Amazon's eBay Challenge
EBay Inc. has long had the upper hand over Amazon.com Inc. in its breadth of merchandise because the auction site allows millions of people and companies to sell practically anything imaginable. Now Amazon.com is out to challenge that advantage.
For years, Amazon has sought to broaden its selection of goods by letting individuals sell used and new copies of books, music and other items on the same Web pages from which it sells similar merchandise stored in its warehouses.
Earlier this year, though, the company quietly began letting small merchants who pay a monthly fee sell products in categories that Amazon doesn't offer on its own. Small sellers have used this feature -- called the "EZ detail page" -- to offer tens of thousands of products since January, from hand-painted potty chairs to miniature motorcycles to stamps, Amazon says.
That jumble of goods from individuals still isn't as far-ranging as on the Web's most eclectic bazaar, eBay, which has 25 million items listed for sale on an average day. But Amazon and eBay, which started out in different corners of the online market, have begun competing more closely in recent years. Amazon has expanded its selection mostly by getting other retailers and individuals to sell their own merchandise through the site -- an approach eBay pioneered. And eBay has promoted the idea among its sellers of offering some goods at a fixed price, a la Amazon, instead of through auctions.
But Amazon's new push has created tensions among its sellers. Last month, those stresses burst into the open when an important early partner, Toys "R" Us Inc., filed a lawsuit against Amazon in New Jersey state court.
Since 2000, Toys "R" Us had an arrangement to be the sole seller of toys, games and baby products through Amazon, but the Wayne, N.J., retailer alleges that Amazon violated the exclusivity provisions of its contract when it began allowing more merchants to sell products that compete with Toys "R" Us's selection. Toys "R" Us says it has found more than 4,000 such items from other merchants on Amazon, including Razor scooters, Yahtzee board games and baby strollers.
Amazon declines to say what changes it may make to its policies, and it denies any merit to the Toys "R" Us suit.
"We believe we can have multiple sellers in the toy category, increase selection and offer products from Toys "R" Us," says Amazon spokeswoman Patty Smith.
The rift shows some of the problems inherent in Amazon's effort to open its site to all classes of sellers. The Seattle company has expanded into categories such as apparel, sporting goods and gourmet food largely by relying on big retailers like Gap Inc., Foot Locker Inc. and Dean & Deluca, which pay Amazon a commission -- estimated by outsiders at 10% to 15% of a transaction -- on products they sell. In the first quarter, Amazon says 23% of the items ordered on its site were from third parties, up from 19% a year earlier.
But some analysts believe Amazon's preferential relationship with some of those merchants will be difficult to juggle with its growing ranks of smaller sellers. "They're trying to be everything to everybody," says Carrie Johnson, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass. "The Toys "R" Us lawsuit is the first significant time we've seen this business-model problem come to a head."
EBay, in contrast, has a single set of rules for all of its sellers, regardless of their size. The company charges the same fees to sellers and doesn't grant exclusive rights to any of them for any of its categories. While eBay's efforts to lure large sellers such as International Business Machines Corp., Walt Disney Co. and others have worried some smaller sellers, big corporations as a group haven't been especially successful on eBay, leaving plenty of room for tiny merchants. Hani Durzy, an eBay spokesman, declined to comment on Amazon's new effort to court small sellers, but eBay executives have said they're not concerned about competition from Amazon.
Amazon is approaching experienced eBay sellers, some of whom say they can get better prices for their merchandise on Amazon than on eBay. For instance, Gotham City Online, a veteran eBay apparel seller, has tested shoe sales on Amazon in recent months. "We've been pleased with the results and we regard it as a viable market for our business in the future," says David Topkins, president of the New York company.
The big profits that eBay enjoys are one reason for the changes at Amazon. The commissions Amazon takes on third-party sales on its site are mostly profit, which has given Amazon more financial flexibility to discount its own products and to offer free shipping, analysts say.
Yet Amazon has botched past efforts to emulate eBay. An auction site Amazon launched years ago was a bomb and an effort to give businesses virtual store fronts called zShops never found much of an audience, in large part because the stores were cordoned off in a separate area of the Amazon site that few shoppers visited.
Its newer efforts could have better luck since products individuals now offer will be better integrated with Amazon's main offerings. For instance, those products will show up more prominently when shoppers conduct searches for goods and they will be included in Amazon's automated recommendations, the company says. But there is no way to find just these new sellers; Amazon customers must search for a type of good, and these sellers may pop up. Shoppers can pay for the goods through the same Amazon check-out page.
The Amazon site identifies these sellers as being other than Amazon. Customers can rate the sellers, as buyers can on eBay. And Amazon's guarantee applies: If an item is "materially different" than what was promised, or the item never arrives, Amazon says it will give a refund of up to $2,500.
