Can Amazon Be Wal-Mart of the Web?

The New York Times, by BRAD STONE, September 19, 2009

Amazon is shaking up retailers, both big rivals and small independent stores, as it speeds its way beyond books toward its goal of becoming a Web-sized general store. (Jim Wilson/The New York Times)

THE hum of 102 rooftop air conditioners and a chorus of beeping electric carts provide the acoustic backdrop in Amazon.com’s 605,000-square-foot distribution facility on this city’s west side. But the center’s employees can almost always hear Terry Jones.

On a recent summer afternoon, Mr. Jones, an “inbound support associate” making $12 an hour, steered a hand-pushed cart through the packed aisles and shouted his location to everyone in earshot: “Cart coming through. Yup! Watch yourself, please!” Mr. Jones explained that he was just making his time at Amazon “joyful and fun” while complying with the company’s rigorous safety rules.

But his cries might double as a warning to the retail world: Amazon, the Web’s largest retailer, wants you to step aside.

Fifteen years after Jeffrey P. Bezos founded the company as an online bookstore, Amazon is set to cross a significant threshold. Sometime later this year, if current trends continue, worldwide sales of media products — the books, movies and music that Amazon started with — will be surpassed for the first time by sales of other merchandise on the site. (That transition already occurred this year in its North American business.)

In other words, in an increasingly digital age, Amazon is quickly becoming the world’s general store. Alongside the books and CDs and DVDs are diapers, Legos and power drills, not to mention replacement car clutches and more arcane items like the Jackalope Buck taxidermy mount ($69.97).

“Amazon has gone from ‘that bookstore’ in people’s mind to a general online retailer, and that is a great place to be,” said Scot Wingo, chief executive of ChannelAdvisor, an eBay-backed company that helps stores like Wal-Mart and J.C. Penney sell online. Mr. Wingo envisions e-commerce growing to 15 percent of overall retail in the next decade from around 7 percent. “If Amazon grows their market share throughout that period, and honestly I don’t see anything stopping it, that is pretty scary,” he said.

Indeed, Amazon has been gobbling e-commerce market share since 2006, taking away customers from eBay in particular. But its advances are shaking up the entire retail world. Giants like Wal-Mart are warily replicating elements of its strategy, while small independent retailers in sporting goods and jewelry now worry their fate will be similar to that of small bookstores and independent video rental shops (remember those?).

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Salesforce.com offers software for tiny businesses

Reuters, Wed Sep 2, 2009 12:02pm EDT

BOSTON (Reuters) - Salesforce.com Inc (CRM.N) introduced software targeted at tiny businesses and individuals that costs $9 a month per user, pricing it for less than a third of its previously least-expensive product.

The Web-based software, which the company introduced on Wednesday, allows no more than two people to manage business contacts and track customer relationships.

Salesforce offers two other customer relationship software products with more features -- one for up to five people for $35 per worker per month and one for an unlimited number of users at $65 per person per month.

The San Francisco-based company's goal is to get entrepreneurs comfortable using its products while their companies are still small, and boost sales to them as their businesses grow, said Salesforce.com spokesman Bruce Francis.

The Salesforce.com products are compatible with Google Inc's (GOOG.O) Web-based email, word processor, spreadsheet and presentation, which businesses can use at no charge.

The software maker's shares rose 4 cents to $51.18 in morning trade on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Jim Finkle; Editing by Derek Caney)

Wal-Mart to sell good from other vendors on Web

Wal-Mart Stores Web site creates new program that lets outside retailers offer products

Yahoo Finance

By Chuck Bartels, AP Business Writer, Monday August 31, 2009, 3:16 pm EDT

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has launched an addition to its online business that has outside retailers selling nearly 1 million new items through Walmart.com, a move that could help the world's largest retailer catch up in the online world.

The Walmart Marketplace has products from categories that include home, baby, toys, apparel, sporting goods and sports memorabilia. The company said it picked the retailers -- including eBags, CSN Stores and Pro Team -- because they have large product assortments and solid customer service track records.

Retail consultant Burt Flickinger III said Wal-mart can use online sales an area for growth, especially considering how the company's stores have saturated much of the U.S. market. He said Wal-Mart can also draw online customers from the European continent and South Korea, where it no longer has stores.

"This gives Wal-Mart a chance to close the widening gap with Amazon.com and Apple," Flickinger said.

Apple has knocked off Wal-Mart as the top music seller, and Amazon has posted healthy sales gains of late, though its second-quarter earnings in July came in below expectations. In its second quarter, Wal-Mart posted its first drop in sales at stores open at least a year, indicating a need to find new growth areas.

"Online is one key growth frontier Wal-mart has yet to conquer," Flickinger said. Bringing in established companies is faster than the company developing such a massive addition itself, he said.

Flickinger said that with Mike Duke taking over this year as Wal-Mart Stores president and CEO, the company has moved other managers into place to build sales across Wal-Mart's divisions.

"Wal-Mart is fully focused on winning against every key competitor on land and online," Flickinger said.

On the Web site, payment for products ordered from the partner companies is handled by Walmart.com. The partner retailer will handle shipping and customer service. Wal-Mart says it plans to add more companies.

The names of the different retailers are listed on individual product pages. The Marketplace had centerpiece placement on the Walmart.com site Monday.

Unilever uses information management to keep shelves stacked

Kalido software provides locally relevant reports to help improve supply chain

By Leo King, Computerworlduk.com

Unilever has completed an information management software implementation to ensure stores are well stocked with its products.

The consumer goods giant, which makes brands such as Hellmann’s mayonnaise, Dove soap and Surf washing powder, has implemented an Active Information Management system from supplier Kalido, to process in-store audit data sent from shops to the Unilever data warehouse.

Unilever is also using Kalido's Master Data Management and Dynamic Information Warehouse to create reference data and analyse transaction data.

The information is translated into relevant, actionable data by the new software, so that executives can take decisions to improve supply chain efficiency and ensure shops do not have a shortage of Unilever products.

Unilever also extensively uses SAP's supply chain management and enterprise resource planning software.

The product availability project has been rolled out in the UK and US markets, though Unilever did not disclose how much it had increased availability, other than to say the original estimate had been "conservative". It expected “to see the benefits flow” as it refined processes and added new markets to the programme.

Gary Calveley, VP global customer service, said: “We need the most up-to-date information on how our business is operating to successfully stay ahead of market trends and our competitors. Kalido’s business-oriented information management software forms part of the solution enabling us to utilise consolidated operational and transactional data and provide critical visibility into business performance.”

In August, the company revealed it was in the midst of a ‘One Unilever’ programme designed to save costs and increase efficiency by standardising regional business processes and streamlining IT systems.

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