As we sit here and watch a masterclass in disruption by Jeff Bezos and Amazon, I can’t help but wonder how terrified business leaders become when rumors swirl around Amazon getting into their business. We’ve seen it happen so many times now from the bookselling kingpin that it’s now expected. In the tech world we use the term “digital transformation” which technically means “get your shit together or you’re going to lose your ass”.
So what happens when Amazon comes for your business?
Like I said, we’ve seen it many times.
The short answer is consolidation. That means a couple things.
(For this let’s talk about Walmart)
- M&A – walmart is the king or retail with a global footprint of brick and mortar and a vast network of distribution hubs and fleet of transportation. What Walmart has struggled with is online. Their ecommerce is the last place I check for anything. Ever. So what did they do? They went out anb bought some cool kids who are doing it right from day one. Enter Jet.com. Jet has ecommerce down to a science, so teaming their front end with Walmart’s back end is logical AF. It’s like someone is getting paid to make acquisitions, am I right.
- Partnerships – A couple weeks ago, Google announced a partnership with Walmart that will let you shop from your Google Home device for anything offered at Walmart. This is because Amazon has it all already baked into the echo platform. Now Amazon is saying they are getting into logistics. This means FedEx and UPS are shitting down both legs and will be looking to establish strategic partnerships asap. My prediction is that we will see a partnership announcement between Walmart and either FedEx or UPS. So customers will order a roll of toilet paper on their Google Home from Walmart which will be delivered by FedEx. That customer is a lagistics exec who needs toilet paper to wipe his sweating ass.
TIME TO SPECULATE SOME MORE
Amazon will get into logistics and they will deliver an autonomous delivery platform out of the gate beating the old guard to the punch. Also DRONES!