Commerce Weekly: Targeting Amazon

Strategic brick-and-mortar retail campaigns to battle Amazon, Square ends NYC taxi pilot, and Isis prepares for launch.

Here are a few stories that caught my attention in the commerce space this week.

Strategic maneuvers aimed at Amazon

Best Buy LogoRetail competition against Amazon is starting to heat up coming into the holiday shopping season. On the heels of Wal-Mart’s recent moves to square off against Amazon, two other big box brick-and-mortar retailers have announced strategies targeting the Internet retail giant.

Ann Zimmerman reports at The Wall Street Journal that Best Buy not only will price match with Amazon this holiday season, but will also offer free delivery for products that are out of stock. Target has its sights set against Amazon as well. In a report on Target’s planned holiday strategy, Natalie Zmuda at AgeAge notes that tactics include “a price-match guarantee against a group of competitors that includes popular online retailers such as Amazon.” Target also is using QR codes in its holiday campaign to combat “showrooming” on the top 20 selling toys.

In somewhat related news, the US Post Office also is making moves into the e-commerce market. Victoria Stilwell reports at Bloomberg that starting in November, the US Post Office will begin testing its same-day delivery program, called Metro Post, in the San Francisco market. The service is aimed at local physical retailers, which could in turn give them a leg up against Internet retailers like Amazon. Stilwell reports that to participate in the Metro Post test, retailers need 10 or more physical locations throughout the US, with one or more within the test market boundaries.

Square exits taxis

New York City’s Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC) spokesman Allan Fromberg this week unequivocally dismissed rumors from last week that Square was negotiating an official partnership with TLC, alongside news that Square has ended its pilot payment program with the TLC.

Garett Sloane at The New York Post reports that a letter (PDF) sent by Square’s general counsel Dana Wagner to the TLC on Friday “indicated that [Square] needed to overhaul its payment system in light of new rules the commission is drafting to govern credit-card payments in cabs.” Wagner writes in the letter:

“Square has determined, in light of developments in prospective taxicab regulations in New York and other markets, and based on what we have learned conducting the Pilot Program to date, that we wish to pursue a different hardware and software solution for our TPEP [taxicab passenger enhancement project] offering. It would be commercially unreasonable for Square to pursue a new hardware and software solution for a future TPEP offering while at the same time continue to support the software and hardware solution we rolled out in the Pilot Program.”

Ryan Kim at GigaOm says it’s likely that Square will continue working on a taxi-payment product, quoting Wagner’s letter: “… Square looks forward to further improving our product and making commerce and transportation easier for millions of riders and drives in New York and around the country.”

In other Square news, company CEO Jack Dorsey announced that Square would no longer refer to its customers as “users” and appealed to others in the technology industry to follow suit. He writes in a blog post: “The word customer, given its history, immediately sets a high bar on the level of service we must provide, or risk losing their attention or business.” His post includes a letter he sent to his team that explained: “We don’t have users, we have customers we earn. They deserve our utmost respect, focus, and service.”

Isis is gearing up for launch

Google Wallet competitor Isis is finally gearing up to launch its wallet, after a series of delays this summer. The company confirmed it would officially launch in the Austin, Texas and Salt Lake City, Utah markets October 22.

Nathan Olivarez-Giles reports at Wired that the Isis mobile app has shown up in Google Play, but notes that the Wired team had yet to find a compatible phone. Isis head of marketing Jaymee Johnson told Olivarez-Giles, “By year end, as many as 20 Isis-ready handsets are expected to be in market …We look forward to sharing more details on Oct. 22.” Those details likely will include partnering retailers as well. Isis announced partners in May, but as Olivarez-Giles notes, it’s not yet clear which ones will be part of the initial launch.

Tip us off

News tips and suggestions are always welcome, so please send them along.

Related:

tags: , , , , , , ,