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Caroline O'Donovan reports at Buzzfeed that Google plans to announce a new product aimed at connecting Google search users with local home-service providers — like plumbers and electricians.
Currently, Google searches for things like plumbers and electricians return links to service providers along with associated AdWord advertisements. Sources said the new product would go beyond this presentation format to actually connect search users with service providers.
Google isn't the only tech company looking to tap into the huge and rapidly expanding home services industry. Amazon just launched its new Home Services site, which allows Amazon shoppers to search, select, and pay for things like landscapers and car mechanics without ever leaving the site.
Amazon is offering more than 700 services that include just about anything that might require a professional to come to your door. Tasks are searchable on Amazon, just like any other product, and there are no estimates — offers will be priced by the professional before the job takes place. Amazon says it vets all the professionals for the invite-only program before inclusion. "It's a pretty natural extension of our business to move into the service space," says Peter Faricy, vice president of Amazon Marketplace. "In talking to customers, they don't feel like anyone serves their needs end to end. You can pay a subscription to get reviews, but why not just do that on Amazon for free?"
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday April 13 2015, @07:55PM
Something to think about your HD example is they're very expensive. To "keep costs down" the roofing estimator uses some ridiculous linear algebra formula to figure costs (admittedly very quickly) and ended up estimating something ridiculous like $22000 to replace my roof. The other contractors all did a much more detailed plan and came in around $8K or so (some flat roof, etc).
I think the HD plan is based on the assumption all the wood is rotten or something such that they rapidly provide a worst case cost whereas the contractors spent about an hour looking in the attic and stuff to come up with a much lower estimate.
Perhaps the HD guy made a math error. Or maybe everything the middleman has the price triple.
I'm just saying why pay enough to remodel a bathroom when all you really need is the toilet unclogged, and even if they screw up or rip you off it'll still be cheaper than paying HD. Thats the traditional problem with middlemen, once you get too many layers all skimming off over 100% at each layer, skipping them starts getting cheaper.
I'm willing to bet if I needed a plumber it would be cheaper to hire two or three of them simultaneously than to have HD middleman one for me. Which is weird. In that scenario I don't really care if they screw it up or I have to hire more guys.
(Score: 2) by Leebert on Tuesday April 14 2015, @12:45AM
So is Geek Squad. But people use them, presumably because they're either uncomfortable shopping for an independent computer shop or they just don't care. You're arguing what you think people SHOULD do, not what they WILL do. Whether it makes sense or not is an individualized decision, and all I would expect Amazon to care about is if if enough people would use it that they can make money doing it.
I didn't say it's for everybody or even for most people. But there are some number of people who are willing to just throw money at a problem to make it go away reliably. Heck, I literally do my own roofing, but I would consider exploring Amazon as an option for certain services that I can't or won't do myself (e.g., electrical service entrance upgrade which, by my county code, I'm not allowed to do.)
If Amazon can achieve some combination of significant cost competitiveness over a Home Depot-type model, added convenience (such as letting me solicit a bid at 3 AM on Christmas morning), providing a similarly (relatively) hassle-free experience via an abstraction layer between the customer and the contractor, and improve over the Home Depot model by allowing you to solicit bids from multiple providers and compare the responses in a normalized fashion (i.e., apples-to-apples comparison of bids), I could see it providing a valuable service.
(Score: 2) by Leebert on Tuesday April 14 2015, @01:46AM
One other thing I forgot to address is one of scale. If you're spending upwards of $10,000 on a roof, it's a different ballgame.
Amazon, at least for the time being, seems to be sticking with common tasks: Replacing switches, moving receptacles, replacing faucets, etc. For some people, it's not worth maybe saving 50% of a $175 job to deal with the hassle of shopping. Same as why I stopped by 7-11 this morning and paid $2.00 for an orange juice: It's way overpriced percentage-wise, but in absolute terms it's worth the convenience of a quick in and out without taking so much time that I'll miss my train.