Forrester Research has released an in-depth look at how retailers can compete and coexist with Amazon. For many retailers, Amazon is seen as both a friend and a foe.
“For many businesses, Amazon is simultaneously a sales channel, a potential service provider, and a competitive threat,” Forrester’s Brian Walker notes in a blog post about the study.
Walker goes on to list five threats to the online retailer’s profitability:
- Flopping in key emerging markets
- Facing hostile retailers
- Bleeding key talent
- Succumbing to Jeff Bezos’s management distractions
- Just getting too big
The report also delves into the growing distrust that brands and retailers have for Amazon. There’s a feeling out there that “they are teaching Amazon too much by selling to or through Amazon,” Walker writes. “If a significant number of retailers leave the Amazon Marketplace, its flywheel falls apart, and the fundamental drivers of growth to date will instead drive its decline.”
You can read more about the report at blogs.forrester.com.
