Amazon Connection Gives Boost For Window Cleaners

Juan Marn, of Everclean Cleaning Services, on the job. He says about a third of his work comes from Amazon Home Services.

Amazon connection gives small businesses a boost: In October last year, cleaning-business owner Juan Marín heeded the advice of a friend and signed up with Amazon Home Services, which connects customers of the Seattle tech giant to local plumbers, electricians or someone who can assemble an Ikea bed.

The loss of a full-time job in 2013 prompted Juan Marín to plunge all his efforts into the home-services business he and his wife, Yesica, had started in 2010. They expanded what had started as a housecleaning service into roof and gutter cleaning.

In October last year, the 46-year old native of Monterrey, Mexico, heeded the advice of a friend and signed up with Amazon Home Services, a then-nascent marketplace that connects customers of the Seattle tech giant to local plumbers, electricians or someone who can assemble an Ikea bed.

The move gave Marín’s business a sudden boost. He says perhaps a third of his work comes from Amazon, and that his plate is filling up after favorable reviews (his small firm, Everclean Cleaning Services, has 22 reviews, all five-star.) “We are looking to hire to extend the services we can offer, because my wife and I can’t keep up,” he said. “We’ve had to turn down requests.”

It’s been about a year since Amazon.com opened an online marketplace dedicated to the home-services category, throwing itself into a market first carved out by Angie’s List and more recently by Seattle-based Porch.

It’s not known exactly how many service providers like the Maríns have enrolled, but Amazon says it has done well, with orders growing more than 20 percent per month since the marketplace launched in March 2015 in four metropolitan areas. Now Amazon Home Services extends to 30 major metro areas.

For Amazon, the home-improvement business is an interesting field to conquer in its quest to becoming the place where everybody goes for purchases or services. The company, of course, takes its cut — a 10 to 20 percent commission per job in the case of home services, depending on the complexity of the order.

By taking similar cuts from third-party merchants of everything from diapers to high-priced art, Amazon has built its Marketplace business into what CEO Jeff Bezos calls one of the three “big pillars” of the company.

Amazon Home Services not only adds a new segment to that pillar, but also enables its online store to sell more things by, say, selling both a new TV and the service to mount it on a wall. Erika Takeuchi, a spokeswoman for Amazon Home Services, said Amazon has seen an uptick in certain categories of home improvement and electronics because of the associated services offered. 

Amazon brings to buyers and sellers something in return. It does background checks on providers, and its well-established review system allows customers to have some reassurance.

Juan Marín, owner of Everclean Cleaning Service, prepares to wash windows for a client. His business has improved since signing up with Amazon Home Services, a marketplace for local cleaners, electricians, etc.

At the site of one of Marín’s window washing jobs, on Queen Anne, the customer, who declined to be identified, said it was easier than “asking her neighbor for someone who might or might not do a good job.” Amazon will automatically suggest a provider if the client is unsure about whom to hire, and guarantees the job.

To the service providers, Amazon offers a line into its millions of customers. It handles payment and scheduling, and the way it connects sellers and clients (providers have an app on their phone that pings them when a job is offered) is pretty much automated, helping harried small-business owners run the trains on time.

Customers approve a bid online and pay Amazon when the job is completed; then Amazon pays the provider every 14 days. “You save a lot of time on calls,” Marín says.

That said, there are challenges. For Amazon, dealing with people was different from dealing with companies that sell merchandise. It was a task to reach out to these service providers, many of whom weren’t even online, Takeuchi said.

(Amazon has run into trouble before identifying these providers: Last year Angie’s List sued Amazon Local, a now defunct Groupon-like deals business, for taking leads off Angie’s site. The companies agreed to a settlement last month in which Amazon agreed to bar its employees from using Angie’s List accounts for business purposes. But Amazon Home Services is a separate business.)

Its guarantee to customers had to evolve as well. “If you have your roof leaking you don’t just want your money back,” Takeuchi said. “You want to make sure it stops leaking.”

For service providers, the challenge is to keep up with increased competition, which brings the same downward pressure on prices that third-party merchandise sellers are already familiar with.

For Marín, who lives in Edmonds, it means that there are some jobs he won’t do. He’ll take a $125 window cleaning job on Queen Anne or Magnolia, which is his usual area of service. But “if it’s in Issaquah, that’s too far,” he said.

Also see: Now Google Go Head to Head with Amazon Home Services

Now Google Go Head to Head with Amazon Home Services

Now Google Go Head to Head with Amazon Home Services. It will all end up as a price war for window cleaners.

Google to go Head to Head with Amazon Home Services: Later this spring, Google is expected to officially launch its online, on demand home services site, comparable to the recently launched Amazon Home Services as well as Angie's List, HomeAdvisor, and Thumbtack. Currently available for finding car insurance, Google Compare may become the location-based evolution of Google Places as the platform for connecting searchers with local services in their area.

