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Amazon Local Register

localregister.amazon.com

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Re: Amazon Local Register

#101

Post by shliachtx »

dmachop wrote: post #95
jnardiello wrote: post #33

It's a trap. You, owner of a shop, don't do this. Amazon will first analyze all your sales data, they will than attach reviews to your shop and finally they will oblige you to play by their rules or die (banned or killed by bad reviews) and either way they will grow thanks to your hard work. I'm not joking, this is exactly what they have done (and keep doing) with "partners". Amazon is all but transparent and it has…

Do you mean to say that Square is different in this approach? Everyone wants your data and it's the price you pay to obtain this technology.

Square is not the biggest competition to retailers anywhere, and Amazon has a history of using the sales data of their "partners" (on Amazon.com) to compete with them.

Re: Amazon Local Register

#102

Post by djrogers »

nemesisj wrote: post #26
hemancuso wrote: post #15

The rate at which Amazon is rolling out products is nothing short of dizzying. Reminds me of Google before Larry came back and retook the reigns. Inevitably they will come to a point where they start shutting down a subset of their enormous product line. It was one thing to have google wave or reader dropped, but when amazon kills some of these lines it'll affect people in real ways. And it will happen. Here is for h…

The difference between the Google scenario and Amazon is that from what I can see, Amazon makes money on almost all of the products it's rolling out vs. Google not really directly making money out of most of its products.

If Amazon made money off 'almost all' of the products it's rolling out, it wouldn't be posting record losses every quarter and attributing it to those money-losing products.

Re: Amazon Local Register

#103

Post by rb2k_ »

I'm interested to see how the "manufactured spent / churning" crowd will use this. There are credit cards with 2% (fidelity amex) or 2.2% (barlays arrival plus) cashback out there.

Having a 1.75% fee on this will probably have some of them experiment :)

I'm sure Amazon will shut that down, but I'd love to see how much spent people can run up before that happens.

Re: Amazon Local Register

#104

Post by res0nat0r »

macNchz wrote: post #88
antr wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get your comment and agree with it, but... It's funny how us (the HN/startup/pro disruptive audience) is very pro change (let's get rid off the middle man because we can create software that can do this cheaper and more efficient) and now we are 'rooting' for the brick and mortar business. There is a sociological take away somewhere here.

While I'm for technological progress, I prefer to live in an environment where small entrepreneurs can thrive, which requires me to be skeptical when a giant, borderline-monopolistic company comes along with 'new technology' that's true purpose appears to be to subvert small business owners and take their customers.

Wasn't Amazon exactly this for many years?

Re: Amazon Local Register

#105

Post by totalrobe »

jnardiello wrote: post #57
bkeroack wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with the sentiment, but it's more about the data. Amazon wants brick and mortal sales/pricing information so they can undercut you more effectively. They'll probably bundle in some service where you get an online store for cheap/free, which makes you even more dependent on them for inventory management as well. At that point Amazon controls your cashflow and your products and--in a sense--owns your business.

Yes. And just to add another evilish detail: Controlling your cashflow means also that you are effectively borrowing them 2+ weeks of your income (as far as they will pay you with recurrent wires AFTER you have sold your stuff) at no cost. On a very low level, this is the mechanism that allowed them to survive for years without making profit on their products.

Why do you say Amazon is controlling cashflow? It looks like they offer bank transfers everyday. From the site:

"Fast, reliable deposits. Deposits to your bank account the next business day. Or spend your money at Amazon.com within minutes."

Re: Amazon Local Register

#106

Post by bambax »

tootie wrote: post #86
bambax wrote: post #30

This sounds a little like a joke. Amazon is the biggest competitor brick-and-mortar shops have ever seen; why would shops want to give that kind of information to Amazon, so that it knows in real time what people are buying outside of itself??? A coffeeshop, maybe, but for any other kind of business it sounds crazy.

There's a ton of businesses that can never move online. Food service is obviously a big one. Pretty much anything that requires face-to-face interaction or needs to be delivered near real-time (caricature artist on the beach, personal trainer, babysitting service).

> There's a ton of businesses that can never move online. Food service is obviously a big one.

What about Amazon Fresh? https://fresh.amazon.com/ ? It seems there's no business too small or too niche for Amazon.

Re: Amazon Local Register

#107

Post by totalrobe »

bambax wrote: post #30

This sounds a little like a joke. Amazon is the biggest competitor brick-and-mortar shops have ever seen; why would shops want to give that kind of information to Amazon, so that it knows in real time what people are buying outside of itself??? A coffeeshop, maybe, but for any other kind of business it sounds crazy.

Well they have multiple pictures of food service on the site, so I imagine that is the target market. It seems like primarily a Square competitor to me.

Re: Amazon Local Register

#108

Post by sjtgraham »

rahimnathwani wrote: post #91
adamt wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the compelling case for this is less about shops - most of which (at least in the UK) already have some form card processing - but more about things like tradespeople (plumbers, decorators, electricians etc) or other physical services (e.g. music teachers) Within a few years cheques will be phased out in the UK. This means the only way to pay a carpenter, or a plumber is in cash or a money transfer. Money tra…

"Money transfers to new suppliers always take a bit of faff to setup" How so? If I want to send money to a UK bank account to which I've not send money before, I: 1. Open my bank's app on my phone 2. Tap 'send money' 3. Type in the amount, the 6-digit sort code, the 8-digit account number, the person's name 4. Hit 'Send'. It's a little slower than swiping a card, but it also feels safer, as I don't have to give someo…

Who do you bank with? I bank with both Natwest and Barclays and neither of those will let you set up a new payee on their mobile apps. Sure you can send money, but only to payees you have set up online using 2FA.

Re: Amazon Local Register

#109

Post by gfodor »

will_brown wrote: post #84
jnardiello wrote: post #33

It's a trap. You, owner of a shop, don't do this. Amazon will first analyze all your sales data, they will than attach reviews to your shop and finally they will oblige you to play by their rules or die (banned or killed by bad reviews) and either way they will grow thanks to your hard work. I'm not joking, this is exactly what they have done (and keep doing) with "partners". Amazon is all but transparent and it has…

In other words Amazon is no different than the existing credit card companies (Visa, MC, AmEx, ect...), the existing merchant services, and the retailers themselves who all collect that data for purposes of selling to third parties and use for in house marketing. Brick and Mortar retailers are concerned about being able to conveniently accept payment and minimizing service charges for the convenience of accepting non…

Obviously Amazon is different, because unlike credit card companies they are in the business of competing with small retailers. Particularly when you consider their "your margin is my opportunity" strategy giving this data to them should be a terrifying proposition for any business owner.

Re: Amazon Local Register

#110

Post by npinguy »

djrogers wrote: post #102
nemesisj wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference between the Google scenario and Amazon is that from what I can see, Amazon makes money on almost all of the products it's rolling out vs. Google not really directly making money out of most of its products.

If Amazon made money off 'almost all' of the products it's rolling out, it wouldn't be posting record losses every quarter and attributing it to those money-losing products.

That is because any new product has an upfront fixed cost in investment.

Amazon is investing like crazy into growth, and as a result all their new costs are new products.

Quarter to quarter their loss numbers are so low that it seems like they would only need to slow down their growth by a couple of percent and they would be instantly profitable.

Not a bad spot to be in.

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