Alibaba is one of the largest internet companies in the world, 6th place after Amazon (they’ve passed Amazon twice the past three years in terms of market cap). The Alibaba Group is like a combination of Google Drive, Amazon, EBay and PayPal, they offer a cloud service, B2B, B2C, C2C, a payment service and so on and so forth. They have connected a lot of China´s logistics network to improve the efficiency in the flow.
This year on “Singles Day” Alibaba sold for over 25 billion dollars in a day, which is more than H&M sells for in a year, and resulted in 250 000 orders per minute.
Their strategic goal is to have two billion customers and ten million businesses. They plan to invest 15 billion US Dollars to expand and unite their global logistics network to increase the efficiency as China did not have UPS or FedEx (in 2014).
As the e-commerce never stops growing, and it becomes faster and more convenient than other physical stores, the possibilities are endless. Will it only get faster and cheaper with deliveries? Will giant holding companies buy the logistics network, and smaller business owners can grow within their network? Will there even be shopping streets in 15 years or so?
Some people say that the consumers never want to stop interact, try on and test your products. And sure, it is a nice social activity if you have the time and the energy. But what about all those waiting lines to the fitting rooms, to the check out, the pushing around during Saturdays or clearances? And on most web stores, you can chat directly with a stylist or the staff anyhow.
But some people argue that it is necessary to have at least the flagship store or a showroom, as there are products that you want to try or feel. And food stores will never fully disappear, as the farmer’s market. But some things might be able to replace, with the growing AI business, you won’t have to walk around in department stores looking for new furniture, you can decorate it in a app with your smart phone.
So, will we have one united, international, logistic network in the end? Or as we mentioned in class earlier, trucks go independent and the deliveries UberPool to the customers? Will we ever stop going to shops, or will we have everything delivered?
Comentarios
Publicar un comentario