1. From to clicks and mortar to bricks and mortar: Amazon Book Stores

 
Amazon Books is a chain of physical retail bookstores opened by Amazon. Currently only in the USA in 14 states, with locations extending from the west coast (California, Oregon, Washington) thru to the east coast (New York, New Jersey, Maryland and DC)
Everything in the store is rated 4* or above or is a top seller or new release. And Amazon Prime members pay
 
Amazon book stores

2. Amazon’s food shopping: Amazon Go, and Go Grocery

Amazon Go is a new way to eat breakfast lunch and dinner.  Ready to eat foodNo lines, no checkouts.  Known as “Just Walk Out Technology,” the shopper just needs the Amazon Go app on their smartphone and an Amazon account.  Amazon Go in 22 locations across the USA

Amazon Go Grocery a local grocery store proposition, claiming to be the first grocery story with Just Walk Out Shopping. It sells fresh produce, meat, bakery, and home essentials. It uses Just Walk Out app based shopping.is now open in Seattle. Customers use the Amazon Go app to do their shopping for every fresh essentials.
And of course, Amazon has acquired WholeFoods  providing the integration of teh shoppiong experience whether in-store, or on the Amazon platform. Prime members get special deals

3. Amazon fulfillment and delivery: going the last 100 yards

For many ecommerce retailers, the single greatest point of of failure is fulfilment – successfully delivering the product into the customers’ hands.
Fulfilment is now one of Amazon’s core business areas – and it has a number of existing intitiatives that it is starting to scale up internationally, as well as experimenting with innovative services.

Amazon Locker

Amazon Locker are secure self-service kiosks where you can pick up your Amazon purchases at locations including popular retailers like John Lewis anjd Next, as well as dedicated Amazon Hub Lockers located on University campuses, hotels, retail centres.
Here in the city of Nottingham, I am offered 19 different pick up points
Amazon locker
 

 Amazon Prime Air Fleet: the sky’s the limit

On 7 December 2016, Amazon conducted a private trial of drone delivery in Cambridge, UK.  Called Prime Air the trial consisted of an electrically powered autonomous drone successfully delivering in just 13 minutes a parcel of popcorn and a Fire TV stick. The drones will be able to carry parcels of up to 5 pounds, which accounts for more than 80% of all Amazon shipments.
Why was the trial here in the UK? In the USA, drones must stay within view of the pilot, making deliveries impossible, whereas there isn’t such a barrier here.
Apparently, you will need an Amazon-branded landing mat for the drone delivery to guide the drone to the perfect spot.

 

Amazon Prime Air: the future is now

Amazon is now leasing 40 Boeing 767 wide body jet freighters, flying daily out it’s hub in Wilmington, Ohio.  Wilmington was previously DHL’s facility. The Amazon project is so successful that the airport would like to open a second runway to increase cargo capacity.  These cargo jets are in effect it’s own logistics network, and could potentially replace Amazon’s current logistics partners.
Learn more about how Amazon are in-sourcing their freight requirements here.
Here’s an interesting fact: Amazon is registering all the jets with prime numbers (in other words, a number than only be divided by itself and 1)
Amazon Air 767
 

Amazon Fresh

Amazon Fresh is Amazon’s free same day delivery of fresh groceries and specialities from local shops and markets. Order your milk by 10 am, and have it delivered by Amazon to the office before you go home.  Here in the UK it’s currently only available in central and east London,  but iit’s widely available in the USA and I’ve seen the green Fresh van trundling around my home town of suburban Springfield, Pennsylvania.
amazon fresh
Amazon is making huge investments in it’s delivery operation and fulfillment centres, and this is what is differentiating it from other internet retailers. Its fast, free delivery is keeping it ahead of the competition.  Amazon knows that great delivery service leads to a jump in sales.  The internet may give businesses international reach and world wide opportunity,  but Amazon recognises customers also want to work with local producers and get local service.
And by working in partnership with local food producers and providers, the international giant, Amazon, is now becoming our local provider of choice.

4. Amazon’s connected home: Ecommerce applications and “The Internet of Things”

Amazon is moving beyond simple online shopping and delivery, and moving into integrating ecommerce into every aspect of your day to day life. No need to have a tablet or a smartphone to hand. Now, just speak to Amazon’s Alexa, and as they say, Bob’s your uncle!

Amazon Echo and Alexa

Amazon Echo is a smart speaker that is at the heart of your Internet enabled home. At it’s core is Alexa, personal assistant software that understands thousands of spoken commands, and can integrate seamlessly with apps like Uber, Spotify, and Just Eat. But the default music streaming is Amazon’s Prime Music, and it really does make it easy to ask buy stuff from Amazon itself.
Nearly 70% of US smart speaker owners use an Amazon device, with rivals like Google and Apple only making a slight dent in the market. (source: Techcrunch Feb 2020)
Smart speaker market share
alexa amazon
There’s a growing number of devices that Echo can control, ranging from lighting to wall switches to thermostats
The Echo was a big hit for Christmas 2016, selling out, and users are getting into the groove of using this new techology:
amazon echo usage

Amazon Dash Wand

The Amazon Dash Wand allows you to create your own shopping list by using Amazon’s own little gizmo that uses both voice recognition and a barcode scanner.  If you want to put a tin of baked beans on your shopping list, then either scan the label, or speak the word into the microphone, and the item gets added to your Amazon Fresh shopping list.
Amazon Dash
Widely available Amazon Dash represents Amazon’s desire to own the entire customer journey, and it’s ability to innovate on devices designed to get a direct route to market.  You are probably familiar with the Amazon Kindle, and the Dash is the next natural step in the world of the “Internet of Things” making a seamless transition from your everyday life into the virtual world of online shopping.
Health warning:  you may find the following video makes you nauseous, but it does give a good overview of the service:
 

5. Moving beyond commodities and into services: Amazon Home Services

Heads Up:  Amazon is targeting the Home Services market.  Amazon Home Services quite simply is a way to buy and schedule local professional services. Amazon is recruiting service providers from across the country, doing the necessary vetting for background checks, insurance, and licensing.  Your online purchase comes with what it is calling a “Happiness Guarantee.”  You can be confident the team of professionals that Amazon has carefully selected are guaranteed to provide a satisfactory service or your money back.
Here’s a live example: I want my 3 bedroom house in downtown Philadelphia cleaned, and I estimate I need 3 hours of the cleaner’s time. Presto: a quote for £77.00 from a company called Shiny House with an 81 positive rating from 11 reviews:
amazon home services
Currently available in 5o metropolitan areas in the USA, Home Services includes nearly 60 different professions offering more than 1,200 unique services. The most popular services are TV wall mounting, furniture assembly, and house cleaning.
Amazon considers the Home Services market ready and waiting for digital disruption.  Digital disruption means a new entrant that creates a new value proposition and creates a new market.  And what a market it, valued at more than US$400 billion. That’s an awful lot of cleaners, furniture assemblers, electricians, and cleaners of gutters.
disruptive model

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