B&N and Specialty Houses

[Cameron Parish]

On Wed, 11 Jun 1997, Stephen Marek wrote:

> >>I may be missing something, but isn't this a tailor-made web 
> >>opportunity for the independents?  From the bit I've seen, 
> >>Amazon's just an electronic mega mass merchant, no more capable 
> >>of expertly addressing a specific community's needs than a B&N.
> >>Russ
> >>rhenning at fsc.follett.com
> 
> Anyone who thinks that amazon.com is just another "electronic mega mass
> merchant" whose success can be easily emulated should take another look at
> them.

Heck, I worked for 'em.  They *are* an electronic mega mass merchant,
in terms of volume, selection, and company culture.  (I found it a
distinctly unpleasant place to work, and it's earning a nasty
reputation in Seattle's techie community.  But that's neither 
here nor there.)

Amazon is most definitely concerned with exploiting niche markets --
that's part of what their "Amazon Associates" program is all about.
Essentially, if you sign up for the Associates program, you hand-sell
the books on your website and let Amazon handle the ordering, shipping,
and so on; you then get a 'referral fee' of 5-15%.  Thus, they benefit
from your expertise, and you don't have to pack books all day.
It's pretty canny.


Cameron Parish              
cameron at serv.net
http://www.serv.net/~cameron/