NONE: Re: ONLINE-ADS>> The Amazon.com model
Re: ONLINE-ADS>> The Amazon.com model
Les Morgan (lmorgan_at_IX.NETCOM.COM)
Tue, 05 Aug 1997 11:57:45 -0700
Based on the give and take on this list, I decided to look more closely at
the partner program offered by BooksNow < http://www.BooksNow.com> as an
alternative or supplement to our existing Amazon.com relationship. Upon
being accepted as a BooksNow associate I was interested to see this message
from them which challenges the assumption that Amazon.com is the only way
to go for large inventory:
>Our database currently contains about 400,000 titles. But even with that
>many books listed, the book you would like to feature may not be listed. If
>that is the case, and you would really like to feature that particular book
>just email us at PartnerPlus_at_BooksNow.com and well gladly add the book to
>the database for you. No problem at all! Just be sure to include the ISBN...
I have no idea if this book-by-book acquisition claim is realistic or not
based on some of the other messages from book industry people on this list.
Here's the blurb from BooksNow.com on their commissions, which is clearly
trying to differentiate from Amazon.com (I suspect they know people are
starting to comparison shop):
>you'll receive a full 8%
>commission on all orders (excluding shipping and handling charges) placed
>through your website! That's for ANY books purchased as a result of your
>link with us, not just the books that you featured. If the customer browses
>through the Books Now website and purchases additional books (one, two, five
>or five hundred) you'll receive a full 8% commission on each order, just
>because
>you sent them to us.
For obscure medical titles I'm also considering using MEDBOOKstore.com
which offers 2% commission on 70,000 medical books. When I asked about the
low 2%, I got back this comment:
>medical publishers don't offer the same discounts. There is no
distributor who can >offer our 2% deal on Medical titles.
Again, I have no idea if this claim is true. In fact, I found some titles
with deeper discounts at Amazon.com than at MEDBOOKSTORE.com, but the key
difference between the suppliers was the speed of order fulfillment. On
special titles Amazon.com often only will quote 4-6 weeks or more delivery
time, but MEDBOOKSTORE.com guarantees 24-hour service on any title in their
70,000 book inventory.
Here's the marketing question:
Is having multiple suppliers for an online bookstore a problem or an
opportunity? :)
Because our bookstore design is based on individual review pages for each
book, it's easy to have more than one supplier, and I'm going to set up a
couple of books to go to BooksNow instead of Amazon as a test.
Visitors who buy books might be confused by multiple fulfillment agents,
and might have multiple company names appearing on their credit card bills
after purchases. But the benefits to the customer is that our bookstore
can route each book fulfillment to the supplier that offers the best price,
best service, fastest delivery, or whatever.
It goes back to the point that bookstore design will make a big difference
on success. I want my visitors to know that when they need a hospice book
there's little reason to shop somewhere else for it.
Does anyone have comments on this?
Les Morgan
Growth House, Inc.
http://www.growthhouse.org
http://www.growthhouse.org/books/books.htm (Bookstore, now in beta mode)
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