The following describes the competition between Google and Amazon for fast delivery of customer products.43
In 2011, Google, Inc. began to challenge Amazon's e-commerce dominance by engaging in discussions with major retailers and shippers about creating a service that would let customers shop online and receive their orders within a day for a low fee. This was a direct challenge to the Amazon Prime program that, for $79 per year, offered customers fast shipping at no additional charge for many items on the company's website. Amazon Prime increased the company's sales by 42% in the first nine months of 2011. Google did not plan to sell products directly to consumers. The goal was to meld its search engine's product-search feature with a new quick-shipping service that Google would control. Both Google and Amazon had been moving toward similar strategies. Amazon had become a destination for product searches and a big seller of online advertising, encroaching on Google's territory. Google responded by moving into the online retail industry, dominated by Amazon, that was expected to grow 12% to $197 billion in 2011. new strategy would also put it in competition with eBay and Shoprunner Inc., both of which had fast-shipping programs.
Describe the strategies used by these oligopolists to fight the fast-shipping wars.