Is Amazon’s PriceCheck App A Retailer’s Opportunity?

There are many repositories to pick from most of which for the most part aferree of cost (wiki). But if you really want the real pledge, you will probably end up paying for it. but I accept you get what you bear the expense for. Especially when you are shuffling with an enterprise expert.

Doug, you are completely wrong. This shows me the difference between retail experts, suppliers, and people that are actually making payroll each month. As I have explained to my suppliers, Amazon is not just another competitor. I have never had a competitor that not only had a purchasing power advantage, but may also have a lower cost of doing business advantage as well as a huge sales tax advantage. Big box stores may have a purchasing power advantage but at least they have to make a profit on something to cover their huge overhead costs. With Amazon everything they sell is treated as a loss leader. No brick and mortar is going to last very long selling everything in the store as though it was a loss leader. You can’t run a brick and mortar retail store if your competitor is trashing everything you sell including the add ons. And if you don’t sell your products for next to nothing like Amazon then sooner or later your customer base will perceive you as a crook.

The fact of the matter is that manufacturers are either going to support brick and mortar or they are going to let them fail. Either way there will be change.

And appliance retailers should not be complacent. There is a model already in place that would give Amazon an instant foothold into the appliance industry. The Home Depot model could be used by Amazon to sell appliances direct to the consumer. If GE, Whirlpool, and LG wanted to use Amazon as a point of sale and then use their third party nationwide delivery service that is already in place they could do so at any time.

A missing angle: Amazon has not thought their cunning plan through. They fully realize that most customers want to see something before they buy it, especially something in a TV's price range. That's why they are running this promotion- to get people to go look at their potential purchase and make sure it is what they really want before ordering it. This keeps Amazon's overhead down because it lowers the chance of returns. But here's the problem: What happens when there is no place left for the customer to go look at something? They either won't buy, or only go for the cheaper options out of safety. Online dealers like Amazon will ultimately suffer, too, but in a more delayed time frame. Brilliant, Mr. Bezos! Absolutely brilliant! Oh, wait... (This has already happened on cameras and severely changed the PC business for the worse. We are just the latest field to be sent to the slaughterhouse.)

Thanks for commenting. My point is what Amazon is doing is nothing different from what has been going on at retail for years, but in a different form. It is no different than someone bringing in a competitors circular and saying match this price or I'm going elsewhere to make my purchase.
The fact of the matter is that Amazon is not going anywhere, the Internet is only going to become a more powerful shopping tool and the world will have to adjust.
I never said match their price, I suggested to attempt to grab the wannabe Amazon customer that is standing in your store.
The tax implications are another topic that I am not getting into here, but I certainly understand the frustration.

As an independent store owner of 20 years I am seeing the end of small business retail of products that can be easily sold over the web or by companies like Amazon. Bottom line is a business needs to sell an item for a profit to stay in business. When an on-line retailer can sell an item at or below the cost an indpendent store can obtain it for it really doesn’t matter if the store gets more traffic or not they will not remain in business even if they match the price for the sale since they are selling below their cost. I find it ironic that Wal-Mart’s new in-store price matching policy specifically excludes their own on-line website pricing as well as any other on-line retiler. When a company like Wal-Mart knows they can’t compete with on-line retailers with the costs involved as a brick and mortar store we must all acknowledge there is a problem.

To all the consumers out there: If fewer sales tax dollars paid by consumers that is used to pay for road construction and city improvements and fewer property tax dollars paid by retailers for firemen, policemen, and teachers and fewer retail jobs so that people can stay off welfare is what you want then Amazon is the retailer for you. Please post a sign in your front yard that reads “I proudly send my money out of my community.”

To all of you self proclaimed retail experts that seem to be saying “just match the price.” I have pointed out to my suppliers time and time again that Amazon is delivering their products to the end consumer for 10% less than I can if I was selling their products at cost. Basically, Amazon is selling the products with free freight at my cost to the consumer without the 8% sales tax and 2% credit card charge. Not to mention other processing costs. So to all you self proclaimed retail experts, am I supposed to sell my products at the 10% loss? Make it up in volume, right?

Anybody that says Walmart is the great retail Satan needs to realize that the internet is actually much worse for mom and pop brick and mortar retailers. In the past Walmart only destroyed the mom and pop stores within reach of one of their retail locations. Now the internet is doing this to brick and mortar mom and pop retailers in the entire country.

And a special note to Doug. Let me explain it to you this way. Let’s say each year your boss tells you that you are going to work harder for less pay. And then let’s say that a coworker is going to take an additional 1 to 5% of what’s left of your paycheck each year. You did all the work but your coworker is benefiting from your work. This wouldn’t be anything at all to fuss about, right? Now put in Manufacturer for the boss and Amazon as the coworker and now you know what all the fuss is about.

I’m no Amazon defender, but I’d like to know why everyone is piling on these guys when they were hardly the first to develop a price-scanning app. Can anyone say “RedLaser”?

Also, please explain how this differs from test-driving a car at one dealership and purchasing it from another with lower prices?

And while we’re at it, this whole “Main Street” fairness/alliance thing is a crock. The folks behind it are the same national big-box chains that have laid waste to Main Streets across the country by putting thousands of mom ‘n pops out of business. Apparently what’s good for the goose ain’t all that great for the gander.

And lastly, as Doug Olenick so astutely points out in his blog, retailers should be thankful for all the warm bodies that Amazon will drive to their stores. If they can’t convert a credit-card carrying consumer in buy mode at that point, don’t blame Bezos.

You need some really strong glasses because you can’t see past the end of your nose. This isn’t about some one time event. Amazon is trying to get this application onto consumer’s mobile devices to change their shopping habits in the future. This is about getting consumer to take it out for a test drive in hopes that they will continue using the application to the detriment of brick and mortar retailers. Just like the Kindle Fire, get the tablet into the consumers hands and they will make more amazon purchases. Did you even read your own blog from September?????