[hef19898]

True that. Just two thoughts on it:

1) You can A/B test yourself into a corner. They are definitely doing it right, whether it is the right thing to do is a different question.

2) Having some process insight into the operations / logistics side I can confirm that everything thing is connected to the webside one way or the other. That is what gives Amazon its huge operational advantage. Downside is, with everything developed in-house, this approach can end up as a motely collection of legacy systems. And that makes changing things difficult and had the potential to become a major pain in the ass long term.

[johnrgrace]

Ex amazonian here, all of the internal systems have well defined API interfaces. So long as you don't blow up the API's you can replace any legacy system you want because it doesn't have tendrils that reach into 50 other systems.