NONE: Re: ONLINE-ADS>> The Amazon.com model
Re: ONLINE-ADS>> The Amazon.com model
Bob Schmidt (schmidt_at_magicnet.net)
Sat, 02 Aug 1997 10:01:39 -0400
glenn fleishman writes,
>I hate to be the voice of rebuttal about Amazon.com issues, but as former
>catalog manager, I feel like some points in Bob's post should be corrected.
>Amazon.com isn't relying on small points in the market that can be easily
>duplicated.
I'm glad Glenn is supplying some "inside" information about about amazon
(even if now from an outside perspective). My comments were intended merely
to relate to the brand issues as opposed to the business details. Glenn's
comments are stimulating some additional random thoughts which I will
further inflict on the list.
>Publishers aren't necessarily all in the business of fulfilling single
>books.
Well, I can recall two pieces of information which have stuck with me since
reading the Whole Earth Catalogs back in the 60's and 70's. Both were
contained in (speaking of brands) Stuart Brand's meta messages on the last
page of each issue-- engaging tales -- a soap opera really -- of how they
built and produced the WEC, a catalog of books and tools (but ironically
also a book which was itself published and sold in bookstores) built on the
same drop ship model as today's online catalog (and a print precursor of
the same community building, interactivitity and dialogue which we enjoy
today and in a very real way the insirpation for it via Howard Rheigold.).
In fact, I haven't enjoyed anyone's tales of entrepreneurial business pangs
as much as Stuart Brand's until Gary Lowenthal of Boyd's Bears, another
American classic, came along.
In one issue S.B. described as well as any anyone ever could the perils
of direct mail: "When the mail truck gets stuck in the mud, it's third
class they throw under the wheel." I can still see the mailman throwing a
couple of nice 300 page Whole Earth Catalogs under the tire to get better
traction on a mud covered California road -- and I'm sure quite a few of my
own mailings have suffered the same fate.
That was the first idea. The second came in another issue in which he
described the particulars of their bookselling business and the American
Booksellers Association's SCOP or single copy order plan which finally made
it possible for a bookseller to order a single copy of a book at the full
40% discount (except for technical and textbooks) instead of having to
order a minimum quantity of 5 or 10.
In the mid 70's solely on the strength of Stuart Brand's description, I
joined the ABA, formed what would today be known as a home based
bookselling business, and made good use of SCOP ordering (and, book addict
that I was, promptly became my own best customer.) So I'm familiar with the
idea that most publishers would rather not fool with single orders. But,
surely amazon itself places a lot of single orders. Indeed, isn't that the
whole point of its service?
>The other 1.1 million titles must be ordered from 20,000 to 40,000
>individual publishers (the number of publishers is a highly inexact number
>depending on how you track imprints, who's still in business, etc.).
I must really be missing something here, because this would seem to support
the idea that amazon is going to be placing many single copy orders from a
vast array of publishers in order to fulfill amazon customer orders.
> Barnes and Noble and Borders are probably the only other
>booksellers with the millions of dollars to set up the distribution and
>receiving operations, as well as tracking and billing necessary to handle
>real volume.
Yeah, but that was basically my point as well. Within the context of
branding, when I said "any bookstore could do this" I meant any nationally
branded bookstore, whether B&N, Borders, Waldenbooks, Books a Million, etc.
The fact there are so few does not mitigate the potential competitive
threat. And it only takes one other competitor to mitigate a unique selling
proposition of "any book in print."
By the way, though I didn't say so, I admire the accomplishments of amazon
and believe their acheivements have been phenomenal. And I'm equally glad
to know what Glenn has been up to since running the Internet Marketing
list. No doubt a goodly part of amazon's success can be attributed directly
to his marketing acumen. And of course, I'm deeply envious of both. <g>
Bob Schmidt
Orlando Florida
www.provider.com
Author of The Geek's Guide to Internet Business Success
Published by Van Nostrand Reinhold
Coming August 1997 to a bookstore near you (and your computer)
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