posted on June 26, 2001 06:19:55 PM new
someone on ebay discuss book sales on amazon marketplace that the remainders discount booksellers are in there.
it just dawn on me that they will give the little guys a lot of competition and worse,they have their own sites and i know for some,when they ship books from amzn,they will include thier own catalog and collect email address and real address.
some day the buyers will go direct to their site bypassing amzn.
someday they will do so well they could replace amzn selling both remainders and regular in print books as well.
this is not the same as mistubishi or ibm selling on ebay,ebay is much diversified than amzn
comments ??
[ edited by hwahwahwahwa on Jun 26, 2001 06:21 PM ]
posted on June 27, 2001 04:55:12 AM new
How could another bookseller create the brand name recognition of Amazon? 1500 lb gorillas Barnesandnoble and Walmart can't even put a dent in Amazon's marketshare. Then what are a few peon booksellers gonna do??? Amazon is almost synonymous with shopping on the Web, and its one site you never forget to go back to and go back to and go back to. They advertise the main site very well, although they haven't done the same with auctions.
Amazon CEO Bezos did admit he'd like to dropship some of his wares from 3rd parties, reducing infrastructure costs, so he may use all sorts of 3rd parties for fulfillment. Meanwhile he takes a healthy cut of every sale for very little work.
Thursday June 7, 5:30 pm Eastern Time
Forbes.com
Amazon's About-Face
By Penelope Patsuris
It's understandable that Amazon.com Chief Executive Jeff Bezos gets his hackles up when asked whether he's making a strategic shift away from the distribution empire he spent $300 million to build.
The question was put to him frequently throughout the company's analyst day in Seattle on Tuesday. Executives there said they'd eventually like to have 10% to 20% of Amazon.com orders shipped directly to customers from its distributors--rather than processing them through Amazon distribution centers--using a method called drop shipping.
"It's not like we thought of drop shipping after we built our distribution center capacity," Bezos says defensively. "It's something I talked about back on our road show!"
Wasn't that back when the entire business was supposed to be virtual? Looks like we've come full circle.
Despite Bezos' consternation, the buzz about this at the meeting was understandable. According to the company, drop shipping an order saves 50% of the fulfillment costs it normally takes to get an item to a customer via an Amazon.com warehouse.
While this is in fact a new strategy for Amazon, you can't blame Bezos for wanting to play it down. After all, Bezos is infamous for the fortune he spent to build his network of nine distribution centers; pulling back from that leaves the CEO with some egg on his face. Equally important is that Amazon.com is widely recognized to be the leader in online customer service--an image that doesn't jibe well with the idea of non-Amazonians packing up your books.
But the fact of the matter is that if taking orders out of Amazon's own distribution network cuts fulfillments costs, which is where Amazon is struggling, it's a good idea despite all the capital expenditure that may have preceded this realization.
Operations Chief Jeff Wilke declared that Amazon.com would never have a competitive advantage in "simply putting a book in a box." This is why, he said, the company "will look to outsource single orders to third-party logistics companies." He says that where Amazon will be able to differentiate itself is in its ability to sort and pack complicated multiple-item orders. "We would also love to see large items outsourced eventually," says Wilke.
Indeed, several other major strategies highlighted during the investor event will also circumvent Amazon's distribution network. One of the biggest stars of the day was Amazon Used, which lets customers buy and sell secondhand books, movies and CDs, Ã la eBay . Just six months after its launch, executives crowed, the category has 775,000 customers and during a recent week delivered 8% of Amazon.com's total book sales.
Newly announced PC sales will also be drop shipped, executives said.
The crowd was clearly receptive to the idea of offloading some fulfillment. "Any growth they can deliver without using the [distribution centers] means higher margins," says Wit Soundview analyst Shawn Milne. "They'd see a ton of savings if they just took the whole consumer electronics department and had [that fulfillment] handled by Ingram Micro [a major electronics distributor]."
Milne adds that he'd love to see Amazon shut down another distribution center. The company has already closed its McDonough, Ga., warehouse and decided to keep its Seattle warehouse open only for the holidays. "They overbuilt in 1999 and that is clear. There were too many [distribution centers] and they were too expensive," says Milne.
