America's No. 1 financial conglomerate

Chapter 427 Great minds think alike

In August, Seattle has entered the rainy season. The continuous drizzle weaves a gray curtain, enveloping the entire city in a quiet and slightly oppressive atmosphere.

At Amazon headquarters, Jeff Bezos sat quietly behind a large solid wood desk, his gaze passing through the spotless floor-to-ceiling windows as he looked out at the city skyline blurred by rain.

On the desk was a printed copy of Walmart's latest job posting. In addition to the usual retail operations, supply chain management, and marketing positions, the biggest difference from Walmart's previous recruitment was the demand for computer talent.

A retail giant that rarely hires even one or two computer professionals a year is now recruiting hundreds, covering multiple technical positions such as software engineers, system architects, and data analysts.

Seeing Robert Davis's name printed at the bottom, Bezos knew that Walmart was about to make a big splash.

"With this recruitment, Walmart's e-commerce department should now have over three or four hundred computer professionals, right?" Bezos picked up the job posting on the table and handed the document to Rick, who was sitting opposite him.

Rick was a core member of Amazon recruited from Walmart. He had worked at Walmart for many years, and no one within Amazon could surpass him in his familiarity with Walmart.

Are you familiar with this Robert Davis?

Rick took the job posting, his fingers gliding lightly across the paper. His gaze lingered on Robert Davis's name, a complex mix of emotions in his eyes—nostalgia,感慨, and a hint of barely perceptible regret.

He slowly raised his head, and said with a hint of reminiscence, "Robert was my old colleague at Walmart. He was very technically skilled, with unique insights and keen observation. However, he was a bit stubborn."

As the conversation unfolded, Rick's thoughts seemed to drift back to Walmart headquarters many years ago.

"He initiated Walmart's project to enter e-commerce, which included me, but the higher-ups didn't take it seriously and it was eventually rejected."

He recalled the days when they struggled together, working day and night, consulting a lot of information, and conducting market research. These memories were as vivid as if they were from yesterday, and every detail was clear in Rick's mind, unforgettable.

"Later, Robert became disheartened and left Walmart, joining eBay instead. As for me, after much deliberation, I chose to come to Amazon." Rick couldn't help but sigh at this point. Was this the legendary "scattered stars across the sky"?

Despite being on opposing sides, Rick and Robert Davis did not give up their exploration and pursuit of the field of e-commerce.

Robert's outstanding technical skills at eBay propelled the company's technological upgrades and user experience optimizations, injecting strong momentum into eBay's development.

Rick also made significant contributions after arriving in the Amazon.

The method they have been using is actually based on the plan they developed at Walmart back then.

Walmart failed to recognize the potential of e-commerce in its early days, missing a golden opportunity to seize the initiative in the market.

Now, they have brought Robert Davis back to the company, hoping to leverage his abilities and experience to achieve a breakthrough in the e-commerce field.

Bezos was surprised by their connection: "No wonder Walmart's online website has seen significant improvements."

From the very first day Walmart's online website launched, Bezos has been closely monitoring the retail behemoth's activities.

However, his interest in Walmart wasn't because it was a retail giant or a strong competitor for Amazon as it expanded into more product categories. Rather, he hoped to gather more valuable market information by studying Walmart's online business operations, providing valuable insights for Amazon's future e-commerce development.

Prior to this, there had never been an e-commerce website like Walmart that covered almost all categories of goods.

Amazon will next transform into a full-category platform, following Walmart's old path. Walmart's pioneering attempt undoubtedly provides Amazon with a rare opportunity to learn and draw lessons from it.

He wanted to see what mistakes Walmart, the pioneer, would make, so that Amazon could avoid repeating those mistakes and take fewer detours in its future development.

However, simply opening Walmart's online website left Bezos greatly disappointed, shaking his head in disbelief.

The computer in his office was definitely high-end, but it still took more than 30 seconds to open Walmart's online website.

Amazon's website response time is almost a third or even less than Walmart's, which can only mean that there is a problem within Walmart.

Either Walmart's online website has a serious flaw in its web design architecture, causing slow page loading speeds.

Either its server hardware can't keep up with business needs and can't meet the pressure of a large number of users accessing it at the same time.

Regardless of the issue, this one detail is enough for Bezos to practically pronounce a death sentence on Walmart's e-commerce business.

To his surprise, the problem with Walmart's website was resolved in about a week.

