Amazon: watch out Wal-Mart

Robert Cyran Amazon.com has long been enamoured with scale. The internet retailer expands into new markets like clockwork – it has added everything from electronics to power tools to its initial base in books and DVDs. But despite its best efforts, few customers think of it as a place to buy clothing. This makes the agreement to buy Zappos.com for nearly $1bn in stock a clever way to move forward in the $220bn US apparel market. In a way, Amazon needs to keep stoking its machine. The firm has ...