Should sellers be able to leave negative feedback for buyers?

It's sort of a moot point at Amazon, since hardly any of the buyers know what buyer feedback is. But over at eBay, feedback is a totally different animal. At eBay, feedback is a seller's entire reputation, and buyers pay attention to their own feedback too.

At Amazon, sellers piggyback on Amazon's reputation somewhat. Half of the buyers don't even realize they're buying from a third party on Marketplace. And it's pretty obvious that Amazon prefers to hide buyer feedback because it doesn't want to irritate any of those buyers. Perhaps Amazon feels it can't afford to lose a longtime customer who may bolt from Amazon completely if they feel insulted after getting a bad rating from a seller.

Now there's speculation that eBay is thinking of going even further than Amazon -- by forcing sellers to leave positive feedback for buyers who pay promptly. As Ina Steiner writes at AuctionBytes:

The etiquette of leaving feedback has been debated for years, such as the question of who should leave feedback first - buyer or seller - and when. Those who leave feedback first often feel their trading partner then has the upper hand and can wield the threat of negative feedback as a weapon unless their demands -- reasonable or not -- are satisfied.

eBay has been surveying buyers about whether they'd like automatic positive feedback. Some sellers believe the cake is already baked -- that eBay is going ahead with this, and is doing the survey only as a formality.

This would fit in with eBay's recent emphasis on fixed-price transactions and no-hassle buying at eBay Express. But no wonder rank-and-file sellers are livid about the idea of automatic positives for buyers.

Amazon launches e-book reader

There's a good writeup here in Newsweek's Nov. 26 issue about the launch of Amazon's Kindle e-book reader device.

Amazon prices Kindle editions of New York Times best sellers and new releases in hardback at $9.99. The first chapter of almost any book is available as a free sample. The Kindle is not just for books. Via the Amazon store, you can subscribe to newspapers (the Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Le Monde) and magazines (The Atlantic). When issues go to press, the virtual publications are automatically beamed into your Kindle.

Excuse me, but who's going to pay $399 to read a book? That's a heck of a value proposition for you: Spend $399 so you can read a $20 book for only $9.99. On a crummy little computer.

Another interesting nugget in the Newsweek story is that Amazon honcho Jeff Bezos' wife is a novelist. Wow, talk about having connections in the book business. Doesn't look like it's helped her sales much, though.

Amazon postpones plan to merge ASINs

Amazon is delaying its plan to merge ASINs, as detailed in this previous post.

The process was supposed to start last week, but now Amazon says it will wait until it prepares an explanation of the process, some examples, and an FAQ. Also, there's now an e-mail address where sellers can submit ideas about the project: dp-merge-feedback@amazon.com

Here's the announcement:

On Monday, we shared with the seller community our plans to reduce the number of duplicate book listings at Amazon.com. We read your feedback carefully. We delayed the start of this initiative before any books were merged.

We have decided to take extra time to provide a thorough explanation of the program, with examples and a FAQ. We will have those materials ready as early as next week. We will also use that time to verify our project-long efforts to ensure that sellers with listings against merged ASINs will continue to be able to monitor and fulfill those listings. It is critical to us that this initiative is as seamless and as positive for you as it will be for your buyers.

We have created an e-mail where you can send us feedback about this project: dp-merge-feedback@amazon.com.

New York drops plan for 'Amazon tax'

Governor Eliot Spitzer is backing off plans to require the collection of state and local sales taxes on Amazon sales to buyers in New York.

From the New York Sun:

Yesterday, just hours after The New York Sun reported on the new revenue collection scheme, the Spitzer administration announced that it was burying it for the time being — at least until after the Christmas shopping season. The move saved New York City shoppers from having to pay an additional 8.375% on many Amazon.com goods.

What was he thinking? Proposing a big new shopping tax in mid-November? Keep it up, Governor Grinch, and your Christmas present might be a voter recall.

Spitzer was already in hot water for his idea to issue drivers licenses to undocumented immigrants. He dropped that hot potato too after a hail of criticism this week.

Currently Internet merchants are required to charge state sales tax only for buyers in their state. The rationale is that merchants should collect tax only where they have a physical presence.

Spitzer argued that Amazon's affiliate program (where Web sites display links to Amazon books and earn a small commission) constituted a "sales force" in New York, so all the transactions to buyers there should be taxable.

Another big seller bites the dust in California

There's a going-out-of-business sale at Bogey's Books in Davis, California. The shop has an inventory of 30,000 volumes, mostly used.

Gee, this is starting to sound familiar: Brick-and-mortar bookseller goes broke and blames the Internet and the chains.

"We pushed $450,000 a year in gross sales in 1997-98," owner Mark Nemmers said. "The net was about $70,000 or $80,000, and we were growing at about 5 percent a year."

But Borders opened in Davis in 1998, "and we immediately experienced a 25 percent drop in business. The second hammer blow was the Internet catching on in Davis, and people becoming comfortable buying books online."

Another big blow, according to Nemmers: Kids don't read anymore.

Amazon wants to kill duplicate ASINs

Finally Amazon has decided to confront one of its biggest messes on Marketplace: the epidemic of duplicate ASINs. It's gotten progressively worse ever since sellers were given the ability to create detail pages (and automatically generate a new ASIN) a couple of years ago.

According to this announcement, Amazon is going to start merging ASINs when the same title is being sold under more than one ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number).

Supposedly the ASIN with the highest sales ranking and most merchants will be retained, and other listings will be migrated over. No word on whether this is going to be an automated process or whether humans will be taking care of this. Hopefully the cure won't be worse than the disease.

Here's the entire announcement:

In order to provide Amazon customers with a better discovery and shopping experience, duplicate ASINs for the same books will be merged beginning on November 13, 2007. This will mean that sellers will not have to list on multiple single detail pages that refer to the same product.

ASINs will be merged when a duplicate ASIN is detected. This will result in all merchant product data, image data, offers and seller listings for one ASIN (the “merged” ASIN) being transferred over to a second ASIN (the “retained” ASIN). The first ASIN will no longer be viewable on the Amazon.com website. We will make a concerted effort to retain the ASIN that has a higher sales ranking and more merchants using it.

If a listing in an inventory loader feed refers to the first ASIN after the merge, the listing will be assigned to the second or retained ASIN. A warning will be displayed in the processing report and the new ASIN will be identified. You should verify that the new ASIN correctly identifies the product you are selling and use the new ASIN in subsequent uploads. You will not have to make any other change to your feeds.

In rare instances, you may believe that an incorrect merge has occurred. If you believe an incorrect merge has occurred, contact Seller Support and include the original ASIN and the new ASIN in your correspondence.

Bezos: Auctions are too much fun for our customers

I've been waiting seven years for this explanation from Amazon chief Jeff Bezos. Why did auctions soar at eBay but flop at Amazon?

Pretty simple, Bezos says. Amazon customers just can't be bothered with auctions:

We make it really, really easy to buy things.... If you’re a customer who wants that kind of quick service, you do not want to wait till an auction closes. An auction is more about playing a game. There’s some fun involved. You’re not necessarily just trying to get the job done. It’s a different kind of thing and a different customer segment.

OK, I'll buy that. But further down Bezos gives a squirrelly explanation for why zShops got the ax. Something about it being stuck off in another department.

The real answer is that Half.com showed Amazon they could charge sellers 15 percent instead of 5 percent.