Comments on: Amazon Checkout: Do You Really Wanna Get In Bed With Amazon?

By: Mat Smith

Mat Smith — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:08:51 +0000

Imagine for one minute that your business sells products that are not available, useful, or relevant to any competitor. Eg. you are an artist.

Or imagine that you are a small business who offers an innovative service which you have trademarked. Or perhaps you are selling your time.

There are many reasons you might want to lend a bit of A-Class brand to your checkout process, especially if you are a small business.

And it’s not like Amazon are redirecting customers to their own products when they try to check out on your website.

I hear the points being made here, but it would be better to provide a balanced view that assesses both sides of the argument.

By: Keith W

Keith W — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 19:05:37 +0000

Great points! Another thing to consider is you are not really giving AMZ your products that sell the best, just your internal SKU numbers and product names. So they would have to do a little digging to find out what was your best seller, however I’m sure that would be quite easy for them to do…

By: amazon startet eigenes Bezahlsystem | Mail Men

amazon startet eigenes Bezahlsystem | Mail Men — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:36:27 +0000

[...] Checkout hat amazon sicherlich den Startvorteil, dass sich schon 81 Millionen Kunden bei amazon registriert und Ihre Daten hinterlassen haben. Das könnte positiv für die Akzeptanz sprechen, und den [...]

By: 10 Lesetipps der Woche für Shopbetreiber » Tipps, Muster, Checklisten, News, Urteile für Online-Händler » shopbetreiber-blog.de

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 16:26:37 +0000

[...] Amazon Checkout: Pros and Cons von Get Elastic [...]

By: 10 Lesetipps der Woche für Shopbetreiber » Tipps, Muster, Checklisten, News, Urteile für Online-Händler » shopbetreiber-blog.de

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 16:26:37 +0000

[...] Amazon Checkout: Pros and Cons von Get Elastic [...]

By: 10 Lesetipps der Woche für Shopbetreiber » Tipps, Muster, Checklisten, News, Urteile für Online-Händler » shopbetreiber-blog.de

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 16:26:37 +0000

[...] Amazon Checkout: Pros and Cons von Get Elastic [...]

By: Linda Bustos

Linda Bustos — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 01:04:54 +0000

Great points in this discussion thread! For those interested in another POV, check out eBay expert blogger Randy Smythe’s post here:
http://rksmythe.blogspot.com/2008/07/competitive-iconcerns-with-amazon.html

“…from what I have observed, and heard directly from Amazon employees, they have systems in place to keep the retail side of the business separate from the marketplace business. I’m not saying that it doesn’t happen, but they’ve assured me that they have systems in place to limit the problems.”

“If the biggest downside to accepting Amazon Payments is the fear they will take your transaction data and use it against you, that is not a problem without a solution — Read the contract before you sign it.”

By: Marketing Intern

Marketing Intern — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 22:38:53 +0000

There are two sides to the Amazon coin. As many of you have pointed out, the customer experience with AMZ is difficult. So why do they have 81MM customers accounts again? Think of it this way, every marketer builds a brand and differentiates that brand on any of a number of dimensions including services, rewards, selection, downstream support, etc. In the catalog world, catalogers have long used cooperative marketing databases where they share their customers and transactions in exchange for modeled customer prospects. These files perform VERY well. So, as much as Amazon can have access to your customers, YOU can have access to theirs. The companies most at risk are those who carry products/services that are not core and are poorly supported and easily knocked off by competitors or those companies with lousy services and poor customer experiences.

The real issue here is how many NEW customers of sustainable brand quality can you get from Amazon?

By the way, with 81MM accounts, do you really think your customers are not already shopping with Amazon? And if they do shop Amazon and still shop with you, why do you think that is? Because you do some things better than Amazon does – be brave, be bold, be cautious!

By: David Harer

David Harer — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 22:17:54 +0000

The risks are significant and important, but they aren’t as tangible and immediate as the benefits; e.g., to add additional payment option gives more choice (disagree with audio bible: users don’t care if there are several payment options – if an heavy Amazon buyers sees this option, probably you’ve enhanced his/her experience).

Ergo, most smaller sellers will at least want to give this a try.

But Miva has a great point. It’s not exactly the same business as their own (Amazon’s own cart). Service to the merchants/seller does matter. (Google Checkout is absolutely dreadful, they cannot be reached – Google checkout makes paypal look like the Ritz for service). They seem to have a great track record for their customers but a lame track record in regard to their partners.

By: Floogy

Floogy — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 20:13:43 +0000

Those of us who work online seem especially slow to realize our biggest competitors. Amazon, eBay and Google have lined up on the other side of the battlefield to web developers and online retailers, but we’re generally too naive to notice or care.

Google, for example, moves swiftly into competition with social networks, payment gateways, webmail apps, office suites, news aggregators, feed readers, personal photo gallery services, image manipulation tools, instant messengers, role-playing games, web page creation software, blogging and now micro-blogging platforms… Will we see an article about how they use the data collected by your own Analytics and AdSense units in order to compete with you more effectively?

This bait-and-switch routine is getting old. http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/

Amazon and these other iconic examples must decide, as a matter of policy and principle, whether to behave as enablers or competitors to private business.

Or, must they? No need for consistency if we keep using (and thus feeding) their wonderful services for the sheer convenience, regardless.