"Right now they need to show cash flow fast," he says, "so if that means taking a charge [for closing distribution centers], I would just take my lumps and get it done."
posted on June 27, 2001 07:06:37 AM new
amzn was not born with a silver spoon in its mouth,it earns it by spending and advertising.
so can the others,by chipping away at amzn customer base.
these discount booksellers do not like to pay such a hefty fee to amzn,i see price discrepancy already with some books sold on their own website and on amzn marketplace.
just a trend worth watching,wonder what will walmart say if a bunch of smaller discount stores ask if they can rent space in walmart and see their wares similar to what walmart has??
yes,that 15 % commission is nice as long as it lasts.
posted on June 27, 2001 07:10:06 AM new
recently i followed the lead from amzn to powell book website and bot 4 books with free shipping,i now have their site bookmarked and will be checking their site for interesting items.
also i just received an email from them this morning on what is new .
posted on June 28, 2001 05:01:53 AM new
hwahwahwa, perceptive comments, thanks.
I used to sell a fair amount of remaindered books, but now with allbooksforless, powells, and hamiltonbook selling on Amazon, I've decided to put less emphasis on buying remaindered books for resale. I can compete with them, but prefer to get more dollars per book and so unless I have no choice, am actively avoiding the remaindered books and buying different books for resale now. Fortunately, the out of print books are doing well for me and I haven't really had any negative effect on my business. Others might be suffering more.
The remainder sellers have done the same thing on Half.com that they are now doing on Amazon Marketplace. Often their feedback is not good, I imagine with selling so many different sites, occasionally they run out of a book and customers on Marketplace hate to have their ordered cancelled. I've had customers buy from me when I've had competition from lower priced books from a remainder seller. So it all depends.
I bought from a remainder seller on Half.com and later received explicit advertising in the mail trying to get me to go to their website to purchase directly, and with quite negative comments made in the advertising about Amazon. I did supply a copy of the Ad to Amazon, where they are currently selling, and also to Half.com as it violated Half's rules against utilizing Half's customer list. Nothing happened of course. But, I will never buy from that remaindered seller again because of that ad. JMHO that I don't want to give that seller my business.
posted on June 28, 2001 08:37:46 AM new
how do you compete with the big discount houses on remainder books?
they get bigger discounts from wholesalers and publishers,they can also directly compete against these suppliers in auction.
sometimes they are invited to make offer before it is made available to the public,public meaning other retailers.
when certain book club folded,one of them was invited to make offer,and they sent their buyers to the warehouse and made offer right on the spot,those are very nice books.
posted on June 28, 2001 02:39:00 PM new
I don't buy much from the remainder houses to resell, but every once in awhile they have something good and not many copies. One house was selling a book that retails for 65 for 10. They only had 10 copies. I bought them all and resold them on half.com (where they were selling them) for 44.00. Sure it took 3 months to unload but I wasn't in a hurry.
[ edited by marlenedz on Jun 28, 2001 02:42 PM ]
posted on June 28, 2001 06:41:09 PM new
Right. I'm talking about competing on the basis of price for the few copies I might find myself on the remainder or discount table at my local bookstore.
When I say "competing" I mean it in a theoretical sense of listing it for sale at a lower price. For example, if allbooksforless is offering a remaindered book on Amazon for $4.89, and I have a few copies of the same book which I bought for a dollar at my local bookstore, I can certainly offer it at $4.75 and beat them out on price. Same book, same condition (new remaindered) but my price is lower. The problem is that I really don't want to sell books which only realize that amount of profit per book. Maybe I will from time to time, but I don't actively seek them out to buy for resale the way I used to. A large remainder seller is selling lots of volume and can offer the book at a larger discount than I would rather offer. So the reality is that even though I could compete if I chose to, I really am looking for different books with higher dollar returns.
posted on July 3, 2001 04:37:45 PM new
if you have not heard this already,some one posted on aw ebay board a letter from WWW.ABE.COM to its memebers that they can participate in selling their books on HALF.COM,provided the books have ISBN numbers.
well,first HALF.COM must clean up its act,the books and info are screwed up,no pics,no description.
someone question if this is feasible,as ABE.COM dealers deal in non isbn and/or expensive books.
now what does all this mean to us,amzn and worse ,has anyone ever heard of BARNES AND NOBLE??
posted on July 4, 2001 11:17:01 AM new
booksellers may want to follow the thread on abe.com/half.com on ebay board on pricing and other details which could and will affect us.
