Comment by metafunctor | Hacker News Reader

Comment by metafunctor | Hacker News Reader

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The big issue for me is delivery times. When I order something the website claims is "in stock", it often takes weeks to be delivered. Clearly they don't have the item in stock, but are backordering it from somewhere else (usually Germany). That sucks so much. I am perfectly capable of ordering from Germany myself, and it is much faster than ordering from these faux "in stock" websites.

Not Amazon, though. They get it. Quick delivery is key.

The problem here for Wolt is to get an accurate (and I mean _accurate_) picture of what they can actually deliver very quickly. Most brick & mortar stores don't have the ERP to support that. They have no computer system that correctly tracks what items they actually have on their shelves. It's crazy, but it's true.

P.S. The above may be wildly different in different locales. I'm in Finland, where Wolt was conceived. I sometimes order lunch from Wolt but I have serious reservations they can pull this off with items that are back-ordered through a lengthy supply chain.

It's funny, in Sweden I've been having the opposite experience. Local stores almost always specify if they have stock accurately and what the lead times are if not, and delivery is usually as quick as specified.

Amazon usually comes in a bit cheaper but comes from Germany or the UK. Since brexit everything from the UK is taking weeks.

Yeah, I like to order from Sweden. It's usually faster to ship stuff from Sweden to Finland than ordering from a Finnish faux "in stock" webshop :)

I probably shouldn't comment, as I've never used any of these delivery services .. but that said I've always been pretty patient when it comes to online-ordering.

There are a lot of things I could go to a store to buy if I needed them "immediately". If I can way a week or two then online ordering is just something I do because it is either very easy to do, or a lot cheaper.

Right now I'm waiting on the delivery of some NE555 timer chips, so I can build a clock circuit to drive a Z80. Since I'm in no immediate rush I just ordered a bunch from aliexpress, I have no doubt they'll turn up in six weeks.

(I did look at how much it would cost to buy a single 555 locally, and found a couple of online sites such as mouser.fi, and partco.fi, but they were quoting €10-20 for delivery which was just not something I was going to pay, even if the delivery would have been speedy.)

Also last week I got nostalgic for when I used to have the complete collection of Discworld books, so I ordered half of them online, I was given a delivery estimate of a week which is perfectly fine, I've no shortage of books to read here in the meantime.

For what it’s worth Farnell is by far the most reliable place for electronics components I’ve found in the EU. Next business day delivery for 5 EUR from Western Europe to Estonia even if you order in the afternoon. Haven’t been disappointed yet.

That's a good tip, thanks!

I got started with arduino/esp8266 devices a couple of years ago, and mostly then it would have been a case of ordering from China and waiting.

It is only recently that I've started needing specific IC pieces to complete an ongoing project, and stalling for 4-8 weeks has become too much of a pain. So I'm not so familiar with component sources, beyond just quick searches!

Wolt has no support for anything other than delivering immediately. So if the shop lists an item they do not actually have, they have to reject the order.

Well, that's not exactly correct. You can create a scheduled order up to a week in advance.

Yes, but that is entirely customer-driven, and just places the order in a queue to start at a point chosen by the system so that it will be delivered at the promised time. Once the order is initiated, it will be delivered immediately, there is no logistical system in place to do anything else.

There may be opportunities in creating simplified ERPs for SMBs.

In fact, if they want to compete, it will be necessary to adopt one for the reasons you point out.

IMO, The platform must be the ERP system, with the local business simply acting as a logistics node in the network (storage, shipping).

Is there none? I appreciate a local hardware store may not need SAP but isn't there anything small scale that'd link up to POS or website?

I know some computer stores that have that. I can check on the website if a product is anywhere nearby, go for a walk and buy it.

Oh, and IKEA.

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