It’s Hard Not To React To Adapting Amazon

And there are sure to be mixed reactions among some housewares vendors and retailers to news that Amazon was anointed the 2016 HomeWorld Business Retailer of the Year (see the May 9, 2016, issue).

But such acknowledgement is not a give-in to some irresistible force. It is on many levels undeniable.

Market Reaction

Reactions to Amazon’s surge into the frontal lobe of 24/7 consumerism strikes a similar chord to the many business emotions— anxiety, enthusiasm, uncertainty, awe, helplessness— once stirred by Walmart. 

Not long ago, vendors and retailers alike fretted over Walmart’s national onslaught built on sharp discount general merchandising and the operational complexities of moving hundreds of thousands of products into thousands of huge stores in the blink of an eye at the lowest costs.

Vendors and retailers of all scope and size adapted, painfully perhaps, to retool business disciplines to serve such a powerhouse and/or to develop alternative game plans. 

That provides an encouraging preface to why many should laud Amazon’s selection as this year’s Retailer of the Year. Who honestly can deny any longer the potential for a major, long-term haul with Amazon; and perhaps the inevitable need for it? The quandary is that constant stretch to land that big prize to the strain of sustainable business elsewhere. 

Adapt & Engage

Suppliers should be pleased to know that Amazon is adapting, too. Its retooled platform is ready to rekindle more traditional consumer-engaging merchandising values to balance the unrelenting technology-forged hammer of its analytics, algorithms, fulfillment, product development and media innovation engineered to capture every consumption impulse. 

It is a proactive next step to refresh and reload its consumer shopping experience, with much of its unlimited product catalog (with a huge lift from third-party merchants) and search and fulfillment methodologies entrenched. But it is also a nod to the not-so-virtual reality of an increasingly competitive environment, with newer pure-players making gains and some brick-and-mortar stalwarts closer to turning into a stronger bricks-and-clicks intersection that could slow Amazon’s quest.

Share Of Heart

Powered by more robust content— more video recipes and instruction, more trend insight, more brand information, more household hints, more bridal guidance— Amazon says it wants to innovate “share of heart” not just “share of wallet” to inspire consumers to make Amazon their first stop at each of life’s shopping stages. To invite them not just to search like they typically do, but also to stop by and browse for a while with the help of Amazon’s evolving curation systems.

It is yet another wrinkle in Amazon’s quest to own the consumer and to disrupt business through visionary technology. It also has the look of visionary retail merchandising. 

Watching the housewares industry react to it should be fascinating.