Dirty Tricks or Business Strategy?

OM_2K19

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Amazon might well just get away with this. In India and much of the developing or developed world, we like things that are cheap, even if their quality is only reasonably good. Their Basics brand has gone into almost every little product, right from cables, TV's and Air Conditioners. There will be an Amazon basics electric car very soon that will take on and probably even kill the Alto. They have the money, can scale and most important, they have the data, which is the new oil. Its plenty enough to see consumer interests, moods and build products accordingly. It is also evident that the current and upcoming generation does not care much for longevity of a product. If we can flip our iphones with every new release, whats the harm if that AC you bought from Amazon works only for 3 years. There is plenty of disposable income these days. Just replace it.
 
In my experience the quality of Amazon's private brand products surpass the quality of the competition. At worst, they are on par. We the customers win!
 
Actually not surprising, its business in the end. Even Google's search engine is manipulated to show the websites of people on priority who pay them.
As long as Amazon's products are acceptable it's fine. One can go by user reviews to gauge their product quality. I have yet to come across a website or a store that gives you the service that Amazon gives. Their service is stellar. It has really changed the way we buy products.
 
I am not sure about the 'dirty' part of it. But its the same issue that a walmart or a big bazaar or any other supermarketdoes. You analyse the products that are selling well, go to the generic manufacturer who is making the product, give them better margins and put a private label to the brand that is doing well.

With Amazon, obviously, its analytics and knowhow is really good, so it starts doing it much faster and more efficiently.
 
Every major consumer brand in FMCG does not make their products themselves.
They develop a set of vendors who make their products from them.

Amazon has disrupted this by bypassing these big brands and going direct to these vendors
They have the financial muscle and the supply chain in place to do this
Why is it bad if they are passing on the savings to the consumer?

Amazon Basics products far exceed anything you can buy from any vendor.


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The few Amazon basics products that I have tried, I am quite satisfied. Time for the competition to figure out their own online sales strategies if they don't want to use the amazon platform and prevent them from knocking off their products (not that it will matter - see below).
Every large corporation in all fields, that I know of has what is called a Benchmarking Department, where the go out and buy competitors products (if physical) and tear them down. They then compare and contrast to their own products and see where they can cut costs or improve. It is all perfectly legal and legit and called competitiveness. The department has a budget and it all comes under R&D which is even tax deductible.
I will go one step further - Even a large country does this - and they will use their army on anyone who questions them - however they usually supply sub-standard and downright dangerous products.
Cheers,
Sid
 
We are falling into the traps of MNCs again and again. Around 4 years back people were very happy with OLA/Uber saying that they are passing the benefits to the people as they were offering services at a great price. After two years they increased their prices manifold. At present OLA/Uber is charging more than Rs 1600 for a Airport drop. But the local taxi operators are offering the same services for Rs 900 (Only few are left now in Bangalore). We may see another side of Amazon once they force their competitors to shut shop.
 
We are falling into the traps of MNCs again and again. Around 4 years back people were very happy with OLA/Uber saying that they are passing the benefits to the people as they were offering services at a great price. After two years they increased their prices manifold. At present OLA/Uber is charging more than Rs 1600 for a Airport drop. But the local taxi operators are offering the same services for Rs 900 (Only few are left now in Bangalore). We may see another side of Amazon once they force their competitors to shut shop.
Actually the local taxi charges underwent a correction after Ola and Uber came in.
Prior to their entry, the local taxi's too were generally charging high. Totally agree that the Ola Uber charges have surged upwards off late.
If any local business or industry provides good service & quality products, it will be a win win situation for the consumer whether it is Amazon or anyone else.
As of now Amazon services are topnotch & consistent given their magnanimous volume of business.

Besides another thing to note is that Amazon's rates are generally consistent across the world with differences due to taxation and logistics in the individual countries
 
We are falling into the traps of MNCs again and again. Around 4 years back people were very happy with OLA/Uber saying that they are passing the benefits to the people as they were offering services at a great price. After two years they increased their prices manifold. At present OLA/Uber is charging more than Rs 1600 for a Airport drop. But the local taxi operators are offering the same services for Rs 900 (Only few are left now in Bangalore). We may see another side of Amazon once they force their competitors to shut shop.
Strongly disagree. I am in bangalore and during the pandemic when Ola Uber were running with limited fleet, the local auto and taxiwalas were back to their extortion driven ways... Behaving as if they are kings and asking for manifold premium... On top many times they would just cancel or talk rudely.

