IDG Contributor Network: The right way to tackle Amazon

There's little question that Amazon has dominated e-commerce for much of its existence. But as it quietly boosts its physical presence in communities, it's not really getting into the bricks-and-mortar business. All that it's doing is perfecting its online operations, ever mindful that the final stage of e-commerce is getting the product to the shopper, a stage that can run into quite a few obstacles.

It's those kinds of obstacles — age-restricted products such as alcohol, neighbors or opportunity thieves stealing packages from outside the front door, temperature-sensitive merchandise, etc. — that Amazon is focusing on. Have seen no plans at all for a true shopping cart warehouse effort from Amazon, other than a wacky friction-less warehouse scenario described in a patent from January.

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