Google Follows Amazon Into Home Services: Google's ambitions are virtually limitless: curing death, teleportation, renewable energy and so on. Add another one to the list: fixing your clogged toilet.

Following closely behind its arch-rival Amazon, Google is planning to launch a new product connecting users with home services providers like plumbers, housecleaners, electricians and carpenters.  The move, expected to be announced within the next few weeks, is in keeping with a broader corporate strategy of "closing the loop" between buyers and sellers rather than simply introducing the two through advertising. Google Express, its e-commerce service, now serves six urban areas, including Chicago and Boston.

But for a company that prides itself on total informational awareness, the home-services market poses unique challenges. “Local services will be harder because the data’s not as transparent on what you can provide,” says Manpreet Singh, founder of TalkLocal, a startup that helps customers book appointments with approved service providers. A contractor doesn’t know how much it will cost to retile your bathroom until she goes in and sees it.

For that and other reasons, Singh expects Google to partner with companies like his rather than try to go it alone, even though it will mean cutting in another middleman. That’s the approach Yelp has taken in its own efforts to close the commerce loop, and it’s also how Amazon, which has a partnership with TaskRabbit, is easing into the home-services game.

One unanswered question in all this is how Google will square its new push with the $100 million investment it made in Thumbtack through its Google Capital arm last year. The San Francisco-based company provides essentially the exact same service Google is looking to start, connecting service providers to customers for a commission.

The apparent conflict of interests is reminiscent of the situation unfolding between Google and Uber. Google Ventures has invested $250 million in the car-service startup, but Google is also said to be developing its own ride-summoning product, a development that would put the two giants into direct competition.

Did Google Just Declare War on Amazon (Again)? Pull up a chair, and get the popcorn out… We have yet another fierce scrap between two of the world’s biggest tech giants. In the race to develop new technologies and innovations – and break into untapped, highly lucrative markets –  such scuffles are common. In August 2014, for example, Google (GOOGL) went public with “Project Wing” – a previously secretive project to develop a drone-delivery service. The revelation was a shot across the bow of fellow tech juggernaut, Amazon (AMZN). Eight months earlier, CEO Jeff Bezos had appeared on 60 Minutes to announce Amazon’s own drone-delivery ambitions – Prime Air.

Well, if the latest rumors are true, the search giant is stirring up trouble again. This time, in a high-dollar market, worth up to $400 billion per year… A Whole New Spin on “Google It” Now, you’d think that Google’s latest venture would be another cool, high-tech offering like drones. But instead, it’s rather low-tech… involving plumbers, electricians, and roofers.

There are increasing rumors that Google is preparing to expand its specialized search capabilities in order to connect consumers with local home service providers. Currently, searches for things like plumbers only return links to local contractors’ websites or contact information. Then, consumers must navigate strategically placed advertisements, as well. But Google’s new service will reportedly connect search users directly with contractors.

In other words, while a regular search just spits out a list of options and a few ads, Google will now act as a middleman and actually allow you to set up and schedule the service. In return, it’ll take a cut of the fee. Again, this is all speculation. But keep in mind that in 2014, Google led a $100-million investment in home service company, Thumbtack. So it’s obviously interested in the home services market.

Sources say an official announcement is likely to come at Google’s annual advertiser summit in May.

Coincidence? Hardly… Not even two weeks ago, Amazon launched a similar service, which allows customers to schedule home services after making purchases. Dubbed Amazon Home Services, it was beta-tested in major cities – including Seattle, Los Angeles, and New York – as Amazon Local Services. Now it’s available in 41 states and 30 of the biggest metropolitan areas in the United States, according to Peter Faricy, Vice President for Amazon Marketplace.

Say, for example, you order a new sink. Amazon will hook you up with a plumber to install it. Or if you buy a new, 60” Samsung (SSNLF) LED TV, Amazon has a guy who can come mount it on the wall for you. Amazon benefits by taking a cut (anywhere from 5% to 19%) of the service providers’ fee.

So why in the world are two of the biggest technology companies interested in such a low-tech, local opportunity? It’s All About the Money… or Is It? Although the home service market might consist of a lot of small ticket items – $150 to install a ceiling fan… $600 to clean out a chimney… they add up.

“It’s a huge market,” says Gartner analyst, Jason Daigler. Indeed. Estimates peg the overall addressable market size at $250 billion to $400 billion. To put that into perspective, the high end of the estimates is bigger than Google’s or Amazon’s current market cap!

So expanding into home services and capturing a meaningful market share could contribute substantial profits to the bottom line. At the same time, home services represent a low-risk expansion opportunity for both companies. As consumers, we clearly don’t like to go it alone when it comes to finding service providers. Consider that the likes of Angie’s List (ANGI), Yelp (YELP), Groupon (GRPN), and Craigslist already connect us directly to service providers. So they’ve validated that demand exists.

