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Amazon’s Retail Influence Is Huge, And Rarely Understood
Bricks-and-mortar stores are also a potential advantage. While Byfield-Green said there are rumors of a trial store in Seattle opening this year, Amazon does not at present have a store estate of the sort that retailers such as Apple use to inspire and engage customers.
“Stores are a clear asset Amazon doesn’t have,” said Vengroff. “The challenge for retailers is how they make that work for them.”
Keeping Up
Other ways of competing with Amazon include selling exclusive products, providing personal, face-to-face service and emphasizing the immediacy of buying a product in-store instead of waiting for it to be delivered.
But whatever strategy retailers choose, it is crucial to stay alert. Amazon has made a name for itself by making surprising moves, and other retailers will need to cultivate the same agility if they want to avoid being caught unawares. “It’s difficult to know where Amazon will go next,” said Wilson. “But you will need to keep an eye on what it is doing.”
Amazon’s U.K. Timeline
Amazon always keeps its next moves closely guarded, but experts say there are several possible avenues it could take.
The E-tailer’s international expansion is expected to continue, with Chinese growth plans high on the agenda. It is also likely to keep exploring the physical world of retailing. Its delivery lockers initiative, which allows customers to pick up orders from lockers in shopping centers, may pave the way to a more comprehensive, click-and-collect service. “Physical retailing hasn’t gone away,” said Piner. “Whether they develop a click-and-collect pick-up depot or something that looks more like a store remains to be seen, but it’s an option for them to broaden their influence.”
Amazon is also likely to move further into content publishing. Its publishing division recently bought the U.S. E-book and print rights to Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels, it has acquired the film rental and streaming service Lovefilm, and last month it agreed a deal with Paramount Pictures to allow Amazon Prime customers to stream movies through the service. Its tablet, the Kindle Fire, which has been hailed as the only serious contender to the iPad, will soon be released in the U.K.
Amazon will also continue its march into new categories, with plans to develop in fashion and grocery. Finally, it will continue to develop and invest in its formidable technology infrastructure, its third-party seller network and its Web services. “Its offer is underpinned by that amazing platform and I think it will keep evolving it,” predicted Wilson.
“There will be bumps in the road—there will be things it doesn’t know,” said Vengroff. “But it learns from its mistakes very quickly. Whether Amazon is immediately successful or whether it takes it a couple of tries, it will get there.”
For a company that only started in 1996 Amazon has achieved a lot and seems poised to achieve even more. Retailers will continue to be challenged—they are likely to need everything from creativity and technology investment to a rigorous approach to data analysis. Whatever Amazon does next, retailers must be ready to react.
—Retail Week is the U.K.’s leading provider of retail industry news and insight, top retail jobs, key retail market reports and data, from across the entire retail sector. Visit www.retail-week.com for the latest breaking news, views and analysis on the U.K. retail sector.
Cards issued by European banks when used online cross border don't usually support AVS checks. So, when a European card is used with a billing address that's in the US, an ecom merchant wouldn't necessarily know that the shipping zip code doesn't match the billing code.
-Marc
