‘E-commerce wins a lot because people don’t know where to find stuff. That’s a major disadvantage local stores have to Amazon. If you knew something was available one block away, or that you could pick it up in a local store without having to wait for shipping, you might not choose to order it online.’

Mark Cummins, CEO of Pointy, a Dublin-based tech firm partnering with Google to power SWIS¹²

Amazon may not yet have an extensive store network to match the physical network of its global grocery and general merchandise rivals, but in spite of Google’s efforts to level the playing field with features like Local Inventory Ads and SWIS, Amazon is still dominant when it comes to product search. As previously stated, nearly half (49 per cent) of consumers turn to Amazon first when searching for products online, with search engines taking 36 per cent and retailers coming in third, at 15 per cent. When asked why, though, price was not the stand-out reason (Figure 11.1), suggesting again that there are more ways to compete with Amazon in the ROBO wars.¹³