What does Big Data have in common with Big Box Retailing… besides the bigness?
How much does Walmart have in common with Amazon… besides the obvious?
Where do you think retail is going… besides mobile?
Let’s start back a week.
Twitter and Royal Mail go public in a similar time frame, and while nothing about them seems similar at all, maybe their futures are more linked than not.(BTW, kudos to Twitter for taking a sane approach to their IPO — the value they create should not be limited to the few… and certainly not just for the now).
Now let’s look at another pairing — a competitive one to be sure, but a pairing nevertheless.
Walmart and Amazon are beginning to converge much as Sears and Amazon converged years ago — and if you don’t believe me, read this piece from the 2004 Amazon Annual Report and the following piece from the 1897 Sears Wish Book Catalogue:
We seek to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavor to offer customers the lowest possible prices. — Amazon, 2004, p. 3
