You shop, Maersk ships: A new challenger to Amazon emerges | Hacker News Reader

You shop, Maersk ships: A new challenger to Amazon emerges

cnet.com

20 pointsalexrustic19 comments

It looks like companies have finally figured out that Amazon's retail success is strongly tied to the distribution network it created to enable 2 day shipping everywhere. This is pretty much the same thing Walmart did to become massively successful (hyperfocus on distribution).

I assume Amazon will be chartering or even purchasing their own private cargo ships soon. They already have their own delivery trucks and aircraft so ships would seem the next logical step.

My naive mind always hoped Amazon would develop hybrid airships for trans-oceanic transport.

I imagined old oil platforms converted into off-shore loading/unloading platforms located just off of continents and giant automated hybrid airships moving cargo between them. One could take advantage of natural air currents at altitude and spend very little energy on propulsion.

I'm sure there are likely show stoppers, but it makes sense to me without too close a look. One thing is the last sea-mile... not sure how that would work exactly. But at least the airships would probably not use sulfur-rich bunker fuel.

Ships have been required to use low sulphur fuel since 2020.

Hybrid airships might eventually find a niche for military use or transport to remote areas but they'll never be viable for large scale long distance cargo transport. Helium is too expensive and they have trouble flying high enough to get above bad weather. It's just a silly idea, the economics will never work.

> Ships have been required to use low sulphur fuel since 2020.

I find this strong assertion quite odd, as “since 2020” is just a year ago. Plus, laws like these are always bypassed (1) (2).

(1) https://www.digitaljournal.com/tech-science/ships-using-chea...

(2) https://wwf.ca/stories/scrubbers-creates-new-pollution/

IIRC, hydrogen would be much cheaper and is lighter. The only thing stopping its use in the US is archaic law/regulation by the FAA that was put in place in the wake of the Hindenburg disaster.

Hydrogen doesn't burn without oxygen, and modern designs eliminate the risk of a leak that would result in a highly flammable gas mixture.

Being outside US airspace in this example, that wouldn't be a problem.

> It's just a silly idea, the economics will never work.

I am aware that this idea is silly. That's why I started with "my naive mind..." But let's keep going with the thought experiment while we are here.

> Helium is too expensive

Significant new sources have been found in Africa, this might help. However, if you were always over the ocean, and fully automated, I see no reason why hydrogen wouldn't be practical. Also, the hybrid ships I've read about all had a closed-loop helium system.

> they have trouble flying high enough to get above bad weather.

Agreed, this is the main problem of which I am aware. It would take billions in development and might not ever work. The benefit of staying over oceans and being fully unmanned might mitigate some risks. We never had orbital-class rocket boosters that could land before, now we do. "Impossible" things are sometimes possible.

The main crux of this idea to me was that there are some benefits to having one player, Amazon, be a such a large shipping consumer. It would be neat if our species derived some benefit from that level of concentration. Amazon could be working on moonshot type projects in shipping. The hybrid airship was just one thought.

edit: oops, just realized that user Ancapistani made a great case for hydrogen as well

Isn't a question of energy density? I mean how much cargo you can move per ton (or kg) of fuel. Container ships are enormously efficient by this measurement compared to most alternatives I can think of. How many containers could an airship transport, and how long would it take them to move it across the ocean? In theory they could directly load trucks with a sky crane mechanism. It sounds nice but very inefficient.

The thing I find most interesting about unbundling Amazon is that it's going to give a heck of a lot of power to Google and Facebook. Amazon is able to exert so much control because it's where people search for things they want to buy. Without this the fallback is going to be Google for pull and Facebook ads for push.

> The plan is to attract customers who sell from their own platforms and need help fulfilling orders

They're only tackling the fulfillment side, not the customer experience side.

They did specifically mention custom box sizes, labeling and packing. I think that qualifies as "customer experience".

Taken to the extreme, look at all the Apple unboxing videos - it is definitely an experience...

Anyway, we've probably all had an Amazon experience where the product is damaged because of their garbage packing methods, or receiving your order in a box that was so big that 95% of the volume was air, etc. Again, go back to Apple. You will never have anything like that when you order from them. But even they could improve - a lot. I ordered an iPhone 13 to replace an iPhone 8. The case, the phone, and the trade-in box were all mailed as separate boxes. Either the case or the phone box could have easily served as the return box for the trade-in

EDIT - I read the article twice before I really understood what they were getting at. I did a quick search and found this article [1] which explains a lot better

[1] https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/maersk-visible-supply-c...

> look at all the Apple unboxing videos - it is definitely an experience...

People don't appreciate how expensive those boxes are. I think I've seen an article in the past but can't find it now - and maybe it changes at Apple's scale - but those kind of high-quality, precision-made boxes with that kind of vacuum effect you get opening them are astronomically expensive and will dwarf the costs of almost all consumer products that you'd put in them.

Was it this? https://beneinstein.medium.com/no-you-cant-manufacture-that-...

I've never understood the fetish some people have for unboxing. You open the box once and then recycle it. So what? Could someone explain how this even matters? Do consumers actually make purchasing decisions on this basis?

I believe there’s some psychology involved here that I know nothing about, but I think the general idea behind it is about getting or continuing the buy-in from the customer.

That the detail in the presentation of the product is intended to say things on several different levels; “we care about the details so much that we made opening the product an event”. Slightly deeper than that - “you will remember when you first opened a product from us, and our brand”. Deeper still it can try to reinforce - “this product has value, you have made the correct decision”.

It could be very reasonably argued that it’s wasteful and pointless, but you could also argue that it’s also argue it’s intended to improve the experience of customer ownership, and the brand value in the eyes of others, which are less tangibly measured.

My guess is that it's all downhill after the device has been unpackaged - the device fails to meet inflated expectations; it becomes outdated in short order; or if it works like it's supposed to, it becomes transparent.

The opening of a box is the peak of anticipation right before the 'meh' of banal integration. The mind moves on to the next greatest thing to anticipate.

Then also, some people can't afford nice stuff. Unboxing videos are a way for people to experience possession virtually.

I have a sibling that works for a large multinational corporation and does sourcing for products. To sell the exact same item successfully in Asia, Europe and North America, there is a certain amount of packaging that the customer expects for the price of the product. Asia is the lowest, Europe is in the middle, and North America is the highest.

It is, apparently, a cultural thing.

What a wasteful cultural thing it is. I hate all the extraneous crap that surrounds the actual product I want, most of the time.

Isn't this what we want? Amazon quality logistics network as a service for independent shops? Shopify has been doing good work in the making the average inde shop's payment flow not a PITA. Shush em together you get distributed Amazon.

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