I have been in bangalore for 15 years now and initially I was so pareshan with autowalas daily calling me you came from north I won't take you etc. I am so glad Uber and ola came and taught them that customer is king.

Even if I have to pay 50% premium I am willing to go with Ola. Uber for their higher level of professionalism where I can at least get respect with my money and better service is an added bonus. Even now i have found them much cheaper compared to local drivers

Without Amazon and fk we would still be living in old license raj driven shops where the shopkeeper would behave like autowalas and taxiwalas above. Nowadays they are ready to deliver at home for 100 rupees order. Why? Because they are scared for their existence and they know that customer has many options

In short at the bare minimum companies like swiggy zomato Ola Uber jio amazo fk, have established customer as king again and due to the competition now the shopkeepers are crying foul, when they themselves abused and still abuse the customer whenever they can.
 
When you consider a product or service to be too expensive, don’t buy it.
If you consider a product or service to be sub par, buy something else.
Voting with one’s wallet is a customer’s superpower.
A Logitech mousepad for $21?
No, thank you.
 
Moment I see Amazon Basics or Solimo, I walk away.
That said, all big corporates are unethical and exploitative people.
 
I have never seen a person who is happy with the Autowalas of Bangalore in any manner. He or she may be from any part of the country. Not even a local fellow. Nor I am not happy with them.

Healthy competition is necessary for better standards of product/services and customer also benefits.

The title of the discussion is "Dirty Tricks or Business Strategy". So I gave the example of Ola. Yes as a customer I have saved some money in the initial days. Also The inconvenience faced with talking to the Autowalas are gone. But the main credit goes to the Technological innovation.

The drivers of the App based taxi services were in seventh heaven in the initial days. For them Ola/Uber is kind of God sent for them. The incentives they were earning were very lucrative. I personally know some people who took loans to buy more cabs and earn extra revenue. Now all incentives are gone. They are treated as slaves and forced to make very high number of trips to earn meagre incentives. And this is the situation not in Bangalore alone, but throughout the country. And I guess in North too.

Also 30% of the revenue generated flows out of the country. That's bound to weaken the Rupee.

Yes we are benefited in the short term.

But as an individual we are free to interpret this as Dirty Trick or Business Strategy or our failure to understand the scenario etc etc
 
We are falling into the traps of MNCs again and again. Around 4 years back people were very happy with OLA/Uber saying that they are passing the benefits to the people as they were offering services at a great price. After two years they increased their prices manifold. At present OLA/Uber is charging more than Rs 1600 for a Airport drop. But the local taxi operators are offering the same services for Rs 900 (Only few are left now in Bangalore). We may see another side of Amazon once they force their competitors to shut shop.
I do agree with your sentiments that MNCs and many companies often prioritise their profit over customer well being.

But I feel the example of increased fares by ola, Uber should take into account that fuel prices have nearly doubled …

I however am puzzled how local taxi operators have kept fares unchanged over these 4 years despite the increased fuel cost
 
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We are mixing two things here.

1. According to the title, Amazon is stealing someone's data to promote their own products which is not considered a good thing. It is surely an unethical thing though not sure if it is illegal.

2. They have given us a very large platform to buy products at a cheaper rate (most of the time) than the competition like our local general stores etc. Cap it with the very short delivery time all across India, excellent return policies and availability of the stuff which is not so easy to find in smaller cities, the customer is the clear winner here.

But just coz of no.2 they shouldn't be doing 1 as they present themselves as a platform for the various sellers.
 
I'd agree with the general sentiment that businesses are for profit, customer service is part of that.

Recently I was trying to get in touch with a company (no names) for a product quote and it is a large company and even though I tried multiple times to get a quote no one seemed interested. I would construe this to mean that they are not interested or perhaps they don't have supply. Some of their employees were rude and others didn't bother responding.

On the other hand another company (small) took interest in the inquiry and followed up though I decided against that product they were much more approachable and understanding when I told them I was going in a different direction.

I think it all comes down to the company, it's management and their own business models. The amount of business one generates with little to no effort also plays a large part.
 
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