Amazon - How on earth do they do it?

Amazon - How on earth do they do it?

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Discussion

Adenauer

Original Poster:

18,564 posts

235 months

Monday 28th July 2014
quotequote all
Having just been browsing the sunglasses thread I clicked on this link, 70 quid sunglasses, only 7 left in stock.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B004XZYR02

Which made me wonder, how many items, times how much stock of each item, etc etc etc. They must hold billions of pounds worth of stock, or am I missing something?

Anyone have any idea how much stock they hold in a country, a continent, the world?

mgtony

4,014 posts

189 months

Monday 28th July 2014
quotequote all
Isn't a lot of stuff like those "Dispatched from and sold by Simply Sunglasses." which means they don't actually hold the stock?? smile

Adenauer

Original Poster:

18,564 posts

235 months

Monday 28th July 2014
quotequote all
mgtony said:
Isn't a lot of stuff like those "Dispatched from and sold by Simply Sunglasses." which means they don't actually hold the stock?? smile
Even if 'half' the stuff isn't dispatched by Amazon, I bet that's still a hell of a lot of stock!

mrmr96

13,736 posts

203 months

Monday 28th July 2014
quotequote all
mgtony said:
Isn't a lot of stuff like those "Dispatched from and sold by Simply Sunglasses." which means they don't actually hold the stock?? smile
Indeed, it's clearly not amazon stock, nor amazon's sale. Amazon will never see this stock, nor the revenue. They will receive a commission from simply sunglasses on the sale. (Of course Amazon handles the payment, but that doens't mean it's their income. Their income is the commission. As such any problems/returns etc will be dealt with by Simply Sunglesses. Including refunds etc.)

LordGrover

33,531 posts

211 months

Monday 28th July 2014
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I bought the same sunglasses via this link: amazon. They have fantastic lenses - great for driving.

ETA I think the one linked by OP is incorrect - mine aren't polarized. No good for driving if they were.

mickk

28,772 posts

241 months

Monday 28th July 2014
quotequote all
mrmr96 said:
Their income is the commission. As such any problems/returns etc will be dealt with by Simply Sunglesses. Including refunds etc.)
Amazon deal with all refunds, had to return a TomTom last year and they told me to return it to the supplier.

I of course informed them that they was my supplier and they promptly replaced the item.



andy-xr

13,204 posts

203 months

Monday 28th July 2014
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I remember reading once that the way they use warehouse space is different to a lot of companies. Most will stack up sugar all in one place, or tea bags...whatever. If there's 5 pallets of them, they go in row D. In row E, there'll be half an aisle of biscuits and something else.

The way Amazon do it is by putting anything anywhere, wherever there's space. So every last nook and cranny is used, and everything's tagged so 'the system' knows exactly where it is on the shop floor, so that pickers can go get it. That makes it easier to put lots of stuff into a smaller space, meaning they can hold more

P-Jay

10,551 posts

190 months

Monday 28th July 2014
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I've driven past their place in Swansea and it's VAST





It's run by some very clever stock management software and as someone has said it's not laid out 'logically' in the traditional sense, toys with toys, books with books etc - but laid out according to what fits where best. Some of the employees complain how hard it is - they walk dozen of miles a day and are at the mercy of hand-held computers that tell them where to go - they'd never find anything otherwise - but ultimately it's a decent days pay for a decent days work the exact type of entry-level work South Wales desperately needs.

There's 6 other distribution centres in the UK and lord only knows how many more worldwide - make no mistake Amazon is a BIG DEAL.

LordGrover

33,531 posts

211 months

Monday 28th July 2014
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Also big losers press is correct: click & click.

Hackney

6,811 posts

207 months

Monday 28th July 2014
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Amazon have a bizarre business model.

I know they sell products at a loss.
However, after selling at a loss, they then ask for money to mitigate this loss. The threat then is you lose the amazon business, which continues to grow.
The supplier has no control over what price amazon sell at, but is expected to fund (retrospectively) their very low pricing.

