Last February e-commerce company Shopify Inc. replaced the “Ottawa, Canada” dateline that began its press releases and earnings reports with a strange new one: “Internet, Everywhere.” The geographical shift came at the insistence of Shopify’s founder and chief executive officer, Tobi Lütke, who tends to view such matters through the prism of cold, hard logic. In May 2020, only a few months into the pandemic, he’d made the early, seemingly rash decision to...
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December 22, 2019
December 22, 2019
In the βage of Amazon,β is your store a liability or asset? Walmart is banking on stores being the physical nexus points of the web.
Did your e-commerce business lose money last year, and you fret over this? Most indie store owners do, but losing money on e-commence is the name of the game as catching up to Amazonβs 25-year head start will take years and lots of losses. Proof: Walmartβs e-commerce operations lost $2b last year, shares the WSJ. Most indie stores will not be able to pursue this ...
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February 10, 2018
February 10, 2018
Amazon ventures into truck delivery. Analysts compared it to Amazonβs venture into cloud computing, which is now a billion dollar service.
Imagine if you had a rich uncle to float your retail business? Amazon didn't start out with one, but now it has one via its cloud computing service. The cloud computing service had an operating profit margin of 23% while its retail segment had a rate of 2%. Essentially, Amazon is selling retail stuff at close to a loss - a practice few retailers would pursue. But if one makes a 23% profit on other stuff, it can afford to. Competing against a 'store' with a rich uncle is not fun.
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