Inside Amazon-dot-com

Amazon began as a “bookstore killer” when they offered low-price books shipped straight to your door, but it wasn’t long before they branched out to selling other products. In order to ensure they could offer the biggest variety of products they developed the “Amazon Marketplace” to allow small businesses to sell their products through the Amazon infrastructure. This new feature was essentially the “eBay Killer” and gave small businesses (selling as individuals on a per-item fee basis or as businesses for a monthly fee) a way to expand their reach and have a trusted platform to connect them to new customers. Amazon isn’t intending on stopping there though. In an interesting move, they have now announced a card reader and app that will give them a physical presence in storefronts with the “Amazon Local Register”. Offering low introductory per-transaction rates, the Amazon card reader competes directly with Square, Paypal, and all of the smaller card reader and merchant register se...

Less than an hour ago, Amazon prompted KDP authors (like me) to write an email to  Hachette CEO, Michael Pietsch,  supporting their point of view in their negotiation with Hachette.   It's interesting on how Amazon is finally realizing that it's bullying tactics towards traditional media corporations that are already facing financial challenges are no longer working, and given the enormous size of Amazon, the public now views Amazon with suspicion and as the bully.  While in its email Amazon makes some valid points about how lower cost will actually increase the size of the business by increasing volume, it fails to mention that lowering prices of popular, top-rated eBooks will also result in increased sales of the Kindle devices, eventually allowing it to sell those devices at profit rather than selling them as a cost. This is called vertical competition, consumers have a annual budget for books in their mind and if eBooks are lot cheaper than books, then the br...

Last week, Amazon unveiled the much-anticipated or at least   much-hyped 3D smart phone,  following up with an email to all its customers introducing the phone with the slogan "The First Smartphone Designed by Amazon". That slogan sounds a bit strange since the Amazon brand is not associated with product design excellence so "the first blah designed by Amazon" does not really carry much weight with us - Amazon did pioneer the eBook reader business with Kindle and dominates it, but that's not because of its elegant design, more because of ready availability of the content at bargain prices, which in turn is based on  Amazon’s willingness to sell both the device and eBooks at a loss to gain market share.  Brilliant business strategy, perhaps, but IMHO, that does not set Amazon as a product design excellence star. All that slogan does is tell us that Amazon is not too proud to be (just) a company that efficiently operates warehouses and packs & deliv...

At some point while we were all sleeping, Amazon launched Prime Music, through which users can stream unlimited tracks from Amazon’s music catalog. This all, no doubt, in preparation for their upcoming smart phone release. Don’t get too excited—Amazon’s music catalog can boast around 1 million songs—and that’s about it. Music streaming competitors’ numbers are more in the 20-30 million range for, well, not an increased price to match that ratio.  Music industry critic Bob Lefsetz warns that the move is a step even further backwards from current music-streaming models via Apple and Spotify that take large percentages of profits from rights holders and musicians. The payment model is unclear, selection limited, and could turn out to be, as Lefsetz is quick to call it, “a disaster.”  He suggests that Competitors will only see an increase in users. The imperfect attempt at a music streaming service has larger repercussions. If Amazon hopes to have a successful smart pho...

Interesting infographic by  Institute for Local Self-Reliance  presents the darker side of Amazon.com. 

The tiff between Amazon and book publisher Hachette continues to make waves, and everyone associated is getting vocal. Here’s a quick look at the situation: it all began when negations between internet biggie Amazon and Hatchette—owned by Hachette Livre, the largest publishing company in France, and the third largest trade and educational publisher in the world—went awry due to Amazon’s demand for price concessions from the publishing house. The subsequent controversy had grabbed a whole lotta eyeballs. The authors involved seem to have taken clear sides; they are either staunchly on the side of Amazon or in full support of Hachette—what’s more interesting is how either powerhoouse is retaliating. Once Hatchette refused price concessions, Amazon made its move. Hatchette’s publications saw their pre-order option saw removal, and certain authors have found themselves unlisted.  And there’s more! Forget Amazon’s usual discounts and be ready for lengthy delivery times. All of ...