Restoring Profitability to Amazon's Alexa Sales

Mike Prospero offers three tips for restoring profitability to Amazon's smart speaker business .

-DD

Independent Booksellers

Casey Cep writes of the the struggles independent book stores face competing with Amazon.

Cep interviewed bookseller Danny Caine, who noted that he must sell a book for $26.99 which Amazon sells for $15. Caine said that "our [wholesale] cost from the publisher for that book would be $14.57," and with a 43¢ margin, the store would be bankrupt in a week.

For more information, read Ryan Raffaelli's academic study of the value of independent bookstores.

-DD

Video Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnZlD6rZJCA

Goodreads

Sarah Manavis records user dissatisfaction with Goodreads following its purchase by Amazon.

-DD

library extension

Andrew Abrahamowicz authored the library extension , a software that compares an Amazon item with public library holdings.

-DD

Product Packaging Agents

Josh Dzieza tells about the role of product packaging agents serving Amazon's third-party vendors in its distribution network .

-DD

Amazon's Impact

Jasen Aten suggests that Amazon has caused small business to thrive while forcing large firms to be more efficient.

-DD

Amazon Alternatives

Jakob Kleinman suggests alternatives to Amazon as a retailer.

Alana Semuels in an article suggests that Amazon may do more harm to Main Street retail than Walmart and other big box stores.

-DD

Smart Speakers

Nick Routley provides information on the Smart Speaker market , including how people report using their devices such as the Amazon Echo or Google Home.

-DD

Loading and Unloading Cloud Data

Brandon Butler shares how Amazon makes it easy to load massive amounts of data to their cloud environment. Downloading the data can also be accomplished, though Amazon charges fees for that service.

-DD

Trade Secrets and Public Record

Andy Thomason reports that the National Association of College Stores is suing Purdue University because it wants full disclosure by Purdue of its contract with Amazon. Amazon negotiated with Purdue to provide bookstore services to the university, and required that large segments of its contract with this public university be redacted in public disclosure as "trade secrets."

In my experience working in a public library, book sellers often asked that their negotiated discounts be kept private. The National Association of College Stores seems to feel that contractual discount rates are a public record. The unintended consequence may that discounting is reduced or eliminated, decreasing the buying power of libraries in a time of financial restrictions.

-DD

Amazon E-Book Rental Program

Alexandria Alter discusses how Amazon is offering e-book and audio book rental for a flat $10/month subscription fee. However, many major publishers are not participating, presumably because it will cut profits or is contradicted in existing contracts with authors or other distribution channels.

-DD

Amazon Offering A Trial of Its Cloud Services

Amazon now offers a one-year free trial of its cloud services . This offer has usage limitations, but would be useful for gaining experience with Amazon's data handling offerings.

-DD