Amazon's Next Battleground is Your Local Community

The New York Post put out an article claiming that Amazon controls 44% of online sales. This is up from 38% in 2016.

Amazon is currently in the process of rolling out a nationwide distribution network and its own local delivery services.

I predict that this change will completely change the face both online and local marketing.

The change is forcing online marketers to examine their distribution channels and local merchants are suddenly in direct competition with the Internet jaugernaut.

Personally, I think this change will be good. It will force marketers and business leaders to start thinking about their local communities.

I should introduce myself. I created a thing called Community Color specifically so that I can follow the interaction between local communities and the internet at large.

The public site is a basic directory. However, I have been examining distribution chains and the over all effect of the Internet on communities.

Things have actually been bleak in the last few decades. Marketers have developed a tunnel vision where they see nothing but the internet. The local business communities have been falling apart.

Once vibrant towns are now simply rows of empty store fronts.

A huge number of malls have failed as well. There is a online community of "retail archeologists" who troll through failed malls photographing all the empty stalls.

Amazon is going to continue to dominate internet sales. I contend that the best hope of independent merchants hoping to survive the next wave of Amazon dominance is for merchants to step back from their computer screens and look at the towns in which they live.

Interestingly , the only company I see that understands the threat Amazon local poses is Walmart. Walmart realizes that the real competition in the market is about distribution. They have started putting up little convenient pick up stations that let people order online and pick up locally.

As Amazon and Walmart turn their focus to their nationwide distribution channels, other merchants need to follow suit. Hopefully, this new focus on penetrating local markets will help curb the decline taking place in too many local communities.