Ikea 'saves the last mile', Amazon Business Solutions now saves YOU the FIRST mile
Amazon recently launched a Beta version of looking very promising Business Solutions services. Amongst them the Amazon Fulfillment group…And guess what…All faithful blog readers remember my “Entrepreneurial Brainstorming session N.5“: I don’t feel like selling plenty of dusty books, just because I become lazy at the very idea of queuing twice a week at the post office. I needed Amazon or a new venture to same me the first mile just like Ikea saves itself the last mile, concretely the delivery and assembling, to offer cheaper rates.
Well, it seems, as Kari put it in this comment and I thank him for that, that I was a week early. Amazon just released a portfolio of business services aiming at easing warehouse and shipping operations of corporate accounts.
Frankly, I was proud of myself on this one. What I’ll probably do very soon is use that Amazon’s Business Solutions Fulfillment service through a venture I would’ve created for this specific purpose. More on this topic in a near future.
Homework – in the comments section, think for a sec and quickly share with us:
1) what you think of Amazon’s Fulfillment Services Group;
2) whether you’d like to brainstorm more and more on entrepreneurial ideas I would provide on “Tech IT Easy”.
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Amazon, Books, Business Process Management, Business strategy, CIO, CRM, Consulting, Economics, Entrepreneurship, Globalization, Internet, MNC, Organization, Outsourcing, Storage, Supply Chain, USA, eBay, innovation, operations, retail, user-generated content
Well I guess I was wrong
AFSG, the way they describe it, is not too different from the regular way they do business. Traditionally they interact with providers of a large amount of goods anyways, storing their products at a warehouse and taking care of the logistics from there on.
What’s changed is probably a “long-tail” related phenomenon, in that more and more “individuals” or small companies are involved in sending their, now popular, goods over the internet, and Amazon is trying to fill the niche of providing logistic infrastructure, at a price-competitive offering as well, I think.
Together with their e-commerce-related offerings of web services, I would venture a guess that it’s Amazon’s strategy to exploit that market to the max. Interesting.
My last comment got caught in the spam-filter, I think. Too many links.
You’re right Vince, I just accepted your comment.
Indeed Amazon Business Solutions pricing looks pretty reasonable considering its target, namely corporate accounts.