Amazon outperforms bricks-and-mortar competitors

Alexander Turcic · 01-30-2009, 03:11 AM

Yesterday we mentioned how Sony is having difficulties in coping with the current market situation. Amazon, on the other hand, seems to have done everything right. As Businessweek reports:

Quote:

In the fourth quarter, Amazon (AMZN) lured customers and gobbled up market share, producing results that crushed Wall Street expectations. Revenue jumped 18% during the quarter, propelled in large part by overseas shoppers who—though shopping less—are spending more of that shrinking budget online. International sales rose 31%.

What is more interesting to us, of course, is how the Kindle added to Amazon's successful quarter. And here, too, we hear some positive news:

Quote:

Amazon also trumpeted sales of its electronic book reader the Kindle, though it didn't disclose unit or dollar sales. "We are pleased with the demand," Amazon Chief Financial Officer Thomas Szkutak said during a conference call with analysts and investors. "It exceeded our expectations and we're excited to see the growth that we've seen since we launched it."

During the conference call, Szkutak also said:

Quote:

We are particularly pleased with Kindle demand during the fourth quarter. We want to remind everyone that Kindle revenue and cost are recognized over a two-year period. The Kindle Store contains the largest collection of e-books available anywhere in the world. Selection increased by 45,000 titles in the fourth quarter, bringing the total to 230,000 titles. 103 out of 112 current New York Times Best Sellers are available and, along with most new releases, are priced at $9.99 or less. In addition, the Kindle Store recently added the Arizona Republic, Baltimore Sun, Orange County Register and USA Today and now offers newspapers from eight of the top ten metro areas in the United States.

And FT reports:

Quote:

Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive and founder, did not comment during a call with investors on speculation that the company will unveil a second version of its Kindle electronic book reader on February 9.

He said that the company had been surprised by the strong level of demand for the Kindle in the fourth quarter, which led to it being out of stock for several weeks before Christmas.

“We had anticipated strong demand, and what we saw was stronger than that,” he said.

So everything looks good and rosy at Amazon on its way to world domination, wouldn't you say?

Related: Amazon Kindle 2.0 to be launched on Feb 9th?

Phogg · 01-30-2009, 05:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic

So everything looks good and rosy at Amazon on its way to world domination, wouldn't you say?

Related: Amazon Kindle 2.0 to be launched on Feb 9th?

Well, except for Apple preparing to enter the fray.

echoleaf · 01-30-2009, 09:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phogg

Well, except for Apple preparing to enter the fray.

Is Apple planning on releasing a tablet this year?

slayda · 01-30-2009, 09:50 AM

Last time I looked, Amazon is a "Brick & Mortar" book store as well as an ebook store, assuming that by "Brick and Mortar" we mean a seller of pbooks rather than a physical place you walk into to buy books.

Perhaps we should recognize three categories of book stores;

The ones you walk into to buy physical books
The ones you can order physical books from
The ones you can order electronic books from

Amazon overlaps the latter two whereas, AFAIK, Fictionwise is only represented by the third. Barnes and Noble are represented by the first two. For Amazons figures to be meaningful, I think the statistics must be broken into these three separate categories rather than compared to the ambiguous term "Brick and Mortar stores".

lilac_jive · 01-30-2009, 09:52 AM

Why oh why won't they release their figures? Maybe they will do this during the Big Announcement.

TadW · 01-30-2009, 10:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slayda

Last time I looked, Amazon is a "Brick & Mortar" book store as well as an ebook store, assuming that by "Brick and Mortar" we mean a seller of pbooks rather than a physical place you walk into to buy books.

In the jargon of eCommerce, brick and mortar businesses are companies which have a physical presence (for example, a building made of bricks and mortar) - which offer face-to-face consumer experiences. This term is usually used to contrast with a transitory business or an internet-only presence (see online shop for comparison). An example would be the brick and mortar movie rental shop Blockbuster Video—the competition from the new online rental services offered by Netflix.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bricks_and_mortar_business

Phogg · 01-30-2009, 10:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by echoleaf

Is Apple planning on releasing a tablet this year?

