Amazon is luring developers to their platform with a clever Amazon.com tie-in. Developers who choose to integrate Amazon purchasing into their apps via a linked Amazon account will earn up to 6% of purchases. The deal seems like a win-win as Amazon supports their dotcom and app ecosystem while developers gain another revenue stream. With that said, the Kindle series holds a slim 4% market share in the tablet space and will need to have a lot of developers buy-in if they want to have success over the next year or so.
Tag: amazon
App Canopy Makes Amazon Shareable
A new startup named Canopy aims to vastly improve the Amazon shopping experience with a Pinterest-style sharing and networking experience. It keeps the focus of the shopping experience on e-commerce, while simultaneously enabling a system of user-generated product recommendations that can be triggered by a simple Chrome extension. New members can follow their friends, but Canopy automatically makes users follow editors so that their feed is at least populated to begin with. Users can create their own collections, share with their friends, and recommend items to other users. So although it might not change the ultimate end product, Canopy is bringing a sleek, well-designed social network that – when overlaid on top of one of the largest Internet-based marketplaces – may bring a powerful edge to Amazon’s social game.
Amazon Aims For Appointment Online TV
Although Netflix is out to the early lead in the original streaming content category, Amazon is quickly becoming its leading competitor. Its show, Alpha House, debuts soon, but with one important distinction: you won’t be able to binge-watch the entire series in one sitting. Though the details haven’t been ironed out entirely as of yet, Amazon confirmed that the show will be released through Amazon Prime, and the goal for Amazon is to learn from Netflix’s mistakes with the all-at-once release strategy, which reduces the theorizing, buzz, and conversation around the one-episode-per-week show form.
Amazon Streams Viacom’s Kids Shows
After a deal between Netflix and Viacom expired last month, Amazon swept in to clean up the scraps, which included Viacom’s children’s programs like Dora the Explorer and Comedy Central shows like Key and Peele. Amazon made the announcement that it will be streaming these shows through Prime Instant Video this morning, and claimed that they’ll be adding more than 3,900 episodes of TV to their streaming program. This, in combination with Amazon’s announcement that they will film five new original series shows, puts them directly at odds with Netfilx, their main competitor.
4 Reasons I Only Shop Online
Last week, I took a nine-day road trip covering the west coast from San Diego to Seattle, a journey that shook up my everyday routine.
Beyond the gorgeous views and even more beautiful spring weather, while popping into a boutique on the trip, I was surprised to realize that it was the first physical store I’ve entered in quite some time (other than my local grocer).
I don’t believe I’m alone. Traditional shopping centers are on the midst of a tremendous decline. Andreesen Horowitz partner Jeff Jordan recently pointed out that “10% of the roughly 1,000 large malls in the US will fail within the next 10 years.” For a bit of fun, check out the Dead Malls blog, which beautifully epitomizes this trend.
But this change isn’t happening in a vacuum. I’ve given some thought to what’s driving this shift, and I believe it boils down to four simple elements:
1. PRICE: Things Cost Less
This is a no-brainer. The web enables a state of near-perfect information, so if a better price is to be had, it’s easy to find. Sites like Amazon and ShopStyle have been leading this shift for a while, though new services like Lyst allow shoppers to track the price fluctuations of individual items across retailers.
2. SELECTION: Online Inventory Is (Relatively) Endless
Heading into a store, I frequently find that I’m not able to find a particular item — especially given the way “fast fashion” brands like H&M and Zara stock their shelves, with new products every week. I also happen to be a fairly average-sized female, so even when the merchandise is in-stock, it’s often the case that my size has been sold out. Shopping online gives me the best chance to find what I’m looking for — or to be surprised by something new.
3. PRECISION: There’s Little Opportunity for Miscommunication
Call me crazy, but nothing is more stressful for a Millennial like myself than needing to speak to a fallible human when a straightforward transaction could better be conducted by a machine. Ordering food is a great example of this scenario. Sites like Seamless, GrubHub and Delivery.com ensure the specifics of my order are clearly communicated to the restaurant and, as an added bonus, eliminate the need for cash.
4. CONVENIENCE: The Web Never Closes
In today’s connected world, we never really stop working, which can make it difficult to find the time to shop in “real life.” We rush home from the office to avoid eating dinner at 10 pm and run from errand to errand on the weekends, hardly leaving the time to relax — let alone leisurely browse the racks at a favorite retailer. Shopping online lets us use the short snippets of free time we do have to make a few purchases without the hassle of leaving the office or the sofa.
So how can brick-and-mortar stores compete?
Smart retailers will use new technology to bring the benefits of online shopping into the physical experience.
