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But the arrival of Merch by Amazon was a challenge . I ’ m old enough to remember the pre-internet world of 28-day delivery schedules . In the internet age , Spreadshirt prints and delivers within two days , but elsewhere in the industry , it can be as long as two weeks . Now Amazon has arrived with its vision to deliver inside two hours ; if it can do this , it could take a $ 1bn share of the market in just a few years .
So , is it possible to survive if Amazon arrives in your market ? Can you hope to compete if you ’ re not as big and established as Alibaba ? Here ’ s what we ’ ve learnt : it ’ s all about delivery .
This isn ’ t just about speed and time slots . It ’ s about how your delivery compares to the rest of your sector and whether you can benchmark it . We tested ourselves by selling via Amazon and got an insider view of how our operations and delivery work compared to theirs . We discovered that to meet their demanding KPIs we had to put orders from Amazon customers ahead of our own . That was galling , but it improved our operations .
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