Target’s Divorce From Amazon Says More About Differentiation Than Maturation
Written by Evan SchumanAugust 13th, 2009
When Target announced (Aug. 7) that it was taking its E-Commerce operation back from Amazon, speculation ranged from "this means E-Commerce is maturing" to "Target now wants to compete more directly against Amazon." Although both thoughts are true to varying degrees, the reason for the split—which follows similar moves away from Amazon by Borders and Toys R Us--has more to do with Target wanting to create a unique identity.
At a practical level, there were various specific capabilities that Target wanted to add that Amazon either couldn't deliver (unlikely) or wouldn't deliver (more likely) or (most likely) that Amazon could deliver but at an unacceptable price. Target spokesperson Kelly Basgen said areas that Target wanted to improve once the Amazon divorce is final in August 2011 were search, checkout, cart features, better branding control and differentiated experiences within different categories. She gave an example—while stressing that it was only a hypothetical example—that Target might want a consumer's experience within apparel pages to be very different than within home goods.
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Is there really an improvement between a mag swipe and contactless tap if multi-factor authentication is required?
-Ed
