I have been following Amazon as a business and to a lesser extent as a stock, but I have refrained from investing in it. The price seemed so high all the time that I did not even try to value it. Even if I would come up with a scenario in which the current price is low, I would likely see many reasons why it's 'too optimistic' and refrain from investing anyway. Of course I missed out a lot of gains and I might be missing more of them in the future. But it's just not in my DNA.
In lieu of Amazon, I'm thinking of other entities that could be significant in online retail. In the US market, it's hard for me to think of someone else than Walmart. They certainly know how to run lean operations and be the low-cost competitor. They are not as savvy in online world as Amazon, but I do not see a fundamental reason why they couldn't crack this.
My only issue is valuation - while Walmart is certainly far from Amazon's expensiveness, it's not exactly cheap either. My only solution for this for now is to buy a small piece (~1% of portfolio) and start tracking the company much more closely. Hopefully it can get cheaper or I can become more convinced that they'll not only defend but even increase their market share going forward.
In lieu of Amazon, I'm thinking of other entities that could be significant in online retail. In the US market, it's hard for me to think of someone else than Walmart. They certainly know how to run lean operations and be the low-cost competitor. They are not as savvy in online world as Amazon, but I do not see a fundamental reason why they couldn't crack this.
My only issue is valuation - while Walmart is certainly far from Amazon's expensiveness, it's not exactly cheap either. My only solution for this for now is to buy a small piece (~1% of portfolio) and start tracking the company much more closely. Hopefully it can get cheaper or I can become more convinced that they'll not only defend but even increase their market share going forward.
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