Which is not necessarily what we have here.
Google has announced the purchase of a startup company so raw and new that its product is still being tested - in exactly one market. But the nature of that company's focus strikes at the heart of Amazon's business model.
The acquired entity, a company still working out of a business incubator, is called Bufferbox. Bufferbox provides parcel storage and delivery at locations to which the company from which you ordered online can send the merchandise you chose, allowing you to pick it up at your convenience and not worry about having to be home or having a door man or otherwise relying on others aside from the deliverer for the transaction to be completed for you.
This takes direct aim at Amazon's growing power in ecommerce. In fact, no one is challenging it. Not Walmart, not UPS or FedEx, not anyone.
This is hardly a disruptive innovation. But it is an asymmetric threat precisely because Google is behind it rather than some smaller company that is already in the business. An asymmetric threat is one that comes from an unexpected direction. While Amazon and Google were clearly perceived to be moving towards each others' markets, this makes that emphatic.
Google is moving 'downstream,' from its advertising click-through perch, closer to the consumer and with an eye on capturing more aspects of the transaction. Just as Amazon is moving 'upstream' away from direct sales and on to management of the transaction and its financing through its hardware and services. The two companies are headed directly for each other, like two trains on a track.
Rather than an impending crash, however, we sense that this competition may have a conclusion similar to the apocryphal story of the one lawyer in town starving but two lawyers getting rich. With two the companies duking it out over dominance in the internet commerce market, both are likely to enhance business prospects at a higher pace.
This may spur major retailers, logistics companies, financial services behemoths and other global enterprises to get their heads in the game.
Google is playing with chess-like determination. It is demonstrating that it sees several moves ahead on the board. Amazon will hardly be deterred and will probably have gamed this alternative as a possibility. Whatever occurs next, the match is going to be fun to watch - unless your business happens to be in the way. JL
Chris Taylor reports in Mashable:
Signaling an intent to compete with Amazon in online shopping, Google announced Friday it is buying BufferBox. It’s a startup that runs a parcel storage service similar to Amazon Locker. Both services let you order online, then deliver your package to a locker in a local store — one that’s open more hours than a post office. Instead of requiring a key, the locker can be opened with a PIN code.
“We want to remove as much friction as possible from the shopping experience, while helping consumers save time and money,” said a Google spokesperson. “We think the BufferBox team has a lot of great ideas around how to do that.”
Indeed, BufferBox has one major advantage over its Amazon counterpart — you can pick up any package in its lockers, including UPS and Fedex. Part of the YCombinator startup class of 2012, the company is currently running a trial service in Toronto.
It’s a major coup for the three founders, who work out of a startup incubator in Waterloo — just downstairs from Google’s Canadian offices. “As online shopping becomes a bigger part of how you buy products, we look forward to playing a part in bringing that experience to the next level,” the trio wrote on the BufferBox blog.
Amazon began testing its Locker service in 7-Eleven stores a year ago. It’s a more widespread rollout — and is about to spread to Staples and Radio Shack stores. But it has one distinct disadvantage: you can only use it for Amazon packages.
Check out BufferBox’s offering. Is parcel pickup a big enough deal that it can help Google muscle in on Amazon’s territory? And will it succeed?
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