An 8 inch Ipod Touch.

RickyMaveety · 01-30-2009, 10:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slayda

Last time I looked, Amazon is a "Brick & Mortar" book store as well as an ebook store, assuming that by "Brick and Mortar" we mean a seller of pbooks rather than a physical place you walk into to buy books.

Perhaps we should recognize three categories of book stores;

The ones you walk into to buy physical books
The ones you can order physical books from
The ones you can order electronic books from

Amazon overlaps the latter two whereas, AFAIK, Fictionwise is only represented by the third. Barnes and Noble are represented by the first two. For Amazons figures to be meaningful, I think the statistics must be broken into these three separate categories rather than compared to the ambiguous term "Brick and Mortar stores".

The term "brick and mortar" store generally means a store that has one or more physical stores that you can actually walk in to to look at their goods. So, basically your category 1.

Although, the fact that a brick and mortar retailer also has an online presence doesn't preclude them from being called a brick and mortar store. It's more the absence of a physical store (online only) that puts a retailer out of the brick and mortar category.

Amazon is way out performing brick and mortar stores in this household. Even if I can walk into a store in town (where the selection is horribly limited by the way), very often they will be out of stock on what I want and the price will be high.

Often, the price is lower at Amazon and the thing might qualify for free shipping. Meaning I don't even have to bear the cost of driving in to town to shop for something that (1) they don't carry or (2) don't have in stock.

There are a lot of us people out here in the sticks who are starting to figure this out.

Johns1NOnly · 01-30-2009, 11:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phogg

An 8 inch Ipod Touch.

If they still have the same kind screen that for most people (me) it still will stress your eyes and give headaches when reading for long periods(5+ hours). unlike the epaper which doesn't give me headaches

pilotbob · 01-30-2009, 11:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic

So everything looks good and rosy at Amazon on its way to world domination, wouldn't you say?

Related: Amazon Kindle 2.0 to be launched on Feb 9th?

I think it's going to be a knock down drag out amoung Amazon, Google and Microsoft.

Maybe it will eventually be MicroGoogazon.

BOb

RickyMaveety · 01-30-2009, 11:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I think it's going to be a knock down drag out amoung Amazon, Google and Microsoft.

Maybe it will eventually be MicroGoogazon.

BOb

Or maybe Amagoosoft?? Or Amasoftgoo?

Sounds ever so squishy.

Penforhire · 01-30-2009, 12:45 PM

I can see Amazon, Google, and Microsoft coexisting for quite some time. Amazon does not compete with either. And while it is true that MS wants some of Google's advertising revenue they are unbelievably clumsy at it and continue to "epic fail." Their best shot was buying Yahoo, which seems to be off-again. Fortunately for MS they have a bevy of other products and tons of cash.

I can certainly see Amazon starting to eliminate some direct competitors I've used such as buy.com, e-bay, or getfeetwet. The internet allows us to comparison shop so well that Amazon will have to price match to truly cease all my non-Amazon buying.

RickyMaveety · 01-30-2009, 12:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Penforhire

I can see Amazon, Google, and Microsoft coexisting for quite some time. Amazon does not compete with either. And while it is true that MS wants some of Google's advertising revenue they are unbelievably clumsy at it and continue to "epic fail." Their best shot was buying Yahoo, which seems to be off-again. Fortunately for MS they have a bevy of other products and tons of cash.

I can certainly see Amazon starting to eliminate some direct competitors I've used such as buy.com, e-bay, or getfeetwet. The internet allows us to comparison shop so well that Amazon will have to price match to truly cease all my non-Amazon buying.

I had a horrible (horrible) experience with Buy.com not long after they started up. I never forgave them for it, and will never ever shop through them, or recommend them to anyone.

Yeah .... I know .... holding grudges = bad thing. I'm working on it -- but not with Buy.com. They totally lost my business completely and irrevocably.

lilac_jive · 01-30-2009, 12:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

I had a horrible (horrible) experience with Buy.com not long after they started up. I never forgave them for it, and will never ever shop through them, or recommend them to anyone.

