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Amazon: A Search Engine With A Warehouse
from the rethinking-commerce dept
Clay Shirky made an offhand comment on Twitter recently that's way too good to leave to just the Twitterverse and not expand upon (hopefully Shirky himself will expand upon it -- but in the meantime, you're stuck with me). In commenting on a chart showing how Amazon seems to be growing while the rest of retail is shrinking, Shirky notes "AMZN's growth happens because its not a retailer with a web presence, its a search engine with a warehouse."
This needs to be unpacked in a few ways, but it's such a unique insight that it deserves lots of attention. Many people look at Amazon and think that it's just an "online store," but the reason that Amazon works is not because it took the concept of a store and put it online, but because it has always done things that only the internet allows it to do. That is, from its very early days, Amazon was never just about about being a store in a web browser, but in using the web to do interesting and unique things built on top of a commerce core. Things like online user reviews and recommendations may now seem commonplace, but Amazon revolutionized them. And it added so much convenience that many people now use Amazon product pages as default info pages on a product -- I know I do. To me, Amazon isn't just a store, but it's a database of products and reviews -- and that's what Shirky's getting at in saying it's a "search engine with a warehouse." Of course, the cool thing is that when you start thinking about Amazon in those terms is you realize how much more it can do. Those who think they're retailers are going to keep missing where Amazon is heading unless they start thinking the same way.
This needs to be unpacked in a few ways, but it's such a unique insight that it deserves lots of attention. Many people look at Amazon and think that it's just an "online store," but the reason that Amazon works is not because it took the concept of a store and put it online, but because it has always done things that only the internet allows it to do. That is, from its very early days, Amazon was never just about about being a store in a web browser, but in using the web to do interesting and unique things built on top of a commerce core. Things like online user reviews and recommendations may now seem commonplace, but Amazon revolutionized them. And it added so much convenience that many people now use Amazon product pages as default info pages on a product -- I know I do. To me, Amazon isn't just a store, but it's a database of products and reviews -- and that's what Shirky's getting at in saying it's a "search engine with a warehouse." Of course, the cool thing is that when you start thinking about Amazon in those terms is you realize how much more it can do. Those who think they're retailers are going to keep missing where Amazon is heading unless they start thinking the same way.
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warehouse
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Amazon's API
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A search engine that remembers
Users also curate the reviews. I remember this really good article a while back on the value of its 'was this review helpful for you?' feature: http://www.uie.com/articles/magicbehindamazon
All of these things makes it even more than a search engine because it's no longer purely transactional like Google.
Online news could be served the way Amazon serves/recommends/curates product information.
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third party sellers
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A powerhouse
I don't recall exactly how long it took Amazon to actually make a profit and I'm not sure is has yet recouped all its costs since it's start up days but I admire their success. As a frequent user of their services, I feel confident that my product will be delivered when promised and that my overall cost will likely be the lowest or very close to than anywhere else, on the web or not. Impressive!
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Search Engines in Retail
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Cluetrain
When descriptions, and box labels don't describe all of a products benefits, and none of its weaknesses, the Amazon reviews offer a smattering of both. This helps me greatly in choosing between competing products.
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seriously?
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Amazon is the ultimate "impulse-buy" store...
It started when they were offering DRM-free mp3s, and now I have to keep myself from going on Amazon for media, especially with the "new and used from $__.___ feature. Every time I hear a single song or see a clip of a movie, I find myself hovering over the "___ new and used!!!" button.
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a search engine withe a warehouse
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