Books Still Front And Center At Amazon
from the just-a-side-business dept
So far, the earnings of the major internet bellwethers have been pretty ho-hum, as eBay, Google and Yahoo have all come in with less-than-stellar results. But at least the forth horseman, Amazon, came through, blowing past analyst estimates. For a long time, Amazon’s been dogged with the stigma of being just a faux-internet company, since it actually has to deal with things like warehouses and shipping costs. It’s been trying hard to transform itself, through its attempts at becoming an e-commerce platform, rather than just a retailer. While these moves have done a lot for the company’s reputation, they’re still not moving the needle when it comes to the bottom line. Instead, its traditional business continues to carry the day, as it’s seeing strong adoption of its Amazon Prime free-shipping plan. It also saw a boost from Harry Potter; although the book didn’t come out until the current quarter, interest in it is said to have driven a lot of traffic to the site, which led to sales of other items. Meanwhile, the company’s efforts to sell digital goods, like movie downloads, don’t seem to be doing much of anything. Until these other businesses actually prove themselves, the company is still highly dependent on the whims of the consumer and whatever hit items happen to be coming out.
Comments on “Books Still Front And Center At Amazon”
Kudos for foreign orders
As of last month, I still couldn’t get amazon.co.jp to send books to American addresses. As of last week, I could — though with steep shipping costs.
It seems to me that with America’s 15% foreign-born population, there is an untapped market for foreign books. Before, I had to custom-order from Japanese bookstores in LA or NY, with their rude and inefficient store clerks.
Re: Kudos for foreign orders
You sure that’s an Amazon and not an Amazon.co.jp problem/issue?
When I was living in Europe, I ordered several times from the US Amazon.com website, and items were shipped (internally) from Amazon.com to Amazon.co.uk (or Amazon.de) and then “more locally” shipped from there to me, all without any steep shipping costs
Re: Kudos for foreign orders
Try powell’s books in Portland, OR it is truly a one of a kind store http://www.powells.com
Amazon Unboxed
Seems to be a pretty slick idea, I can sit in front of the tv and download a movie straight to my Tivo…
I don’t go to video stores, so this is something I would use, but I don’t for the same reason I don’t own an AppleTV… the selection is so limiting that it is not worth my time.
If any of these movie download companies could get the major studios to play nice and accept the business model so that either Itunes or Amazon could actually have a selection of even half of what a typical Blockbuster store has on the shelves, I would be all over it. Until then, I’ll pass.
Amazon is a first response with me
I have never had a bad deal there, let’s hope that continues. I’ve bought the last several Potter books there pre-ordered several months in advance, and they are delivered the day of release. I’ve bought big box items like a miter saw stand from them cheaper than anywhere else and delivered to my door free. I guess I’m an Amazon fanboy.
I'll be back to the Amazon
I am one of the 2.2 million people that bought the Harry Potter book on Amazon. I was very pleased with them and will be back. I was browsing their site and found some items i was looking for and could not find anywhere else.
Hi
Hi,
I stumbled upon your site today and was quite impressed. I really liked the design. Did you make it yourself?
I wanted to let you know about ReadPrint.com — a massive non-profit library similar to Bartleby — except its far better organized and user friendly. We’ve been using it extensively in school nowadays — it’s great for doing research since you can search within the books.