Yeah .... I know .... holding grudges = bad thing. I'm working on it -- but not with Buy.com. They totally lost my business completely and irrevocably.

I won't forgive them for spamming the crap out of me.

desertgrandma · 01-30-2009, 01:36 PM

1) They have the best prices on just about everything.
2) No tax
3) Free two day shipping with the $80 yr. prime account. No minimum. I buy enough to more than make up that amount. Even if you don't have this, most things get free shipping (not two day) with $25 purchase.
4) Very liberal exchange policy. Have had to return only three things......two were defective, one was "I just didn't like it" . The defective ones, they paid return shipping on. The one I didn't like, I did. Fair enough. Posts to my account were done immediately.

Whats not to like on a store with these policies? If my local B&M store would stock books I wanted, instead of telling me "Oh, we can order it for you", it might help.

If my local Best Buy didn't have such lousy customer service, and if their 'associates' actually tried to sell me what I said I needed, instead of going for the more expensive model because they are on commision, I might buy there.

But I'll still go to Sears for my large appliances....

01-30-2009, 09:50 AM	#4
slayda Retired & reading more! Posts: 2,764 Karma: 1884247 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: North Alabama, USA Device: Kindle 1, iPad Air 2, iPhone 6S+, Kobo Aura One	Last time I looked, Amazon is a "Brick & Mortar" book store as well as an ebook store, assuming that by "Brick and Mortar" we mean a seller of pbooks rather than a physical place you walk into to buy books. Perhaps we should recognize three categories of book stores; The ones you walk into to buy physical books The ones you can order physical books from The ones you can order electronic books from Amazon overlaps the latter two whereas, AFAIK, Fictionwise is only represented by the third. Barnes and Noble are represented by the first two. For Amazons figures to be meaningful, I think the statistics must be broken into these three separate categories rather than compared to the ambiguous term "Brick and Mortar stores".

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01-30-2009, 09:52 AM	#5
lilac_jive Grand Sorcerer Posts: 5,870 Karma: 27376 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Pennsylvania Device: PRS-505	Why oh why won't they release their figures? Maybe they will do this during the Big Announcement.

01-30-2009, 12:45 PM	#12
Penforhire Wizard Posts: 2,230 Karma: 7145404 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Southern California Device: Kindle Voyage & iPhone 7+	I can see Amazon, Google, and Microsoft coexisting for quite some time. Amazon does not compete with either. And while it is true that MS wants some of Google's advertising revenue they are unbelievably clumsy at it and continue to "epic fail." Their best shot was buying Yahoo, which seems to be off-again. Fortunately for MS they have a bevy of other products and tons of cash. I can certainly see Amazon starting to eliminate some direct competitors I've used such as buy.com, e-bay, or getfeetwet. The internet allows us to comparison shop so well that Amazon will have to price match to truly cease all my non-Amazon buying.

01-30-2009, 01:36 PM	#15
desertgrandma Enjoying the show.... Posts: 14,270 Karma: 10462841 Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Arizona Device: A K1, Kindle Paperwhite, an Ipod, IPad2, Iphone, an Ipad Mini & macAir	1) They have the best prices on just about everything. 2) No tax 3) Free two day shipping with the $80 yr. prime account. No minimum. I buy enough to more than make up that amount. Even if you don't have this, most things get free shipping (not two day) with $25 purchase. 4) Very liberal exchange policy. Have had to return only three things......two were defective, one was "I just didn't like it" . The defective ones, they paid return shipping on. The one I didn't like, I did. Fair enough. Posts to my account were done immediately. Whats not to like on a store with these policies? If my local B&M store would stock books I wanted, instead of telling me "Oh, we can order it for you", it might help. If my local Best Buy didn't have such lousy customer service, and if their 'associates' actually tried to sell me what I said I needed, instead of going for the more expensive model because they are on commision, I might buy there. But I'll still go to Sears for my large appliances....

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