• PRICE: Make prices more competitive by delivering real-time offers through geolocated Passbook offers, Shopkick rewards or push notifications for loyal customers through detection of their mobile devices in-store.
• SELECTION: Extend inventory by allowing shoppers to use their smartphones to tap or scan a sample product to purchase a variety of other sizes and styles and have it delivered the next day (at no additional cost, of course!)
• PRECISION: Email receipts to customers for an easy-to-access record of their purchase, as well as simplicity in the case of product returns. (As an added bonus, apps like OneReceipt can scrape your email and conveniently gather your receipts in a single location.)
• CONVENIENCE: Create 24/7 shopping experiences outside the traditional store, whether on the windows of a shop, within out-of-home advertising Tesco-style, or in accessible pop-up locations.
Until then, good luck finding me at the mall.
Amazon Likely To Create Set-Top Box
Amazon is rumored to be launching a set-top box this fall, bringing their content into the living room. Amazon has already had quite a bit of success with their Instant Video service so it makes sense to expand their distribution platforms. While Amazon Instant Video can be accessed via other over-the-top services like Roku, their dedicated device would allow them to feature their services more prominently. Time will tell if they decide to include other competitive content providers like Netflix within their ecosystem.
Showroomers Flock To Amazon
A new study about the increasingly common practice of showrooming – experimenting with products in-store while comparing prices in real time and purchasing the item later, at home, for less money – indicates that many users who engage in this practice head straight to Amazon to make their final purchase. In fact, 57% of showroomers chose the massive online marketplace, while only 3% were likely to try eBay or Walmart. During the 2012 holiday season, 48 million shoppers reportedly engaged in showrooming, which means that Amazon alone received 27.36 million showroomers who redirected from brick-and-mortar stores to the online service in search of lower, more competitive pricing. This is, in part, due to the large number of Amazon Prime members, who have access to free two-day shipping; it’s also due to knowledge about pricing. For instance, Amazon’s prices on electronic items are, generally speaking, 17% lower than Best Buy – so it’s easy to see why a consumer would test a product in the store and take a 17% discount with free 48-hour shipping with a Prime membership. That said, price matching initiatives taken by stores to combat this practice seem to be working, as 68% of consumers will check a store’s price matching policy before taking their business online, and 95% of customers day that free shipping offers influence a purchasing decision.
Amazon Quietly Leading Branding Charge
According to a report by Adage, Amazon’s ad business is significantly larger than is generally assumed, and with mobile platforms like the Kindle available for expansion, Amazon is a now a prime candidate for big branding business. Indeed, with clients like Lexus and Chrysler exploiting these mobile opportunities, as well as Amazon’s in-house targeting technology that reaches Amazon customers around the web segmented by demographics and purchase history, the secret may be out. Amazon is said to have built it’s own demand-side platform that allows them to load customer data into a media-buying technology to target prior Amazon buyers on other websites, so their tracking and targeting systems have the potential to powerfully sway viewers based on demonstrated interests. Another big step forward for Amazon’s ad strategy was the announcement of the “Amazon Media Network,” which is Amazon’s media and advertising wing. Their success, in combination with these new technologies, now reportedly means that they can ask for over $1 million for ad packages that include Kindle Fire accessibility. In order for the technology and business to develop further, Amazon will have to deepen its agency relationships and branding business, and return good numbers via its technologies in metrics like “brand lift” and awareness. If it can achieve these metrics, Amazon’s secret might not be under wraps for that much longer.
Amazon Acquires Goodreads
Amazon announced the acquisition of the social reading company Goodreads in a deal that should come to fruition by the end of Q2. The social site has raised $2.75 million in funding since 2007, and currently boasts over 16 million members with more than 360 million books, with 22 million additional books added every month.
By merging with Amazon, Goodreads is directly linked to the Kindle book-buying network and Amazon’s store, and is ostensibly to Kindle and Amazon what Ping tried to be to the iTunes store: Amazon’s book-centric social network. It will allow readers to share, recommend, discuss, and ultimately buy books on a much wider and more elegantly integrated social scale. This will be further facilitated by Goodreads’ recommendation technology, which allows users to follow and interact with writers while simultaneously rating and spreading their favorite books for incentives like free reads and other giveaways. Ultimately, the marriage with Kindle makes perfect sense for both parties, and with users adding more books to their “want to read” sections at a rate of 4 books per second, the purchase power of this 16 million user network seems almost limitless.
Amazon Brings Kindle Fire X Ray Service To TV Shows
Amazon has rolled out it’s X Ray service to TV Shows, surfacing IMDB information to provide more background on the show. It’s an extension of their support for movies and will be available for most popular shows. While many content providers are relaying this information through second screen integration, Amazon is creating simple software features on the first screen that do not take away from the experience.
