure about the exact specifications of what you need, reading reviews isn't necessarily going to help either. Salespeople, if available, can tell you what you need and what's the best cost-benefit (probably leaning towards the more costly).
There's an additional aspect you didn't account for: entertainment. I don't get entertainment off of shopping, but i know a lot of people do. You get some of that while looking things online, i.e. 'browsing' items, but it's not the same experience. Also, shopping is often tied to other entertainment like eating out, movies, etc -- this is done strategically for mutual benefit of mall venues -- and of course can't be replicated online.
It's easy to imagine even if the whole catalog of Amazon were available today for 1-hour delivery for $7.99 (or less), a big part of the average urban dwellers' shopping would still be done offline.
[+] [-] gdulli|11 years ago|reply
I often do reverse show-rooming. I'll browse through a real bookstore, which is fun, but I'll look up reviews on mobile and factor that into my buying decisions.
[+] [-] tesseractive|11 years ago|reply
I shop at Amazon Fresh in Seattle sometimes, and the selection is significantly trimmed relative to pretty much any local grocery store I can walk into. The tradeoff is the convenience of not having to go to the store and spend my time traversing the aisles.
[+] [-] peteretep|11 years ago|reply
The ones that provide something extra will raise their prices and be more expensive, and people will go when they're willing to pay the difference; look at the independent book shops in London as an example.
It's a romantic idea and all, but beyond that I don't think "local vendors are de facto a good thing" is a reasonable starting point.
[+] [-] ics|11 years ago|reply
As for convenience, those without a doorman always think twice before placing orders online.
[+] [-] unknown|11 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] pwenzel|11 years ago|reply
I'll do my best to support my neighborhood hardware store, but I'll definitely delegate many purchases to Amazon Prime delivery if it means saving a trip to Target, Best Buy, or other big box store.
[+] [-] Tiktaalik|11 years ago|reply
With this development that "short notice" protection doesn't seem so concrete.
[+] [-] yellowstuff|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] whiskyant|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] LLWM|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] BrandonY|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mooreds|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jtchang|11 years ago|reply
And how about returns? Can I return stuff in one hour too?
[+] [-] ComputerGuru|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ovi256|11 years ago|reply
For Amazon Prime users, I could very well see returns piggybacking on deliveries - the delivery courier would simply pick up the return.
[+] [-] iTrollFreely|11 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] smackfu|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] oh_sigh|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bring1|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] guelo|11 years ago|reply
Amazon has been building warehouses all across the country near cities to reduce shipping times. But the retailers already have what amounts to hundreds of warehouses at every population center, plus the inventory management systems. Why haven't they put their inventories online and offered same day delivery to neutralize Amazon?
[+] [-] Rygu|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] free2rhyme214|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Instacartlove|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] benatkin|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nateberkopec|11 years ago|reply
Very interesting how ideas from the first bubble re: brick-and-mortar are coming back.
[+] [-] shalbert|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bengali3|11 years ago|reply
If Dominos can do it for pizzas, amazon can do it for much bigger ticket items.
PLUS they are not incurring the cost of shipping the item to a prime member. Right now for every physical good prime purchase they spend money on shipping.
Also see: Amazon is not worried about short term profit [1]
They have probably planned to not profit for a while in exchange for increased cashflow. Again for Amazon, profit isn't first, the customer is.
[1] http://www.businessinsider.com/amazons-jeff-bezos-on-profits...
[+] [-] marban|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tapatio|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] quackware|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zipfle|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Dirlewanger|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] digikata|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] philwelch|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gfodor|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] driverdan|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mrfusion|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] smackfu|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] driverdan|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] comrade1|11 years ago|reply
(if you don't remember Kozmo, this was done by a reporter during the last dotcom boom/bust as a joke)