
Google Introduces Same-Day Shipping to Compete With eBay and Amazon - mlschmitt23
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/03/google-delivery/
======
tga
Google was never capable to set up the simplest working order and check out
system for the two types of phones/tickets they ever tried to sell and they're
going to compete with Amazon? That should be entertaining to watch.

Also, forget about customer service. You got billed twice or your items never
arrived? Feel free to post on the forums and wait for your neighbour down the
street to reply with his impressions, since he's already had the same thing
happening twice so he's now a community expert.

~~~
chucknelson
Yeah, I would say customer service is one of the major shortcomings of Google
right now. I would think with their transition to producing and selling
physical products that would be something they _have_ to improve on soon.

~~~
tjbiddle
I would disagree on that. For their physical products they've actually had
very good customer support - When I had questions about my Nexus 4 and Nexus
10 coming in I was able to get a support rep very quickly and have my
questions answered. A friend of mine just had to send back his Nexus 4 and had
the same result - Great service and a new phone sent within a day or two.

Obviously their track record for their online support is definitely subpar,
but it will be interesting to see how this plays out in the physical field.

Although, I will admit - If their shopping experience is anything like that of
the Nexus 4 launch this will be a laugh.

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martythemaniak
Ruining HN by turning every Google-related discussion into a snark-filled pile
of garbage isn't going to bring Reader back. Can you guys consider moving on?

~~~
bambax
I'm not sure what comment(s) you're referring to, but at the time of this
writing the top comment, although snark-filled, doesn't have anything to do
with Reader.

Google sucks big time at customer service, they always have and HN is filled
with horror stories of customers (real paying customers) running into walls
and interacting with stupid robots when trying to sort things out.

And now they want to compete with Amazon? Amazon?!? Amazon reinvented customer
service, in a way that makes it impossible to shop anywhere else once you've
experienced them.

At this point, "what are they thinking?" is a very legitimate question.

~~~
mbreese
Probably referring to mine... which was rightly downvoted to the bottom
because it didn't add anything to the conversation. Although, if that's the
case, the GP should have been a reply to my comment, but anyway.

Since I can't edit that comment, I'll elaborate here.

The problem that I have with this isn't with "Reader". I just don't see how
this has any benefit to Google. They aren't selling items. They are just
delivering them. Does this go through some kind of Google online-mall, or will
it go through the retailer's standard site?

The real question that needs to be answered is: what's in it for Google? What
they've made clear lately is that for something to take hold, it needs to be
in their interest. And I just don't see the upside here.

That's not to say I don't see a market for the service (I signed up to be a
tester). I just don't see how it fits with Google.

~~~
bambax
If they want to annoy Amazon that's a possible motivation... although it's far
from obvious they have what it takes.

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smackfu
I guess that's nice if you live in San Francisco. Same day delivery doesn't
exactly seem that challenging if you only deliver to a 30 minute radius.

~~~
sterlingross
Well, considering that it can often take 30 minutes to travel 2 blocks in SF,
getting something delivered the same day might be challenging.

Unless you had self-driving cars with real time map data.

~~~
up_and_up
> 30 minutes to travel 2 blocks in SF

Sounds like you may be doing it wrong. I lived there for 4 years. Public
transit, biking options etc were all decent.

You talking about on the 101 during rush hour? I bet their algos would easily
avoid that.

~~~
georgemcbay
I'm sure he was exaggerating, but in any case I don't think public transit or
biking are viable options for a robust item delivery service (sure, there are
some items biking could work well for, but it is a very narrow band of thing).

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dxbydt
> "You’ll get free, unlimited same-day delivery for six months. That’s six
> months of having toilet paper delivered for free"

Ok, but delivered by regular human in regular car ? No thanks. I want delivery
by unmanned google-cars. For that, I'll even pay premium shipping.

~~~
jfoster
Actually, it might be through self driving cars. Probably come with a regular
human, though. See: [http://m.digitaltrends.com/lifestyle/google-plans-to-use-
sel...](http://m.digitaltrends.com/lifestyle/google-plans-to-use-self-driving-
cars-for-same-day-delivery/)

