Trend Report
빨리 포기하는 법을
알고 있는 아마존
지난 해 말 아마존은 아기용 기저귀와 물티슈 사업, 모바일 지갑 비즈니스까지 야심차게 출발할 것을 내세웠다. 그러한 문어발식 확장을 꾀하고 있는
아마존에 대한 업계의 성토도 있었다. 그리고 새해, 돌연 아마존은 이러한 사업을 더 이상 하지 않겠다고 선언했다.
Amazon learns how to fail faster
In just the last couple of days, Amazon shut
down its private-label diaper product (only six
weeks after launch) and withdrew its mobile
wallet (six months after a prominent rollout).
These moves come just six months after the
almost universally booed launch of its Fire
phone. Is Amazon, the legendary master of all
things e-commerce, cutting back on its due
diligence? Or is it simply adjusting to what
seems to be a much faster pace for 2015?
“The company is under a tremendous amount
of pressure to throw a lot of things against the
wall. There are going to be a lot of things that
won’t stick,” said Sucharita Mulpuru, a veteran
e-commerce analyst with Forrester Research.
“It’s good that they are recognizing that things
need to be pulled quickly. No reason to let
things linger.”
But, she added, “it does seems to suggest that
(less of a focus on due diligence) is what is
happening.”
Tom Forte, a Wall Street analyst who is a
longtime tracker of Amazon, is still bullish on
Amazon, but points to mobile-fueled market
shifts that are rapidly forcing new behaviors,
both in terms of due diligence and how long
weaker-than-expected market performance
will be tolerated.
“To me, what’s different is that we’re in a
stage of the Internet cycle where a lot of
categories are going to merge. That feigns the
appearance that they are exiting products
more quickly,” said Forte, who today tracks
e-commerce and logistics issues for Brean
Capital. “The amount of change is so significant
and the pace of change is so fast, it creates the
false appearance that they are exiting faster or
that there has been a change in strategy.”
The two most recent product pullbacks ?
diapers and the mobile wallet ? were very
different situations, but they shared two
elements. First, both represent necessary
strategic moves by Amazon. Diapers are part of
the margin-enhancing private label campaign,
one that Forte ? like others ? has argued is
critical for Amazon’s long-term survival.
And the mobile wallet is also a top strategy,
a defensive move to keep rivals Apple and
Google from controlling how shoppers pay for
products and services on mobile devices.
Amazon was correct in needing to attack those
segments, just as it had good reason to attack
the smartphone segment when it rolled out
the Fire phone. But that doesn’t mean that the
products were attractive enough to generate
significant sales.
And that speaks to the second shared
element: Both were late entries into very wellestablished markets with extremely dominant
players. Hence, Amazon didn’t need products
that were merely good; it needed products
that were materially better in some way.
As for the diapers, Amazon abruptly yanked
them from the site last week and shut down
prepaid diaper subscriptions.
“Based on early customer feedback about
Amazon Elements Diapers, we are making
some design improvements. We’ll let
customers know when new diapers are
available,” Amazon spokesperson Nell Rona
said in an emailed statement.
The Amazon Wallet was shut down January 21,
some six months after its launch.
“We’ve learned a great deal from the
Amazon Wallet beta program,” said Amazon
spokesperson Tom Cook, “and (Amazon) will
look for ways to apply these lessons in the
future as we continue to innovate on behalf of
our customers.”
Brean Capital’s Forte tried putting Amazon’s
efforts into a historical context.
“As a general rule, Amazon goes into a new
category or a new country with a 5- to 7-year
investment horizon,” he said. But within a given
category, a specific product implementation
may get much less time to prove itself.
“Amazon is not above pulling out of
something that isn’t working,” he said, pointing
to an early effort to bill monthly for Prime as an
attempt to hurt Netflix. “That was short-lived.”
Part of the change is also a willingness to try
experiments, without the need to stay long if
sales don’t materialize quickly.
“Amazon is investing in a lot of different
categories. They are willing to try a lot of
things,” Forte said. “Unlike Google or Apple,
they don’t have a high-margin business. They
have to be somewhat selective. I applaud
their willingness to try so many different
things. I’m a believer that Amazon can make
adjustments.”
원문 : http://venturebeat.com/2015/01/24/amazon-learns-how-to-fail-faster
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