Entries tagged with “online retailers” from Tools of Change for Publishing
EBay Wants You to Buy It Now
Mac Slocum
August 20, 2008
| Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
Listen 
EBay is moving into Amazon's territory. Citing reduced consumer interest in online auctions, eBay is refocusing on fixed-price "Buy It Now" products. From the New York Times:
Among the changes being announced Wednesday [8/20/08] is a new pricing plan for sellers who offer fixed-price items in eBay's "Buy It Now" format. Starting in mid-September, sellers will pay only 35 cents to list an item for 30 days, a reduction of about 70 percent in upfront fees. EBay also announced that it would no longer allow most customers to pay by check or cash, a change aimed at curbing fraud. Users will need to pay with a credit card or through eBay's PayPal online payment service.
Direct competition between eBay and Amazon is nothing new. Amazon tried to capitalize on eBay's success by launching its own auction business in 1999, but by 2001 it had scaled back its auction efforts.
Amazon Buys AbeBooks
Mac Slocum
August 1, 2008
| Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
Listen
Amazon has acquired AbeBooks for an undisclosed amount, reports The Bookseller. Russell Grandinetti, vice president of books for Amazon.com, is quoted in an Amazon press release announcing the deal:
As a leader in rare and hard-to-find books, AbeBooks brings added breadth and expanded selection to our customers worldwide ... AbeBooks provides a wide range of services to both sellers and customers, and we look forward to working with them to further grow their business.
Update: Peter Brantley notes via his Read 20 list that Amazon's acquisition of AbeBooks will also make it a minority investor in LibraryThing. From the LibraryThing blog:
AbeBooks owns a minority stake in LibraryThing. This means that, after regulatory approval and finalization, Amazon will become, through AbeBooks, a minority investor in LibraryThing.
Amazon has also invested in Shelfari, one of LibraryThing's competitors.
News Roundup: Publishers Push to Meet Russert Book Demand, Seth Godin's Kindle Analysis, BN.com Redesign Nets Big Traffic
Mac Slocum
June 20, 2008
| Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
Listen
Publishers Pushing to Meet Russert Book Demand
Random House and Hyperion Books are rushing to meet demand for Tim Russert's two books, Wisdom of Our Fathers and Big Russ & Me. From Newsday:
Carol Schneider, executive director of publicity at Random House, reports that the company is immediately printing 100,000 paperbacks of "Wisdom" that began shipping yesterday [6/16/08].
Likewise, Hyperion Books has gone back to press for another 100,000 copies of "Big Russ," according to Beth Gebhard, executive director of publicity. (Continue reading)
Seth Godin: Community and Interactivity Would Benefit Kindle
Seth Godin weighs in with random thoughts on the Kindle, including:
The Kindle does a fine job of being a book reader, and a horrible job of actually improving the act of reading a book.
Godin says the Kindle reading experience -- particularly with non-fiction titles -- would benefit from reader recommendations, Digg-style voting, and hyperlinks. (Continue reading)
BN.com Redesign Nets Significant Traffic Increase
Barnes and Noble is seeing positive results from its 2007 Web site overhaul. From Publishers Weekly:
... in 2007, the online arm of the retailer posted a 10.1% sales increase, helped by a strong fourth quarter, and the solid results continued into the first period of 2008: B&N.com posted a 7.2% sales increase, compared to an increase of 1.1% for the stores. (Continue reading)
BN.com Redesign Nets Significant Traffic Increase
Mac Slocum
June 17, 2008
| Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
Listen
Barnes and Noble is seeing positive results from its 2007 Web site overhaul. From Publishers Weekly:
... in 2007, the online arm of the retailer posted a 10.1% sales increase, helped by a strong fourth quarter, and the solid results continued into the first period of 2008: B&N.com posted a 7.2% sales increase, compared to an increase of 1.1% for the stores.
BN.com CEO Marie Toulantis says shopping and community improvements, such as the "see inside" preview tool and new groups/clubs, aim to increase visitor engagement. Those improvements are working: PW says visits to BN.com jumped from 70 million in 2006 to 138 million in 2007.
Amazon "Buy New" Option Removed from Publisher's Titles
Mac Slocum
May 23, 2008
| Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
Listen
The "buy new" option has been removed from a variety of Hachette Group's Amazon UK listings, reports The BookSeller:
Amazon conducts yearly negotiations with publishers over the discounts it receives. The Hachette tussle comes in the wake of a similar dispute in January, when a number of Bloomsbury titles were temporarily removed from sale through Amazon's main channel.
The Hachette-Amazon negotiation comes in the wake of recent moves by UK publishers to attract customers to their own sites through price cuts.
