Amazon | Electric Thoughts in a Digital Era

The week in News for Amazon (AMZN)

The week that ended was one that had the entire digital industry looking at a Seattle, Washington company. Amazon and its founder Jeff Bezos had quite a bit of ink, pixels devoted to them. There is such a lot to think about, it kinda lead to one post on the topic (The 10 stories post is going to be written as soon as this is done).

Washington Post

When I read about Bezos selling his stock, my attention got diverted into “I wonder what Bezos has in mind..” and then I got busy at work. When Bezos sells stock (which generally occurs very seldomly) generally it means cash is needed for something (normally an acquisition). The fact that he spent $250 million to buy the Washington Post and made it clear that the acquisition is in his private capacity for me are clues that this purchase was long time in the works. No-one saw this coming which communicates just how close Bezos keeps his cards to his chest

Why?

Bezos has bought the Washington Post to save a business that is facing extinction. The long term thinking that Bezos has shown will ensure that Washington Post survives. There are a few things that Bezos has shown me with this purchase:

He loves content. May it be books, e-books or news, he has a love for knowledge. The Washington Post is another platform that creates thousands of words and articles per year. The need for news will always be a factor in newspaper’s long term future. You cant create algorithms for that – human editors and writers are needed.
If an opportunity arises that leads to an acquisition – Bezos will take the chance but it will be on his terms. There is a reason why he purchased one of the most historical newspapers in the US. It may be influence, the opportunity to change the newspaper industry, potentially have another business that he can leverage to provide sales to his day job (Amazon.com) – may it be a Kindle etc.
The Washington Post provides another data set for Amazon to potentially incorporate into their algorithms. (I wonder if the Washington Post will be seen on Google news when the sale completes?)
The Washington Post is Bezos second news related investment. Earlier in the year, Bezos invested in Business Insider.

The Washington Post under Bezos’s ownership is going to be something worth keeping an eye on.

Amazon – The Art Gallery

Amazon has also announced that is selling art. Needless to say this news will concern art gallery owners. It is becoming clear that Amazon wants to be the “Walmart of the web”. Being able to buy whatever you need, Amazon is to be your starting point towards a purchase.

Amazon.com, Inc. today announced the launch of Amazon Art (www.amazon.com/art), a marketplace that gives customers direct access to more than 40,000 works of fine art from over 150 galleries and dealers. At launch, Amazon Art will showcase artworks from more than 4,500 artists. The store is one of the largest online collections of original and limited edition artwork for purchase directly from galleries and dealers.

The art space will be disrupted by Amazon or it might be another story as seen with Amazon’s struggle with wine selling.

Amazon moves into Russia

Amazon has started to hire for staff in their Kindle division in Russia. The Kindle Store is the trojan horse for Amazon as that is normally the first path to market entry. We have seen this same behaviour when Amazon entered India and Brazil.

When I first heard about this news, I thought Amazon was going for a strictly digital play. But if the detail about the trademarks is true then the Kindle Store is but the tip of the spear. Amazon is probably repeating the strategy they used when they launched in Brazil. Their first operation in that country was the Kindle Store, which launched in December 2012. So far as I can tell Amazon has yet to launch a retail operation in Brazil, but it is probably in the works.

The emerging markets are steadily getting more attention from Amazon. Brazil, China, India and now Russia is seeing more investment from the Seattle company. Ozon.ru has been placed on notice, Amazon is on the way.

Amazon doing an FBA pilot

Earlier today a reader contacted me with some very interesting information on a pilot that Amazon is testing currently. The contents of the communicated has been redacted to protect the identity of the source but a few things are clear to me.

One – Prime is becoming more important for Amazon to combat the impact that Google will have on their business and bottom line. Being able to provide a standard Amazon experience to all shoppers and then leverage Prime to enable more transactions just highlight just how valuable Prime is for the Seattle company. Amazon Prime is the worlds greatest loyalty program.

When Bezos and co create a revenue generation opportunity via a new investment or feature it is to be leveraged multiple times to recoup that investment. This very factor makes me realise just how far Amazon is in front of their competition. Think of it as Lean Startup meets Walmart.

Amazon goes grocery shopping outside Seattle

Jeff Bezos must be the pied piper of commerce. His creation Amazon is slowly moving out of its traditional market (online) and disrupting retail. He clearly wants to ensure that Amazon can supply any product to any shopper in the US. (International focus is to intensify in the next 5 years in my opinion as current countries of operation become saturated)

The onslaught into retail and the high street started with the Amazon Price Check app. The idea was to enable shoppers to scan and compare products and then buy through Amazon at a discount. In this specific case Bezos used the shopper as an intelligence network that would enable Amazon to create pricing data for retailer product. It is telling that this happened in 2011 and if one looks back it was the beginning of their challenge to retailers in the US.

On Dec. 10, Amazon promoted a new “Price Check” mobile phone app by offering shoppers a 5% discount—valid only for that one day—on items they found in brick-and-mortar stores, but purchased online through Amazon instead. The app enables in-store shoppers to scan or snap a photo of a product. It then immediately compares prices with Amazon’s. The app is prompting an outcry from small retailers, who say the site is using their independent stores as its own showroom.

“The goal of the Price Check app is to make it as easy as possible for customers to access product information, pricing information, and customer reviews, just as they would on the Web, while shopping in a major retail chain store,” he said.

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.

The big battle for ecommerce domination

It is the month of February and Q4 seems like a lifetime away. I am beginning to see one story develop in more detail as time goes by. Ecommerce in North America is becoming a battle between Amazon and Google. It is Jeff Bezos vs Larry Page, the State of Washington vs California and it all boils down to owning the commerce vertical online.

Background

Regular readers will be aware that I believe that Amazon is the gold standard for ecommerce. Their value proposition is attractive for customers and they control the entire ecommerce value chain when a customer acquires a product from them. The only thing that Amazon does not have a 100% control over is logistics, the final step to getting the product into the hands of the customer. I believe that Amazon is solving that problem by coming closer to their customer’s location through fulfillment centre’s.

Google on the other hand is a technology company not really sure what it’s core offering is. It is a media company (via Adwords, Product Listing Ads), a lobbying behemoth (they spent $18 million dollars in Washington, as seen in the graph below), a mobile operating system company (via Android and Motorola Mobility), provide analytics and software for business (Google apps). It is becoming clear that they have ambitions for retail which makes sense. Increasingly it is being shown that they also want to be part of ecommerce.