Google Buys Rangespan to Add Inventory Management to Google Shopping (opens in new tab)

Rangespan isn't Supply Chain Management any more than Google Shopping is Google. Their core product was more likely used by marketers than supply chain professionals, and its intersection with SCM was superficial at best. I think there is a deficiency at Google as to their understanding, as an organization, of what supply chains are. It shows in their hiring listings, where anything with SCM keywords usually ends up being a procurement job of some sort. Nowhere does it mention logistics, inventory management, resource and capacity management, etc...despite having several clear use cases for those capabilities.

Google appears to be pursuing a coherent vision for a consumer supply chain, and is cobbling together parts of that vision, but I don't think they can be successful without a stronger core platform. The Robotics and AI and Analytics startups that they are scooping up would be amazing acquisitions for a fast growing retailer with existing supply chain operations (like Bi-Lo, Michael Kors, or H&M), but they are too specialized to be able to form a base for a retail expansion.

A big leap into ecommerce I feel so.

They'll always have a problem until they find a way to scale customer service.