When Bezos logged back into Walmart's online website, he was surprised to find that the website's response speed had improved dramatically, becoming almost indistinguishable from Amazon's website.

He doesn't believe it's a coincidence; there must be a mastermind behind it all.

As expected, the investigation revealed that Walmart's e-commerce business had a new head, Robert Davis.

His two large-scale recruitment drives for computer talent after taking office show that he is a visionary and business-savvy individual.

Even so, he still doesn't believe that Walmart will become Amazon's number one rival in the e-commerce field.

In his mind, the only thing that could truly threaten Amazon and keep him constantly on guard was that annoying guy.

"The financing from Wall Street will be arriving in the next few days, providing us with ample financial support for our future development." Bezos's tone became firm, and his eyes revealed a strong sense of urgency. "The construction of the warehousing and logistics system must be accelerated. In addition, regarding the expansion of product categories, I hope that by September, core categories such as home appliances, electronic products, and clothing must be put on the shelves and be operating normally. At that time, warehousing and logistics will be key."

Rick frowned deeply. He felt the plan was too rushed. "Isn't it a bit too hasty? Why the rush? Are you afraid Walmart will beat you to the punch and take over the market?"

"Walmart?" Bezos sneered at the name. "I've never considered these traditional retail giants as our real rivals."

"Amazon's sales in the second quarter exceeded $1.5 million, a 300% increase compared to the same period last year. And Walmart? Its sales in the second quarter reached $380 billion, equivalent to 250 Amazons."

But Bezos changed the subject, his eyes becoming even more confident: "But these traditional retail giants like Walmart, though seemingly powerful, have a fatal weakness: their vast network of physical stores."

"Walmart has over 4000 physical stores worldwide, but these stores are a heavy burden in the e-commerce era, severely restricting the development of its online business. They dare not allow online prices to be lower than offline prices. If we were to engage in a price war, do you think Walmart would dare to follow suit?"

Rick's eyes lit up; it really was true.

If Walmart dares to lower prices, it will cause dissatisfaction among offline consumers. No matter how broad the future of e-commerce may be, offline is Walmart's core business and source of revenue right now.

If Walmart lowers prices both online and offline, it will inevitably lead to a significant decline in the company's revenue and profits. This will not only affect the company's financial situation but also make it difficult to explain to shareholders.

Forget about shareholders, they can't even get past the distributors.

If you lower your prices, what will other retailers do?

Do you expect me to lose money and just make a name for myself with you?

That's impossible; it would definitely cause a scene.

"So why are you in such a hurry?" Since Walmart was no threat, Rick was curious about what Bezos was so anxious about.

Bezos's expression instantly turned serious, and his tone revealed a hint of worry. "I'm worried about Ernst. Ernst has always been a quirky guy, and nobody knows what kind of trouble he'll cause next. So we have to strike first and expand Amazon's market share as much as possible."

Amazon considers Ernst its biggest rival, and Ernst considers the same; it can only be said that the two are of the same mind.

"Don't focus too much on Walmart's activities; these traditional retail giants are not worth worrying about at all." Ernst looked at Affili with unwavering determination and said in a resolute tone, "Our only real competitor is Amazon."

The internet is not like brick-and-mortar retail; the traditional approach doesn't work in the internet realm.

But Bezos is different. He is an opponent with great strategic vision and execution ability, and more importantly, he has succeeded before.

Ernst can be confident, but he is not arrogant; he still deserves the respect due to him.

However, Affili became somewhat anxious after seeing the overwhelming Google advertising on Walmart's e-commerce website every day and the growing momentum of its online business.

He worried that Walmart would leverage its strong brand influence and vast product range to quickly seize market share, and repeatedly suggested to Ernst that the flash sale could be launched ahead of schedule.

"We will stick to the plan. Once the flash sale is launched, it must be a website that operates stably in the long term, not a piece of junk that consumers keep complaining about and trying to fix."

He emphasized that "category segmentation, product richness, website interface design, and so on, all of these are essential."

Looking at the recent work report of Flash Sale in my hand, including the establishment of the advance warehouse, the arrival of goods purchased from China, the number of cooperation with regional stores, the recruitment and training of deliverymen, and so on.

Finally, he asked the question he was most concerned about: "Will our website launch smoothly in September?"

The flash sale was originally scheduled to launch on September 15th, but I don't know how the development is going now.

"No problem. If all goes well, our flash sale could launch in the first week of September."

Afeier was also quite excited about this, after all, it was the first time he had been in charge on his own.