Amazon looks to Google to bring advertisers to the Amazon site
Amazon.com Inc. will start displaying ads for other web sites to customers who search for products on the Amazon site under an agreement announced today with Google. Starting in the next several months, customers who search on certain terms at Amazon will receive not only the search results as they relate to products that Amazon sells, but also paid links to other sites that have content relevant to the search.
In the example that Google and Amazon distributed with their announcement, a customer who searches on “Bruce Springsteen The Rising" will get not only the Springsteen CD and the familiar reviews and “customers who bought that also bought this,” but also sponsored links to services selling tickets to Springsteen concerts. “It’s a way for Amazon to add value to a page if they feel the customer would benefit from more information,” says Joan Braddi, Google vice president of search services.
Google and Amazon will create a link between Amazon’s search engine and Google’s database of advertisers so Google can deliver appropriate sponsored links. The service is similar to Google’s AdWords program by which a user searches on a term and the results display not only relevant sites but also sponsored links that advertisers pay Google to display near the search results. Google receives a commission from sales that occur when customers click on the link and make a purchase. This is another way for Google to earn revenue from click-throughs, Google says. It will share that revenue with Amazon for customers who click through on links from Amazon.
Analysts say the agreement fits the pattern of Amazon directing traffic to other retail entities. “This a step in the evolution of Amazon away from being a retailer and toward becoming a platform for retailer services,” says Duif Calvin, a San Francisco-based independent retail consultant. “This isn’t about selecting merchandise and offering it within the context of meeting customers’ expectations. This is about taking users that comes to the site for one reason and introducing them to other places to spend money.”
It’s a further extension of such moves by Amazon as referring customers to Drugstore.com for specialized, regulated products or offering used merchandise at Amazon. The difference, Calvin says, is that Amazon still exerts control over transactions that take place under those auspices, including guaranteeing used merchandise. It will have no control over what happens at other sites. Sites may not be prepared for the volume they could get from Amazon, for instance, or they may not operate up to the same standards as Amazon. “The real issue will be how this will impact Amazon’s reputation,” she says.
Within a few months, Amazon expects to host the Google web search so customers who can`t find what they want at Amazon can search the web directly from the Amazon site, an Amazon spokesman says.
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