CHAPTER 2

The Evolution of Online Retail

Starts from eBay and gang, then Amazon fulfillment followed by first responses from brick-and-mortar stores. Insightful data tells the physical and economic growth story of the fulfillment machine. Through four phases of evolution, the smart disruptors leveraged data, technology, and decision models into a customer delight. Identify the four traits of successful machine builders: prerequisites, timeliness, technology enablers, and a long view.

The Netscape web browser, launched in 1994, made it much easier for all of us to navigate the Internet. Almost immediately we were all looking for fun things to do while online. But few of us, including brick-and-mortar retailers, would have guessed that shopping ...

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