E-Commerce Times Talkback
See Full StorySomeday, in the afterlife, Napoleon Bonaparte, Douglas MacArthur and other military
legends will gather around chief executive officer Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com and
congratulate Bezos on his battlefield tactics. For e-commerce has never known a more
cunning general.
Actually, to call Amazon's latest bait-and-switch move in offering and then canceling
free shipping a brilliant offensive move would be an understatement.
Whilst I don't necessarily think that Napoleon would see Amazon's tactic as great strategy, I believe that Amazon's move was more deliberate than accident. Large corporations do make blunders, and some of them are fortuitous, but I believe that the "free shipping" offer was a very smart competitive move.
We all have a choice in spending our dollars. The smarter companies attract them.
This article about Bezos actually planning to trick BN into offering free shipping is not only ludicrous, it's flat out stupid business. Bezos didn't have any grand battle plan vs. BN.com -- they were simply trying to convert more shopping carts into sales. It didn't work, so they backed off. Your analyst's imagination is running wild.
Moreover, if anything, Amazon's little "test" backfired in 2 ways -- 1) it showed again that AMZN is willing to manipulate its customers to earn a sale; and 2) it increased the intensity of an already self-defeating price war. This was not "genius" or even intended as your author suggests. Instead, it was downright stupid -- it's going to cost Amazon customer goodwill and in turn sales and margin, as Amazon will now have to hear how BN.com is cheaper. All that said, Bezos is the strategic mastermind of one thing: causing a competitive death spiral that will ruin the industry segment for all players.
Where do you get your analysts from?? High school? Did he talk to anyone before crafting these very creative assertions?? What a dope.
Sooner or later we as the public will be or are getting tired of these big corp; And
their tactics giving shoddy products and services that promise everything and give
nothing and expect to be paid huge dollars for these so-called new and improved
services. IF they keep up with (very poor) so-called service I will be just as content to
cancel the service with my cable provider and/or sell this computer.
Sooner or later we as the public will be or are getting tried of these big corp; And
there tactics giving shody products and services that promise every thing and give
nothing and expect to be paid huge dollars for these so called new and improved
services. IF they keep up with ( very poor ) so called service I will just as content to
cancel the service with my cable provider and or sell this computer.
Dopey article. The writer's arguments for Bozo's genius is -- hate to repeat myself -- dopey.
Let's see... Amazon.com hypes free P&H but they raise the product prices. What a brilliant move. Great PR from that little maneuver, I bet.
Personally I think AMAZON is just too clever. I hope they choke on their cleverness. After they destroyed BIBLIOFIND in May & my online bookselling effort, I have just been hoping someone gives them a good drubbing. They are soo greedy it's going to make an anarchist out of me.
What is wrong with you all? Don't you know that the Gotcha is with you, the Customer? If you buy from B&N OR Amazon you are paying up to 200% more for a book than if you were to order straight from the dealer or use a service like ABE or TomFolio????? B&N keeps the 200% for themselves, and Amazon charges the dealers an arm and a leg and then some for the privilege to post on their site. Wise up America. You want a deal? GO straight to the dealers.
In my case, it backfired on Amazon. I planned a big order for Sunday but noticed the free shipping was no longer offered and cut it way back to the $35 required to use the $10 off coupon I received. So I ended up with only $4 off my order after subtracting the shipping but Amazon lost another $80 worth of business that will now go to BN since they had lower prices on all the other books and shipping was about the same.
Smart move Amazon.
Very silly article. When I read that BNBN was offering free shipping, I ordered my books that I had been waiting on for a good price from BNBN. I am sure there are others doing the same. I will take avantage of this offer. I guess BNBN got more new customers with the offer. I go where it is cheaper, not to where it is more expensive. Amazon is more expensive so it will lose. And for the time being, I am a BNBN customer. That's at least 400 to 500 dollars a year business. Gotcha? Yes, BNBN got more customers.
Jeff Bezos....cunning!!!....brilliant!!...Heee Heee, Haaa Haaa... Stop you're killing me!!
Bezos is desperate to turn a "pro forma" profit by the end of the year, and it is showing. Sales growth has stalled, especially in the core books and music segment. No question this ill conceived promotion was meant to provide a short-term boost in revenues at the end of a typically slow quarter.
What I fail to understand is why the author of this piece contends that BN.com will suffer more PR problems than Amazon has when it ends free shipping? Amazon garners much more media visibility than BN.com.
Oh well. Short at 20..cover at 10.
I work for one of the two companies discussed in this article. Without going into the details, suffice to say that the reporter is way off base. This is truly an example of poor reporting and also a reason the media has an overall credibility problem with the reading public. Amazon has no reason to do what the writer is suggesting and BN is a leader in the industry, not a follower.
For someone who works for an online bookseller, "Scott S" has very little understanding of the publishing/journalism process.
He says about the "Gotcha" article: "This is truly an example of poor reporting and also a reason the media has an overall credibility problem..."
Hello? This is not even an example of "reporting" at all. The article was an opinion piece, so it is perfectly fine for the writer to offer his opinion about what might have happened and to discuss the ramifications. The article does not present his viewpoint as a piece of "news." There's a big difference.
While i'm sure most of these articles are intended to try to spark 'community' at this site...
the main reason amazon dropped shipping was to accelerate sales revenues at the end of the quarter. and that's why they dropped the free shipping, was because a new quarter started. they weren't thinking of BN.com, they were trying to hit their quarter.
nothing brilliant going on, just desperate moves by companies trying to make themselves viable from one quarter to the next...
I have to agree with the others who have responded to this article. The guy who wrote it seems as though he does not have a very clear understanding of basic business tactics. I went back and read the story again and came away from it wondering why the web site allowed this to be on here. It just sounds so silly.
It's amazing how the author assumed all this from his cubicle. No one at Amazon said they'd set up BN.com. In fact, it appears this was a PR disaster for AMZN since most customers were angered by the unannounced price increases.
The author is obviously trying to turn something unnewsworthy into a story. Kind of sad the quality of "journalists" writing on the Internet today.
I think that what you wrote in your message is off-base in many ways.
If that was a brilliant strategic manoeuvre there's still hope for me to become the world's greatest entrepreneur.
It seems to me that E-Commerce Times has not learned anything yet. Bezos has not made one cent of profit. Yet he is being compared to victorious generals!?!!? Stupid article.
Headline Feeds