~~~
dxbydt
Sir, that is fucking awesome! But why the human ? A Nao
(<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2STTNYNF4lk> ) would do. I would bark at Siri
for toilet paper, the self driving google car would arrive within minutes with
toilet paper, a Nao would walk in through the door, I'd drop my pants, he'd
wipe my butt with my newly purchased toilet paper & I'd tip him handsomely and
he'd be driving off to the next customer's anus.

~~~
binarycrusader
Because, first of all, insurance and state law requires an licensed driver to
be present.

And second, the human has to deal with the exceptions -- cases where the data
is wrong, etc.

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angkec
first comment on the article page:

"Good thing google is focusing like a laserbeam . . . on . . . I dunno."

------
Zenst
Same day shipping is not that hard to handle if you only sell what you hae in
stock ready to ship. It is same day arrival that we all dream of, like we get
with shops. With that shipping the same day is fine as long as it gets to the
user quicker, they don't care if you shop the next day as long as it arrives
the same. With that it is worth noting that shopping the same day just means
it got processed and into collection and even then they could have hourly
trucks and count that as dispatched.

Now as long as they provide a tracking number(AWB) or the like you can see the
progress with, then that does help greatly. If you can even have GPS tracking
the last part and notification when hour away or within 5 minutes, well that
would be great.

So that is why I don't get too excited about same day shipping. It is the hubs
inbetween and there cut-off times that divide up the day so you could ship at
11pm and miss the 10pm cutoff for the hub transit and have to wait until the
next one at 10am. In that case for you it makes no difference if 11pm or 9am.
Though anybody who has had tracking information will know how weird some
routes can be and wonder why they sit for almost half a day at some locations.
Then there are customs if different countries are involved and more fun.

For me better item tracking would win over same day dispatch. I'd take a 5 day
delivery window over a 1 day one if it meant I could refine the delivery time
to a hour and not AM/PM. Though that may just be me.

~~~
huggah
The objective is same-day arrival, and it works pretty reliably as long as you
order by 3pm or so (in my area, at least). More importantly, you're given a
clear indication when you order when you will actually get it (you can choose
a delivery window, and see which ones are greyed out).

The delivery windows go as late as 9pm, so I'm sure they will try to push back
the last time at which you can order and still get it delivered same-day.

------
shawndumas
"This, from the company that shitcanned Google Reader because they wanted to
“focus”."

\--[http://daringfireball.net/linked/2013/03/28/google-
shopping-...](http://daringfireball.net/linked/2013/03/28/google-shopping-
express)

~~~
alec
Google makes money by showing ads to people who want to buy things.

If everyone goes to eBay and Amazon instead of Google to buy things, no one
will buy ads from Google.

If Google can provide a compelling alternative to eBay and Amazon, they reduce
the risk that people stop shopping on Google and that people stop buying ads
on Google.

This looks like Google focusing on their bottom line.

~~~
mbreese
But they aren't exactly targeting online shopping via Google. They are using
established retailers that aren't exactly known for showing Google ads on
their sites. So, I don't quite see how this fits.

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IgorPartola
Damn. Another closed pilot program that is area limited. In the mean time, my
Amazon Prime is due for a renewal. I think I'll go and fork over $80 to them
for another year of free two day shipping.

~~~
samwise
It's not free if you have fork over $80. But nonetheless a great service.

~~~
IgorPartola
Yes, my bad on the poor phrasing. However, for the past year I averaged under
$1.5/package and considering I bought some really big items that is pretty
close to free.

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scottmp10
I am not sure how the logistics work with participating stores but I would
really like to see them make this an easy way for small local businesses to
compete with Amazon. Basically a platform for them to list their products and
the logistics to collect and deliver them.

This service seems to be mostly orthogonal to Instacart in that Instacart
provides perishables but you can only order from a single shop at a time where
with Express you can order products from across multiple stores but they focus
more on non-grocery items.

Looking forward to trying it.

~~~
mbreese
I'd like to see it work for small businesses too, but their initial launch
stores all seem to be loaded with bigger companies (Target, Walgreens, Toy R
Us).

------
mbreese
So, they kill Reader, but somehow this is germane?

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OGinparadise
my question are these: how is shopping and consumer service a Google thing?
And how long before this is shut down and google starts, say making shoes?
Focus on their strengths and all.

You cannot build a great customer service team overnight, no matter how much
you throw at it.