Obviously, Amazon and Google believe they can do a better job of helping us. I tend to agree, given each company’s platforms, extensive reach, and the invaluable intelligence gleaned from a near-endless supply of data on consumer habits.

But it’s not going to come without challenges…

Wanted: A Critical Mass of Contractors. The home services market is extremely fragmented and localized. Think about it: Very few, if any, national chains exist for plumbers, electricians, roofers, etc. It also lacks uniformity. Some handymen have nothing more than a truck and a sign. Meanwhile, some service companies boast fleets of trucks and technicians. Local… fragmented… heterogeneous. Add it all up, and it requires a highly customized approach to succeed. And that inevitably cuts into margins.

Even more so when we throw in additional layers of complexity and due diligence, such as performing background checks (for example, Amazon has a full-time vetting team in Seattle) and providing a platform for reviews and consumer protections for bad service. But, as I told CNBC’s Morgan Brennan in a recent interview, “If anyone can automate a seemingly daunting market via data, it’s Google.”

Above all, Google and Amazon need to get a critical mass of service providers on the system in order to make it a true benefit for consumers and a boon for shareholders. But the tech behemoths’ move into home services isn’t simply another opportunity to make money, though…

Show Me the Money: The desire to “go local” serves a much higher purpose – expanding each company’s reach and entrenching their services into our everyday lives as much as possible. And Rolling Stone thought Goldman Sachs (GS) was the vampire squid, “relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money!”

Bottom line: By offering more services, Google and Amazon can keep us – and our hard-earned capital – from straying elsewhere on the web. In the process, we’ll give both companies even better data to keep serving us even more services. Talk about a domino effect. And with an entire world of consumers to go after, it’s no wonder the two companies are squaring off again in what promises to be another fierce battle.

Amazon Now Offering Home Services

Amazon is counting on convenience craving customers who want to know the price up front. Some pre-packaged services are offered at set prices, and there's a price-matching guarantee on those services. More than a dozen custom-priced home services; interior design, yard maintenance, pest control, window washing are also are available. Amazon collects a fee of 10 to 20 percent of the charges from participating service providers.

Amazon now offering home services: Amazon.com strapped on a home improvement tool belt this week, with an announcement that the site will now help users find pros to get things done around the house.

The online emporium that helps its affiliated sellers get even the most obscure products to a buyer's doorstep has been expanding its list of services with data storage, movie streaming and more. Now Amazon can send people to those same doorsteps to assemble a new treadmill, hang flat-screen TVs, clear clogged drains, repair a heating system or paint the bedroom.

Amazon Home Services will be competing with go-between sites like Angie's List, Home Services Pro, Home Advisor and others that promise to make it easier to find the right person for the job, usually at the right price.

As with similar sites, Amazon Home Services pros can compete for a customer's business through pricing and their availability. But Amazon isn't charging a subscription fee as Angie's List does. And it spells out exactly how it checks out its service providers in ways other sites don't.

Amazon is counting on convenience craving customers who want to know the price up front. Some pre-packaged services are offered at set prices, and there's a price-matching guarantee on those services. More than a dozen custom-priced home services.. interior design, yard maintenance, pest control, window washing are also are available. (Curiously, beyond having someone bring in weed-clearing goats, the list also includes acrobatic silk aerialists who might swing from the ceiling and twirl themselves up using lengths of cloth.)

Window washers already being hired, click here.

According to Amazon, its hand-picked professionals have a record of service quality. "We screen through a combination of media searches, online interviews and reference checks." While any home service provider can now apply to work with Amazon, all will be subjected to a 6-point criminal background check and must keep proof of licenses and insurance on file with Amazon. Business registration, liens, judgments, bankruptcy status and more are checked for participating providers on an ongoing basis, according to the site. Providers also must "meet ongoing performance targets" including responsiveness, quality work and positive ratings.

And then there's the "Happiness Guarantee." According to the site: "Our goal is to make sure you're 100 percent happy with any service you've purchased from Amazon Home Services. If the work was not completed to your satisfaction and you're not wearing a gigantic smile, let us know and we'll work with you and your pro to help ensure the job gets done right." If it can't be done right, a refund is the next step.

Don't get excited yet. Not one New Jersey city is listed among the locations to which the service is presently offered. While a search with a central New Jersey ZIP code did pull up a number of mostly assembly services available, the return for searches for more heavy-duty jobs like housecleaning or drywall repair was most often "We're sorry, no pros near."

Customers pay for the work once the job is completed, and Amazon collects a fee of 10 to 20 percent of the charges from participating service providers.

The full roster of home services will include lessons (music, language, yoga -- including aerial), automobile repair, lawn and garden help and computer- and electronics-related repairs and service. Amazon says it is constantly adding providers and services and that those in New Jersey and other areas not yet fully served should "check back frequently for updates."