[jonnathanson]

Same-day delivery is the next big battle in the eCommerce space, but the real challenge isn't on the delivery end. It's on the logistics and supply chain end. Amazon has been investing heavily in distribution centers, inventory management, and fulfillment. (And even Amazon has a largely expensive, small, and inefficient distribution network as compared to, say, Walmart's).

As seamless as the front-ends of eCommerce have become, it's easy to forget how much brute force is still required on the operations side of the business.

Automated cars can make deliveries pretty easily, but they can't move merchandise in quantity between locations. The latter is the bigger barrier to scaling the system.

[ricw]

Of course they can move merchandise in quantity between locations. Faster, safer and cheaper than anything that currently exists. That's the whole point.

But nonetheless, a major distribution network needs to be in place before this can happen.. If you only want same day deliveries, you could do with maybe 20 centres in the USA and automated delivery vehicles, if you want 1-2 hour deliveries you have to be much closer. And that's where the battle for omnipresence will be won.

[ceejayoz]

> Automated cars can make deliveries pretty easily, but they can't move merchandise in quantity between locations.

Automated trucks sure as hell can...

[jonnathanson]

To and from where, though? That's the issue. The issue isn't the delivery vehicles; it's the inventory management. For Google, the most likely way around this problem will be as a service provider / aggregator for existing shops (similar to Amazon's affiliate program).