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Steve Weber
at least one Amazon executive has flatly denied the company is filtering
recommendations at all, although the effects of the practice have become
clear to many publishers who track their Amazon sales closely. Many of
those publishers are irritated that Amazon seems to be favoring
publishers who give bigger wholesale discounts than the 40 percent they
have traditionally given to brick-and-mortar bookstores.
It’s also unclear whether Amazon’s practice of recommendation
filtering is a wise long-term strategy. Some customers may begin
ignoring recommendations and buy fewer books if they realize that
certain books are being recommended mainly because they’re expensive.
After all, buyers who pay close attention to Amazon’s book
recommendations tend to be the company’s most profitable customers.
In any case, it seems that publishers who want to boost exposure of
their titles on Amazon should consider raising their list price and
offering generous wholesale discounts of perhaps 55 percent, instead of
short discounts, such as 25 percent.
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