Path to Web Retail Getting Easier for Independent Music Labels
Peter Brantley
May 9, 2008
| Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
Listen
This is an interesting story from the music world. The implication is that the barrier to retail is dropping in music, which has different hurdles than publishing.
The Independent Online Distribution Alliance, better known as IODA, launched itself in 2003 to help independent labels, artists and others in the music industry make the leap from physical to digital. One of its functions has been to act as a conduit to online retailers, such as Apple's iTunes Store, eMusic, Napster and Rhapsody. Now it's giving its members the option of being retailers, too.
Specifically, IODA is supplying labels and artists the technology to plug downloadable music stores into their websites. Unlike some earlier efforts to sell downloads, the stores integrate seamlessly into the sites with other e-commerce efforts ...
Studio Notes DVD Sales Increase Amidst Digital Distribution
Mac Slocum
May 2, 2008
| Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
Listen
Recent developments in the movie world suggest that digital delivery and availability help the bottom line.
Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes announced during a recent investor call that Warner Brothers will soon release DVDs and video-on-demand (VOD) titles on the same day. The company -- like all Hollywood studios -- has long employed a multi-week delay between a film's DVD release and its availability through on-demand rental systems. However, interesting results from a Warner Brothers pilot program could mark the end of this staggered system. From The New York Times:
Warner Brothers has been experimenting with the new approach [simultaneous release] for the last few months. It has found that DVD rentals only fell by 3 percent to 5 percent and sales of DVDs actually increased, perhaps because of the increased promotion and fewer used rental discs available for sale.
Apple and other movie studios are already taking note.
A portion of Warners' increased DVD sales could plug in to the "souvenir" purchasing seen in other industries. At its core, this concept is driven by a simple chain of events: digital distribution boosts accessibility, which increases awareness and -- for a subset of the viewing population -- inspires customers to purchase physical copies of a film.
This line of thinking (digital distribution + accessibility + awareness = revenue) drives envelope-pushing initiatives, like intentional distribution through P2P networks. On the publishing side, it's also why the Kindle's killer app resides in the device's built-in Whispernet connectivity, which makes it easy for consumers to find, sample and purchase material. Some of these same people will likely convert into hard-copy customers as well.
Amazon Challenges New York's "Amazon Tax"
Mac Slocum
May 1, 2008
| Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
Listen
As expected, Amazon is challenging New York's recently passed sales tax statute. From Amazon's filed complaint (pdf):
Because some independently operated, New York-based websites post advertisements with links to Amazon and are compensated for these advertisements, Amazon is now presumed to have engaged in "solicitation" under this statue ... despite the fact that Amazon lacks any physical presence in New York and that no solicitation by Amazon actually exists. This presumption is effectively irrebuttable. Accordingly, Amazon seeks a declaratory judgment that the Statute is invalid ...
(Via Shelf Awareness)
Amazon Growth Fuels Online's Book Market Share
Mac Slocum
April 16, 2008
| Permalink
| Comments (1)
|
Listen
Online retailers claim 21-30 percent of the consumer trade book market, according to two recent surveys. Publishers Weekly says much of this growth comes from Amazon:
In discussing their 2007 results, both Penguin's David Shanks and Simon & Schuster's Carolyn Reidy said the e-tailer was their fastest-growing account last year, while Quarto Group chairman Laurence Orbach noted that sales of its MBI Distribution subsidiary have increased by more than 10 percent at Amazon in each of the last three years.
New York Eyes Amazon Affiliates in Tax Move
Mac Slocum
April 14, 2008
| Permalink
| Comments (0)
|
Listen
The Amazon affiliates program could yield millions in revenue for New York state, and it won't come from customer referrals.
From the New York Times:
... people owe taxes on what they buy regardless of whom they buy it from. But the seller only has an obligation to collect those taxes (and thus the only time taxes are ever actually paid) when the seller has a physical presence in the state of the purchase.
The state is proposing defining Amazon’s affiliates -- Web sites that earn commissions by referring customers to it -- as a physical presence.
Out of state retailers have until June 1 to register with New York as vendors, reports the New York Post. Companies that don't comply could open themselves to back taxes and audits. However, both the Post and the Times say New York's tax measure will likely be tested in court.
- Stay Connected
-
TOC RSS Feeds
News Posts
Commentary Posts
Combined Feed
New to RSS?
Subscribe to the TOC newsletter. 
Follow TOC on Twitter. 
Join the TOC Facebook group. 
Join the TOC LinkedIn group. 
Get the TOC Headline Widget.
- Search
-
