Amazon just hit $1 trillion in market value, reflecting the retailer’s skyrocketing success as a disruptive force of commerce. To other retailers, they can seem like a conquering army, rampantly seizing territory as they march through the retail terrain.
Starting as a bookseller, they quickly expanded to offer practically everything—now even groceries. They’ve also set the standard for quick and painless ordering and delivery, and are finding ways to improve the consumer experience at every turn (ordering with Alexa or Amazon buttons, for example). Amazon Prime has been so successful that members barely batted an eye at a 20% price increase that now generates hundreds of millions of dollars in extra revenue per year.
Unfortunately, you don’t get to slay the giant in this story—there is no magical slingshot that will bring it down. But, Amazon is not all-powerful. There are plenty of chinks in its armor that give other retailers the opportunity to defend themselves and expand their own territory. Amazon is an ecommerce powerhouse, but it’s not strong in every area. Here are some of its key weaknesses and a strategy competitors can use to win business away from the e-retail giant, as laid out in a perspectives piece from Bob Gaito, CEO of technology provider 4Cite…
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