Google Launches Same-Day Delivery Because...?

The Google that does internet search. That Google? Is initiating same day delivery of what, for whom - and most of all, why?

Welcome to Tactics and Strategy 101. This is not about you, dear customer. It is about them. And it may be business, but it's also personal.

Think of the tech business as a giant funnel. Lots of businesses enter the wide end but very few emerge from that narrow opening at the bottom. Those that do manage to slide out of that teensy hole are called survivors. And those who founded and/or invested in them are called rich. The ones that do make it all the way through are getting fewer. The economics and physics of competitive reality are driving them together into each other's markets. Apple, Google and Amazon are there. Facebook wants desperately to be and may or may not make it. Walmart has put its marker down. Samsung is hovering. FedEx and American Express and Carrefour and AT&T, among others, also want to play.

So, they all offer variations on search, and cool hardware, and astonishing logistics capabilities, and financing services. And now, the next frontier, same day delivery. The strategic purpose is to lock you into their business eco-system, hoping to make it both too convenient not to be a part of their world - and to make it too much of a hassle to leave.

The ephemeral is becoming tangible because it has to be. Delivery is one of the tactics necessary to enabling the convenience that drives digital commerce, soon to be indistinguishable from that other kind. All of these companies are going to be everywhere you want and need to be - whether or not you want them there - because have to or they will not make it out of the survival funnel. JL

Alistair Barr reports in Reuters via Huffington Post:

Google Inc launched a same-day delivery service in the San Francisco Bay Area as the world's largest Internet search company works with retailers such as Target Corp to compete more with e-commerce leader Amazon.com Inc.

Google has been testing the service, called Google Shopping Express, with employees for a few months. The company opened it up to the public on Thursday morning in a limited launch focused on San Francisco residents and others living south of the city from San Mateo to San Jose.

Shoppers who sign up will get six months of free, same-day delivery of online orders placed with select retailers in the area. Google plans to charge for the service in the future, but it has not decided how much yet.
Companies taking part in the test include national retailers such as Target, Office Depot Inc, Staples Inc and Toys 'R' Us Inc and smaller, local firms such as Blue Bottle Coffee and Palo Alto Toy & Sport.
Google is working with local courier companies that pick up products from local stores and deliver them to shoppers' homes.
Google Shopping Express is the latest sign the company is expanding from its online search roots into e-commerce, where it is competing more with Amazon, the world's largest Internet retailer.
By getting into local delivery services, Google is joining an increasingly crowded field.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world's largest retailer, is testing a same-day delivery service called Walmart To Go in five metro areas.
EBay Inc launched a same-day delivery service in San Francisco and New York last year.