Specialist
Former Senior executive at Amazon.com Inc
Agenda
- Amazon's (NASDAQ: AMZN) positioning in US e-commerce vs legacy bricks-and-mortar retailers, noting Amazon Prime’s stickiness and online market share
- US e-commerce and category penetration challenges and opportunities
- Mid-to-long-term growth avenues, M&A and regulatory headwinds outlook
Questions
1.
According to data from the US Department of Commerce, online penetration reached about 20.4% in Q4 2021, a drop from Q4 2020’s 21.1% penetration rate. Where do you see e-commerce sales penetration headed over the next 5-10 years, and is there a reason to believe that the pandemic-driven bump has the potential to flatten future e-commerce growth?
2.
You mentioned the Amazon Prime ecosystem and its stickiness. What part of the Prime proposition do you find is driving stickiness?
3.
What happens to e-commerce in the near term, aside from a potential recession? What happens to Amazon specifically?
4.
Amazon tends to build for the long-term, and there is recent press surrounding its decision to abandon plans for dozens of its US warehouses, with one due to shut down in October. What do you make of this specific development?
5.
It seems Amazon has about 37-38% of the online market share in the US as of June 2022. Where would you place this at maturity?
6.
Amazon is competing with players that don’t even compete with each other, so the Walmart vs Nordstrom example. How sustainable is the company’s lead in online market share to be able to keep up with these very distinct players, given every player is also looking to step-up their efforts in e-commerce? How far behind are these players in being able to catch up with Amazon?
7.
How does Amazon decide whether or not it wants to take on a FedEx or a UPS? How does the company decide whether it wants to touch a category, strengthen in a category or pull back on one? What is its exposure, or lack thereof, across product segments?
8.
How does Amazon make the determination that it wants to invest in growing its presence or dominance over a particular category, considering the announced iRobot acquisition as an example? How does it take shape?
9.
Does the decision-making process for category expansion change across markets, considering the US vs Europe or LATAM and how the company slowly approached which categories it wanted to enter the market through?
10.
What are your thoughts on Amazon’s private label strategy, which was recently reported to have faced some regulatory scrutiny and is a business the company might potentially be exiting?
11.
What is your outlook for additional M&A for Amazon and potential regulatory scrutiny it could face there? What is the likelihood of the company going after players such as Kohl’s or Bed, Bath & Beyond, for instance?
