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Competing with the Big Stores

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The big store now seems to be Amazon.  But, interestingly enough, Jeff Bezos made a statement that he believes Amazon (as we know it today I might add) will not be here twenty years from now.  As most know it, Amazon consists of itself as an online store plus a huge aggregate of smaller online stores and brick and mortar stores.  So when you buy from Amazon, you might have your goods provided by some small store--and if you are a price shopper, it will be from the lowest price offering.  This is a rather straightforward business model, made possible only by the internet and its connectivity.  There were others who appeared to have thought of this model before Amazon, as some companies offered to sell you anything you want---they would get it for you.  Amazon, however drove through to the finish line to develop the system.  The others, who envisioned this business model, never followed through with the implementation.
Now that Amazon is successful with this approach, others are catching on to the scheme and finding  a measurable amount of success in their adaptation of the model.  Business newspapers are reporting that Walmart, Target, Costco are adopting the same strategy,  but a bit different in that they are retaining most of their stores as well.
There is some future concerns for buying from stores over the internet.  Among them is the questions of security of credit, ability to see and feel the merchandise, shipping cost, cost of returns, sales tax, etc.  Some have questioned the validity of customer feedback as a measure of quality of the product as these reported figures can be manipulated one would assume.  Local governments will not be able to resist the taxation aspect of internet sales, credit card security is always a risk and of course shipping cost can be built into the price.
So, what would be the logical reconfiguration of this business model?   The Amazons of the world will back integrate into the shipping business, which is already in progress. Shipping companies will have their own similar model, offering the buyer a choice of shippers, all competing with each other. Smaller stores will also adopt this model, which would mean that there will be many choices for buying from an array of suppliers.
In addition,  surely someone is working on the problem buyers have with the inability to experience the quality of the product before buying.  Remember the old projection that someday we would have smellavision where the viewer would experience the flavor of the product being observed on the television screen?  Maybe its time has come.  We shall see.


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