...surveys by retail consultants, analysts and brand experts now find that Wal-Mart's aura of price leadership has faded since the recession, because customers who searched for better deals sometimes found them at competitors such as Dollar General Corp., Aldi Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.
As I wrote two years ago, Amazon had become Wal-Mart on steroids because it can aggregate consumer demand in real time. Probably, they can even optimize delivery costs, since their model does not involve inefficient consumer driving to and from the store. Add to the battle new shopping technologies and brick-and-mortar model looks increasingly vulnerable, unless the government steps in and prolongs the agony by imposing online sales taxes. Fundamentally, Amazon shop is open 24x7 and it can deliver in the most convenient form, physically or digitally.
P.S. it is also interesting that, for example, Google can rip off Apple, but Wal-Mart cannot rip off Amazon.
tags: innovation, information, commerce, business, model, control, s-curve, efficiency, aggregation
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