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Technology Stocks : Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: dbblg who wrote (73359)	8/12/1999 1:11:00 PM
From: Lizzie Tudor	Respond to of 164684

When you have a minute, could you please comment on the extent to which AMZN's infrastructure efforts depend on their having technologically sophisticated suppliers? I thought about this once and I actually don't think it matters much at all, because my guess is amzn is automating the outbound logistics area most heavily, as opposed to say, purchasing which is Dell's main focus. Dell needs to manage inventory of as few components as possible and exactly match all this stuff to their orders or else imbalances develop which really degrade the bottom line. Otoh Amazon's main thrust should be minimizing transportation costs is my guess. This would involve sourcing from the supplier in the most cost effective manner but all amazon really needs to know is what their inventory is, other than that the suppliers don't have much else to say. There is no fluid pricing of books, toys etc. like there is components. Amazon needs an exact read on their order cycle etc. and some pretty sophisticated forecasting tools to avoid ordering anything they don't need... toys r us doesn't have this... but that is all internal to amzn.