Han Bao Le

Walter Hodge

I think you propose a great question regarding Tesla but are guilty of “spotlight thinking” on the approach for answering it. Although their sales and revenue fall short compared to Ford and GM their strategy is not designed merely on “Electric Vehicles” nor is it focused on the middle class (value/cost). Tesla is doing something all consumers want and hold high expectations towards. They’re evolving the car industries “services” by proving that brand loyalty has to be earned, as well as, appreciated to sustain. Quality in their products and their services are what allows them to be disruptive. As they refine their manufacturing processes to be more efficient, their sales and revenue will follow because they’re already performing better when it comes to servicing customer. Implementing programs like their resale value commitment and commission free sales locations is just more reassurance to purchasers looking for a decent automobile.

Anecdotally speaking, I feel like Tesla’s strategy is working. This isn’t based off of any statistics, but I know in my case that as a millennial growing up in a world where climate change is the biggest threat to my generation, I am sure that I want my next vehicle to be an EV. In the same line of thinking, I know that the EV that I want to drive is the Tesla. I am aware the Chevy has an electric car, but my opinion of it is probably the same opinion that I’d have of a Prius, it’s not a fun car to own. So, the Model 3, Tesla’s affordable model, is really the only car that I’ve only ever envisioned myself driving in the future. Thus, anecdotally speaking, if the Tesla is targeting late millenial males, their strategy is working, at least in my case.

I think the difference between the other companies’ EV products and Tesla’s is that the Tesla brand is built around solely EV, whereas the other manufacturers have other priorities that hurts their brand loyalty in the EV realm. Tesla has built up a huge brand presence, and although Elon Musk makes some questionable decisions socially, he always manages to keep himself at the forefront of the news and replies directly to customers regarding their complaints for the company. He has set the company up extremely well to appeal to a society that lives in the digital era, from the electric car, to remote software updates, to utilizing Twitter to listen to their customers. I’m not sure I would buy a Tesla at this point as the future is still a little uncertain, but I think it is looking promising for them/

I actually did a project on Amazon Go for MSOM and I can confirm that they don’t use facial recognition. The store has Bluetooth beacons that identify what mobile device accounts are closest to the items being picked up by interacting with the user’s Amazon go app that is running on their phone. They use shelf cameras, AI, and weight sensors to determine what has been selected or put back by the user. These stores are great for convenience shopping because there are no lines, orders are short and non-complex. However, this doesn’t seem like a technology that can expand into a full grocery store since there is no way to accept government welfare assistance such as WIC checks or Food stamps and in a large scale there will likely be too much traffic to accurately asses who is grabbing what.

As a previously long time Supermarket employee I could agree that Amazon’s technology will be immensely difficult to implement into a full grocery store. Yes , the current experience they have created is amazing and in terms of convenience shopping may be top of the line, but this is really small scaled locations. In my opinion growing to the point of bigger locations such as a Walmart sized location for instance would be so difficult that even if they were capable of doing so the negatives would outweigh the positive. They would have to account for families all under one device for instance where they would be in separate parts of the store picking out products. There are also times when babies in strollers when close enough pick up the first item they see without the parent seeing or even children who under the excitement of seeing so much candy cant help but put a few in their pocket. To account for these small two scenarios among millions and millions of unpredictable events is just too much to handle without physical , actual employees. Having actual cashiers and employees in store plays an important role in noticing the last couple items a parent has no knowledge the rest of their family has snuck into their cart, bag, etc. To me the technology is not there yet made obvious by the fact that my fellow student states “During a test phase, children placing items on incorrect shelves proved an unanticipated challenge.” To me the technology for this is quickly advancing and growing but might never really get to the point past a small convenience store.

This is another great example of IT creating value for the business. By implementing their technology for bluetooth, cameras, and the app they are improving the customer experience, reducing the friction of checking out and reducing labor costs. While I haven’t experienced first hand amazon go, I did get to experience something similar in Switzerland on a much smaller scale. They have what appears to be a mixture between a cold case you would find in a convenience store and vending machine. A local company prepares fresh grab and go options that are healthy and stocked every morning with seasonal variety and regular popular items. Essentially, if you want to use this machine you have a key fob that you swipe which unlocks the machine, you open the door, take what you want, and close it. The food is on a weight sensor and your have an account linked to the fob which allows you to pay for what you’ve chosen. The people there seemed to really like it and were excited to show me how it worked. I would imagine having this kind of experience at the store would be even better. I wonder though if the savings from reducing headcount is enough to out weigh the potential for lost or unaccounted for merchandise as you mentioned children were moving items around.

This was a very interesting post, and kind of gives us a preview of what the future may look like. Everyone always kind of jokes about robots taking our jobs, and this is a prime example of a way that this is actually happening. It also provides a great example of how technology can be leveraged to give yourself a competitive advantage, as this gives customers a completely unique and easy shopping experience using a bunch of different technologies working together. The biggest concern is how well this technology works. If it is buggy or inaccurate, it can end up costing customers a lot of money and scare them away from entering these types of stores. It will be interesting to see how Amazon executes this and customers begin to use it.