The new retail startup Alice.Com could very well be the next Amazon in online retail sales. I was skeptical when I first started hearing about the new retail startup Alice.Com which offers grocery and consumer goods with fast delivery and free shipping but decided to place an order and try them out.
From what I have read so far they have an interesting business model. Major food and consumer companies such as Proctor & Gamble will be selling their goods directly to consumers and bypassing brick and store retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target, and Sears and online retailers such as Amazon.
“…a new venture-capital-funded site for CPG e-commerce that lets manufacturers keep the profits, is off to a fairly fast start since its May launch, with its 387,000 visitors in July, surpassing Diapers.com”
I looked at the prices Alice charges and was surprised that many of the items were priced at about the same price or lower than Wal-Mart, DollarGeneral, Fred’s and most supermarkets. I decided to place an order for various everyday household things from pet food to shampoo. I ordered 34 items and Alice automatically applied $9.40 in store coupons leaving a total of only $62.21. Based on the prices they charged the same items would have cost around $72.00 at a discount store or supermarket (plus the additional cost of gas and time). Some of the items on special had excellent prices – Dawn Ultra Concentrated Dishwashing Liquid came out to only 84 cents and Suave Shampoo came out to only 60 cents. With the backing of major food and consumer companies they have the potential to become major competition to Amazon, Wal-Mart, and others in the future as they expand their catalog of items.
The order was very neatly packed and arrived in about 2 business days.
