I see trouble ahead with some of this. I work with clients all the time who run into problems when they try to work outside their core business and take on tasks that others have spent decades refining and perfecting.
True, but you have to remember what Amazon’s core business is. And it ain’t the website. Their core business is acquisition, largely of technology, but also of efficiency, and whatever seems interesting. Basically it’s a two fold thing: think of anything that could make the internet “better”, and think of anything that could be made “better” via the internet. That’s Amazon’s business. This is their 76th acquisition, for a 24 year old company that kind of insane. And remember they’re acquiring not just expanding, in that acquisition they’re getting people that know this business. That could be another reason for this acquisition, their expansion into grocery wasn’t going as well as they wanted, so they bought some experts.