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Allbirds CEO on Amazon's copycat strategy

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Re: Allbirds CEO on Amazon's copycat strategy

#21

Post by quotz »

helen___keller wrote: post #7

Allbirds is a luxury brand. Retailers offer cheap versions of luxury brands. There's little surprise here. Should Ray-Bans complain that Walmart offers sunglasses that look nearly identical at a tenth of the price? Amazon has plenty of dodgy business practices, but I don't think this is one of them.

Look at Zara. Without patents on clothing design, Zara often copies the latest catalogs from luxury designers and gets them to mass markets even before they do. From an operational standpoint its a great company. Thats why its worth billions of dollars and its the greatest retailer in Europe, and probably in the world.

Re: Allbirds CEO on Amazon's copycat strategy

#22

Post by dobleboble »

ses1984 wrote: post #4
toasterlovin wrote: post #2

If you can't succeed because somebody made a low effort, low quality copy of your product, then you don't deserve to make money. Especially in light of the fact that Coke has been around for 150 years and is essentially just sugar water.

Coke actually has regulatory protections in place. They can use flavor extracted from coca plant through a special arrangement with the dea. Anyway they sell all kinds of varieties of sugar water, and the margins are extremely thin.

Margins are thin?

"Coca-Cola's latest twelve months Net Income Margin % is 23.1%."

"Coca-Cola's Net Income Margin % for fiscal years ending Dec, 2014 to 2018 averaged 14.3%."

https://finbox.com/KO/explorer/ni_margin

Re: Allbirds CEO on Amazon's copycat strategy

#23

Post by kadoban »

ghaff wrote: post #20
kadoban wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because it's common doesn't mean it's not also dodgy.

Serious question. Why is it dodgy?

My view would be that the problems with it are:

- generally low quality (if you're borrowing another brand's image, you have little incentive to keep it high quality, and high incentive to compete on price as much as possible)

- it's not the most moral thing copying someone else's work

Re: Allbirds CEO on Amazon's copycat strategy

#24

Post by rburhum »

ghaff wrote: post #20
kadoban wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because it's common doesn't mean it's not also dodgy.

Serious question. Why is it dodgy?

Because designers spend an entire year designing what they are going to sell as their line for the year and when they show it on the runway, Zara takes a photo and has it mass produced and sent to stores in two weeks. They do this consistently. It is dodgy.

Re: Allbirds CEO on Amazon's copycat strategy

#26

Post by criddell »

readams wrote: post #6
40acres wrote: post #3

Abstractly, the question at hand is this: is a retailer that sells its own in house brand anticompetitive due to the information it has on potential competitor sales? Other large retailers: Target, Walmart, etc. have a higher percentage of in house brands for sale than Amazon. So on this argument going after Amazon means you need to decouple retailers from in house brands across the board. Even the concern about sear…

I think most people don't know that shelf space is actively sold by the stores. They imagine the stores go out and find the best products to display. That's not what happens.

That's not always true. I don't think it would matter how much Amazon money offered Apple, they aren't going to install an Echo end cap.

Re: Allbirds CEO on Amazon's copycat strategy

#27

Post by CalChris »

quotz wrote: post #21
helen___keller wrote: post #7

Allbirds is a luxury brand. Retailers offer cheap versions of luxury brands. There's little surprise here. Should Ray-Bans complain that Walmart offers sunglasses that look nearly identical at a tenth of the price? Amazon has plenty of dodgy business practices, but I don't think this is one of them.

Look at Zara. Without patents on clothing design, Zara often copies the latest catalogs from luxury designers and gets them to mass markets even before they do. From an operational standpoint its a great company. Thats why its worth billions of dollars and its the greatest retailer in Europe, and probably in the world.

AllBirds does have design patents.

https://patents.justia.com/assignee/allbirds-inc

Re: Allbirds CEO on Amazon's copycat strategy

#28

Post by cheonic728 »

rburhum wrote: post #24
ghaff wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious question. Why is it dodgy?

Because designers spend an entire year designing what they are going to sell as their line for the year and when they show it on the runway, Zara takes a photo and has it mass produced and sent to stores in two weeks. They do this consistently. It is dodgy.

> Zara takes a photo and has it mass produced and sent to stores in two weeks. They do this consistently.

Then perhaps Zara is the more strategically skilled company here? I think the phrase "git gud" applies here.

In life, it's never been about who does the hard work. It's who gets credit that matters. This is politics 101.

Re: Allbirds CEO on Amazon's copycat strategy

#29

Post by xwdv »

rburhum wrote: post #24
ghaff wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious question. Why is it dodgy?

Because designers spend an entire year designing what they are going to sell as their line for the year and when they show it on the runway, Zara takes a photo and has it mass produced and sent to stores in two weeks. They do this consistently. It is dodgy.

It’s not dodgy, it’s capitalism. And thanks to this downward pricing pressure, we enjoy a lot of luxuries today at prices the masses can afford.

If someone can make an Allbirds shoe for $5 that is basically 95% identical as the real thing then the consumer has won.

Re: Allbirds CEO on Amazon's copycat strategy

#30

Post by csallen »

rburhum wrote: post #24
ghaff wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious question. Why is it dodgy?

Because designers spend an entire year designing what they are going to sell as their line for the year and when they show it on the runway, Zara takes a photo and has it mass produced and sent to stores in two weeks. They do this consistently. It is dodgy.

Don't hate the player, hate the game. That's business. The fact that your designers worked hard is irrelevant. Capitalism is by its very nature competitive, and it's on you as a business owner to figure out a working model in a world with fast followers.

It's a bit like complaining that someone blocked your shot in basketball. It's allowed, those are the rules, do better next time.

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