They're potentially bigger bullies than Tesco and their ilk.

P-Jay

10,551 posts

190 months

Monday 28th July 2014
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anonymous said:
[redacted]
As I understand it they're not bothered about that - picker A might pick up a copy of Showgirls DVD whilst Picker B picks up a jumbo box of tissues from a different corner of the warehouse - some other clever bit of kit puts them together in the same box.

Not that I've ever been there, that's just what I've read / remember.

Vocal Minority

8,582 posts

151 months

Monday 28th July 2014
quotequote all
Adenauer said:
Even if 'half' the stuff isn't dispatched by Amazon, I bet that's still a hell of a lot of stock!
They have numerous depots nationally measuring up to 1,000,000 sq ft -

that's 15 football pitches (to put it into scale)

Oakey

27,523 posts

215 months

Monday 28th July 2014
quotequote all
Hackney said:
Amazon have a bizarre business model.

I know they sell products at a loss.
However, after selling at a loss, they then ask for money to mitigate this loss. The threat then is you lose the amazon business, which continues to grow.
The supplier has no control over what price amazon sell at, but is expected to fund (retrospectively) their very low pricing.

They're potentially bigger bullies than Tesco and their ilk.
I've noticed that recently if you choose free delivery it takes them an age to dispatch your items. I ordered something recently on a Friday that was in stock, chose free delivery and it was the following Thursday they dispatched it and it arrived on the Friday. The cynical part of me says this is to get people to sign up to Prime as they never used to be this slow.

Cotty

39,389 posts

283 months

Monday 28th July 2014
quotequote all
P-Jay said:
As I understand it they're not bothered about that - picker A might pick up a copy of Showgirls DVD whilst Picker B picks up a jumbo box of tissues from a different corner of the warehouse - some other clever bit of kit puts them together in the same box.

Not that I've ever been there, that's just what I've read / remember.
Some of them are so automated the shelves go to the pickers. There is a video somewhere that shows little square robots picking up racks and delivering them to a picket who selects the product.

GTIR

24,741 posts

265 months

Monday 28th July 2014
quotequote all
P-Jay said:
As I understand it they're not bothered about that - picker A might pick up a copy of Showgirls DVD whilst Picker B picks up a jumbo box of tissues from a different corner of the warehouse - some other clever bit of kit puts them together in the same box.

Not that I've ever been there, that's just what I've read / remember.
Right, so how absorbent were the tissues?

steveatesh

4,893 posts

163 months

Monday 28th July 2014
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Cotty said:
Some of them are so automated the shelves go to the pickers. There is a video somewhere that shows little square robots picking up racks and delivering them to a picket who selects the product.
Somewhere in an Amazon depot, yesterday:


anonymous-user

53 months

Monday 28th July 2014
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According to Q2 results (posted last Thursday as it happens), the inventory value was $6,644,000,000 ($6.64bn) and they claim 9.4 inventory turns per 12 months

Its all here

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=97664&...

mr_fibuli

1,109 posts

194 months

Monday 28th July 2014
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There was a program about them a while ago - they said the warehouse item locations are done at random because that means the pickers are much less likely to select the wrong item, than if a load of similar items are next to each other.

Smaller companies were paying Amazon to sell, warehouse and ship their stock - so Amazon don't even have to own a lot of it. I think you see something like "Sold by XYZ Company, order fulfilled by Amazon" when you checkout.

ajprice

27,317 posts

195 months

Monday 28th July 2014
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steveatesh said:
Somewhere in an Amazon depot, yesterday:

"I know you're sad about Louie. But he got careless! And you see what happens when you get careless? Mr Jones is going to get a rampant rabbit now. He ordered the box set of Dads Army!"

Cotty

39,389 posts

283 months

Monday 28th July 2014
quotequote all
Found that video, well I think its Amazon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UxZDJ1HiPE