A blog on eCommerce, Social Commerce, Comparative Shopping Engines & Business

By Hendrik Laubscher

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Amazon and controversial warehouse worker non-compete contracts

The last 24 hours is the reason why Amazon has hired Jay Carney, a former Obama spokesperson to be responsible for global corporate affairs. Amazon has seen a fair share of controversy over the warehouse workers and working conditions. As usual the company has largely remained quiet and I believe this is one of the areas in which Carney will be more verbal.

The issue is in my mind – the technology chameleon that does ecommerce (Amazon) is still very reliant on human intervention when packing of purchases are done inside Amazon warehouses. Speed and efficiency which is sold to customers lead to very harsh working conditions for seasonal and temporary workers. Robots who don’t have unions can only work for so many hours until they need recharging. Also sometimes logic is needed for packing which cannot be seen inside a robot.

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Amazon’s Jeff Bezos looks to the future

It is Cyber Monday – the biggest day of ecommerce in North America and the main benefactor of press coverage is Amazon.com. After watching the 60 Minutes interview that Charlie Rose did with Jeff Bezos, a few things come to mind. It is clear that Bezos is trying to do so PR work after the Everything Store written by Brad Stone made him seem to be a draconian leader. I dont believe in coincidences as the timing of this interview just seems to good to be true.

Timing is everything

As I have mentioned today is Cyber Monday and the 14 minute interview that Charlie Rose did can be seen as an advertorial as Bezos mentioned the normal lines “customer centric”, “we like to innovate” etc.

If you look closely at the video then Amazon fashion gets a favorable amount of time. AmazonFresh is also given some airtime and I must be honest – after giving it months of thought the fact that Amazon took 5 years to figure out a business model for the grocery business, that should scare competitors. AWS is a dark horse for me at the moment as Amazon has been reluctant to mention the size of the business and their partners that use the software platform.
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The Great Technology War between Giants

2012 was a year in which a bigger picture formed inside my thinking. Ecommerce is my day job and I think we are in a great period for commerce. Let us be clear about one thing, retail and ecommerce is no longer 2 channels. It is one massive opportunity for businesses and entrepreneurs to assist customers buying items whether it be online or in-store.

Mobile commerce in its current format is not the endgame in my mind. We are only scratching the surface on what mobile devices can do. Augmented reality, location and a variety of other things will play a role in commerce in the coming years.

Regular readers will be aware of my thinking regarding the big five. It is not the animals found in the game park but rather the big five technology businesses. I have written about it in the past when I looked at the Amazon effect but these companies drive the technology used by us on a daily basis.

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How big is Amazon.com?

Seattle is home of the silent giant called Amazon.com. When I was in the US in October, I visited Seattle and tried to find the silent giant. The offices are not marked but it is seen on GPS maps, one would think that this company would be proud of their heritage. Amazon.com operates in a different manner..

Amazon.com is the creation of someone whom I would love to talk to. Jeff Bezos is in a class by himself and there are maybe 3 people in commerce that can be seen in same light as him. Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart whom built a giant that is all across the globe.

In the developing ecommerce world there are 2 founders of companies whom I believe that can hold their own against Bezos. Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba has built a business that will dominate a developing world economy. Is China no longer an option for foreign ecommerce investors? I tend to think so.

Secondly, in Latin America is a founder whom I have been privileged to meet in person. Romero Rodrigues is one of the founders of Buscape and one of the most thoughtful folks I have met in ecommerce. What makes these individuals different? Long term focus, they were all founders of the business and are now leading the businesses they created. The thing that makes them the leaders, is the ability to be 5 steps of the market. Skating to where the puck is going to be, comes to mind.

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Apple – the pretender to Amazon’s reign?

This is the first in a series of posts regarding Amazon’s competitors.

Game on between Cupertino and Seattle:
It is clear to me that Apple is the company at the moment that can topple Amazon. It won’t be overnight but rather the process will take some time and will need Amazon to drop the ball (which at the moment I am not seeing any time soon).

Apple in it’s current form can take Amazon head on.  When Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded the company, the main purpose was to create personal computers. The rest is history and is outside the bounds of this post. The point is Apple has software and hardware creation in it’s DNA.

Apple has a much larger global footprint in comparison to that of Amazon and in my mind it makes more revenue based on providing opportunity to users to spend money on its App Store and iTunes. One thing  that must not be forgotten is that Apple has 400 million credit cards saved by users on their iTunes platform. It may not be one click buying but the process is user friendly.

In terms of content, Apple can match and exceed the amount of content that Amazon has. The content I refer to is ebooks, music and apps which all lead to income for the Cupertino company. Steve Jobs was the only competitive CEO that realized that eBooks was a genius move by Bezos. However he took the potential negative of not being first to market and turned it to a positive by actively trying to assist publishers in fighting versus Amazon. In the end it lead to legal proceedings and a hefty fine for Apple (which they are contesting) but Apple will continue in the content game. Not one direct competitor took the Amazon bull by the horns as Apple did.

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