Showrooming goesZen

So, it finally happened: Amazon opened a real, physical, brick-and-mortar book store called Amazon Books (stylized as amazonbooks) in University Village of its home city Seattle, Washington, USA! Most book retailers amazon has pushed out of business over the years are probably glowing red with fury right now, but from a dry business perspective, it […]

Dear Amazon, Zappos, or Dear any-other-online-retailer thinking about going "brick and mortar". And Dear high-street retailers, here's an idea that might bridge the gap between your modes of operation, or it might be an idea for fruitful cooperation or a joint-venture. Also, Dear power-sellers. Let's consider, for a moment, this crazy concept of, well, let's […]

A bit of reverse engineering of Amazon's internal workings and logistics, through their abbreviations, and only from what's publicly available: A2SAmazon Associates Web Service, old abbreviation for Amazon's Product Advertising API, see also ECS A9former startup, now A9.com is a subsidiary of Amazon that develops search and advertising technologies AFNAmazon Fulfilment Network, compare MFN AMIAmazon […]

Does anyone still remember this pilot project in Manhattan, where eBay, I think, tried offering same-day delivery, by bicycle messengers? Manhattan: one big warehouse, right? What happened to that? Now, from reading the news, Google's Shopping Express is gearing up, again - after years and years of hibernation, after the Froogle years, after years of […]

What's the big thing about these shopping apps? I don't get it. When I enter Fancy, or Wish, or Wanelo, 3Crumbs, et al, they do little aside from replicating what's already there, on amazon, or the multitude of web-app based e-commerce sites out there. I think their overall design shortcoming is that they are suffering […]

These days, US and International barcode consortium GS1 is celebrating the unification of member organisations that led to common standards for scanning and identifying merchantable goods - products. 40 years ago, on June 26th, 1974, a 10-pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit Gum was scanned at a Marsh food store in Troy, Ohio. Now, five billion […]

Announced today and to-be-released on July 25th, 2014 in the US, the Amazon Fire Smartphone, officially "Amazon Fire Phone", can be pre-ordered now. The quick facts: good camera: 13MP, a unique "Dynamic Perspective" mode that displays maps, for example, in a visually pleasing way, and - Firefly. Firefly is supposed to enable users to identify […]

This post is a mere collection of pointers into the realm of "remote shopping", means: you buy stuff you can't easily get, products that are only sold at a remote location, not easily/regularly available for mail-ordering, or to get a hand at inventory/stock that's only available at a specific store somewhere you would have to […]

One of the central things to get mobile commerce (m-commerce) working is that customers, when asking for a product which might be sold out where they are right then, can find out if it is available somewhere nearby. One step-stones towards this goal is what makes Milo tick behind the scenes: Milo taps into the […]

For many years now, has refused to open shops. After their support for the showrooming concept, now in retrospect, this mindset makes even more sense. And now, with Amazon Lockers, Amazon has found a way to get closer to costumers, finally. Amazon Lockers are micro warehouse systems, closed shelves, mostly installed in partnering retail stores, […]

With Amazon decidedly promoting showrooming, it's time to think about when the online retail giant decides to offer a compensation structure for real-life, high-street brick-and-mortar showrooms (formerly called "shops")? Amazon's Associates program is one of, if not, the most successful referral program on the web. They've got a rich history of letting everyone who helps […]

What is Showrooming?? Wikipedia defines Showrooming as "... the act of examining merchandise in a brick and mortar retail store without purchasing it there, then shopping online to find a lower price for the same item." This definition is unsatisfactory. A better work-thesis kind of definition might be: Showrooming, from a customer perspective, is the […]

This new section on goesZen is meant as a hub and post collection to keep tab on new developments in the online and offline retail world - the next version or final revolution, evolution?, that might transform our inner cities, that might change how the High Street works. Will online shopping evolve? Is there a […]