posted on May 14, 2002 05:09:53 PM
Didn't they fail miserably with Amazon Auctions? Other than including your listings in a general search result, what would they do differently? Unless Amazon enforces strict quality requirements from sellers in terms of merchandise and service, they may damage their reputation more than anything else. It will be interesting to see how they navigate the possible transition from being a web store only to a "venue" destination as well.
posted on May 14, 2002 05:25:07 PM
As I understand it the new venue will not be an auction venue but rather fixed price.
It seems from the article that you will no longer have to have Amazon carry a product for you to market it on their site, and you will be able to include a description, pics etc..
It sounds more like half.com than an auction site, but with a page make-up by the seller not unlike an auction page.
I am still at a loss why Amaqzon scuttled their auctions. They seemed to do quite well before they buried them.
In any event, it seems that Amazon is targeting half.com's expanded categories rather than the auction format.
I know I check half.com before I buy a new item or an auction item at eBay.
posted on May 14, 2002 05:50:20 PM
I believe that Amazon could offer some formidable competition to Ebay. I buy a lot of used books and I always check Amazon along with Ebay.
I sold books on Ebay until they started half.com. I found that I was taking pictures, designing ads, writing descriptions and basically doing all the work while an ad directed the buyers from my auction to half.com. There, the book was offered at a give away price, making my sale worthless.
Other sellers on Ebay may now find the same kind of competition from Amazon
posted on May 15, 2002 06:41:23 AM
There is nothing new going on. Half.com has been allowing sellers to create their own listings for a year now.
It has been a big contributer to price declines on the auctions now that little Johnny can simply add his old toys to the listings already there rather than have a garage sale or give it to the Goodwill.
It has also created quite a mess. There are often a half dozen or more seperate listings for the same item, some titled slightly differently, and many innacurately.
What half.com has not done is to hire workers to use the info from these listings to create new perminate listings and to delete the duplicates.
It's not all that big a deal... it just looks sloppy.... like a red-necks yard in North Carolina...
People who use a search engine to find stuff will find their stuff and people who don't wont. That's the way it always has been, and yahoo Auctions was a fool for listening to the whining of buyers who complained about all the stale junk there that never sold when listings were free.
Now they have reduced the junk there to 10% of it's former size and have basically shot itself in the foot.
posted on May 15, 2002 07:23:19 AM
If Amazon allows sellers to sell new items to compete with their own new items then what happens when the sellers undercut Amazon's prices and get the sale on a consistent basis? Maybe Amazon is planning on slowly shifting to an eBay model and not having costly inventories.
posted on May 16, 2002 08:46:20 AM
That may be the move. Amazon may even adjust inventory based on the number of items listed either new or used on its site.
If they study it well, Amazon might find that a huge selling DVD may have used or new ones at reduced prices selling on the site after 3 weeks. Amazon may not re-order as many DVDs.
The metrics are there, its a question of Amazon using them to Amazon's advantage.
