Quote:
Originally Posted by Dopedangel
...Amazon is not the customer they are the sellers they are selling their services to the publishers and authors for % of sales...
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Even a cursory look at their publically available price sheets shows that your generalization is incorrect, so I don't know if you have never looked at them or whether you are inclined to making generalizations that suit your agenda (refer also to the comment by another regarding your "he said, she said" approach).
However, whether sales are on commission or not makes no difference as to the customer relationship between the "manufacturer" (in this case the author or publisher) and the commission seller (you are saying Amazon always is such, but I am don't agree so I am referring to commission arrangements as they are in the world).
First, pricing: In the conventional case of a "manufacturer" selling to an on selling "wholesaler" (or retailer) a price is agreed and the "manufacturer" gets, in effect, the "wholesaler's" selling price less the "wholesalers" margin. In the commission case the "manufacturer" gets the selling price ex the commission seller to the market less the commission; the commission is the commission seller's margin. In both cases, whether that of the "wholesaler" and that of the commission seller, they get that margin. The margin's magnitude might differ between the two cases but that only because the costs covered by that may be different, it is likely that the profit content within the margin is similar in both cases. In effect, the pricing relationship is the same.
Second, the working relationship between the two parties: I would have thought this to be obvious, but apparently not. In both cases the relationship is the same. Whether a "wholesale" or commission arrangement the "manufacturer" supports that party as a customer. If he wants to get the best from his product in the end market the "manufacturer" provides a product and support for it to both "wholesaler" and commission sellers in the same way. Examples are; meeting the market's expectations of quality, providing support to the seller's marketing (in way of presence, product details, agreeing to sharing cost of specials, etc.), providing support to the seller's handling of complaints, warranty, etc., ensuring product is available to the agreed delivery schedule, etc. etc. etc.
So it is that, regardless of whether sales are made on commission or not, in both cases the relationship is one where the "wholesaler" or the commission seller is treated as the "manufacturer's" customer and your claim is incorrect.
There are many cases where people get confused about who is the customer and who is not. A couple of well known examples are; where organizations provide services which the takers of those services are required to take by legislation - who is the customer, the taker of the services or the government, and the often quoted one of newspapers where who is the customer, the reader or the advertisers?
Anyway, I get the impression this is not going to influence your thinking in any way at all, so I will leave the subject at that.