Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos
Amazon.com Inc. has officially launched the new version of its Amazon WebStore, which it introduced in March on an invitation-only basis.
Amazon WebStore enables online sellers to build and operate multichannel e-commerce businesses, selling through their own sites or through Amazon. For retailers selling on Amazon, Amazon WebStore integrates with other Amazon services, including Selling on Amazon and Fulfillment by Amazon.
The new product by Amazon, No. 1 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, offers retailers an enhanced setup wizard that makes it easier to launch a site and gives businesses more flexibility and control over site design and merchandising.
It also features cross-channel applications that enable retailers to offer phone and store ordering and customer service. The program also has a unified interface so businesses can track and manage offers, inventory and orders across channels.
"With the new Amazon WebStore, we are making it simple for retailers and manufacturers to build and operate a world-class e-commerce business tailored to their brand and customers," says Scott Pulsipher, director, Amazon WebStore. "By leveraging Amazon's technology and infrastructure, Amazon WebStore levels the playing field for small- and medium-sized businesses, helping them quickly and easily build their businesses and improve the customer experience."
For retailers who use the product only to build a web site, the costs are $24.99 per month plus a 2% per transaction commission. For merchants who sell on Amazon.com, the fees are $14.99 per month plus a 1% per transaction commission and the applicable Amazon seller fees. For merchants who sell on Amazon.com and use Fulfillment by Amazon, the fees are $9.99 per month, plus a 0.7% per transaction commission and the applicable Amazon seller fees.
Payment processing and fraud-protection fees also apply, starting at 1.9% plus $0.30 per transaction.
Those rates are significantly lower than Amazon's previous charges, wrote Colin Sebastian, a stock analyst with Lazard Capital Markets, in a research note. The original Amazon WebStores service charged $59.95 per month, plus a 7% commission on sales, including credit card and fraud prevention fees.
Comments | 1 Response
This new platform for the small business is terrible. I just tried to transfer my Pro Merchant account, which allows me to post my items to Amazon, to the new platform so I may take advantage of the Web-store component in order to have better brand recognition. But what they don't tell you is that you now can only receive the monies they collect from you every two weeks. For some one like myself who are new, and are hoping to expand, I cannot do this due to not having the funds readily available to replenish stock that has sold. Now if I want to continue on Amazon, I cannot pull a paycheck, or worse still, hope I DO NOT have a phenomenal week so as to not worry about for-filling orders for the next three weeks in a timely fashion due to waiting on the release of funds from Amazon. They are going to be forcing thousands of sellers to this new platform by the end of 2012 I've been told. I cannot believe they are even considering this move In this economy, where this avenue of entrepreneurship seemed like a blessing, is now just another struggle to try to make a living and make ends meet in the hopes of creating a future business instead of just supplementing my income to pay the increasing costs of living like fuel, heat, and food. I'm very disappointed, I had a marketing campaign, a business plan in place, and now... back to the drawing board.
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