Of course, it is still unclear whether shoppers will look to Amazon for the eclectic array many associate with eBay. Alan MacRunnels says he hasn't yet sold any products through Amazon since he listed his collection of incense, incense burners and firewood on the site in the middle of May. Still, Mr. MacRunnels, owner of Incensio de Santa Fe Inc. of Albuquerque, N.M., says he likes having his products associated with an online retailer like Amazon.
"We don't do eBay," Mr. MacRunnels says. "It's sort of like a garage sale."
亚马逊向eBay发起挑战
长期以来，eBay Inc.商品繁多的品种使其在和亚马逊(Amazon.com Inc.)的较量中一直处于上风，这个拍卖网站允许数百万个人和公司销售几乎任何能想得到的商品。现在，亚马逊准备向eBay发起挑战。
亚马逊致力于扩大其商品种类已经有数年时间，其途径是允许个人在亚马逊各类商品网页上出售类似商品，比如二手以及新的书籍、音乐等。
但今年早些时候，该公司悄然开始让小型商户在其网站上出售亚马逊本身没有的商品，亚马逊每月向这些商户收取一定费用。亚马逊称，1月份以来，小型商户通过这一方式提供了数以万计的商品，包括手工喷漆的儿童用大便坐椅、摩托车模型以及邮票等各种商品。
但这些个人商品与商品五花八门的网上杂货店eBay相比仍相形见逊，eBay每天平均有2,500万件商品在售。但亚马逊和eBay这两家起始点不同的网上市场在最近几年已经开始短兵相接。亚马逊已经主要通过让其他零售商和个人在网站上出售其自身商品的方式扩大了商品种类－－eBay是这种销售方式的先驱；而eBay则在其销售商中间推广亚马逊式的以固定价格而不是通过拍卖出售某些商品的概念。
但是亚马逊的新举措造成销售商间关系的紧张。上个月，亚马逊一个重要的早期合作伙伴Toys 'R' Us Inc.在新泽西州法庭对亚马逊提起诉讼，使这个问题暴露于大庭广众之下。
自2000年以来，Toys 'R' Us与亚马逊签订协议，成为玩具、游戏和婴儿产品的独家销售商，但是这家新泽西州的零售商指控亚马逊违反了独家供货合同，因为亚马逊开始允许更多商家出售与Toys 'R' Us竞争的商品。Toys 'R' Us称，它已经在亚马逊上发现超过4,000件来自其他商家的此类商品，包括Razor滑板、棋盘游戏和Yahtzee婴儿车等。
亚马逊拒绝透露将可能实行何种政策变动，并认为Toys 'R' Us的诉讼没有法律依据。
亚马逊发言人Patty Smith称，“我们相信我们可以拥有多个玩具商品销售商，增加产品范围并提供Toys 'R' Us的商品。”
这一裂痕揭示了亚马逊在将网站向所有商户开放的努力中存在的一些固有问题。这家总部位于西雅图的公司将商品种类扩大到服装、运动商品以及美食等商品，此类商品主要来自于Gap Inc.、Foot Locker Inc.以及Dean & Deluca的大型零售商。这些零售商为售出商品向亚马逊支付佣金，外界估计佣金比例大概为交易总额的10%至15%。亚马逊称，第一季度网上订购的商品有23%来自第三方，高于1年前的19%。
但是一些分析师相信，亚马逊与部分商户的特惠关系将使其难以平衡与越来越多的小型商户的关系。Forrester Research Inc.的分析师Carrie Johnson说，“他们试图无所不包，满足每个人需求。Toys 'R' Us的诉讼案是首次将这一商业模式存在的问题暴露于公众面前。”
相反，eBay对所有销售商－－不论其规模大小－－有一套统一的规定。该公司向商户征收同样的费率，并且不向任何一方对任何一种商品做出独家销售权的保证。尽管eBay吸引诸如国际商业机器公司(International Business Machines Corp.)、沃尔特-迪斯尼公司(Walt Disney Co.)等大型商户的努力让一些小型商户感到担忧，但是大型公司整体上在eBay并没有表现得特别成功，小型商户仍然有很大的空间。eBay发言人Hani Durzy拒绝就亚马逊吸引小型商户的努力进行评论，但eBay管理层曾表示，他们不担忧来自亚马逊的竞争。
亚马逊正与eBay的老牌商户进行接洽，其中一部分商户称他们在亚马逊上可以获得比eBay更好的价钱。比如，在eBay销售服装的一个老商户Gotham City Online测定了最近几个月在亚马逊上的销售额。该公司总裁Davide Topkins称，“我们对结果感到高兴，我们认为这对我们未来业务是一个可行的市场。”
eBay当前享有的高利润是亚马逊进行改变的一个原因。分析师称，亚马逊向第三方在网站销售收取的佣金构成了其利润的大部分，这使亚马逊对自有商品打折并提供免费运送服务具有更大的财务弹性。
亚马逊过去效仿eBay的种种做法不尽如人意。亚马逊数年前推出的一个拍卖网站一败涂地，为企业提供的名为zShops的虚拟商店一直没有吸引到大量客户，这在很大程度上是因为这些商店位于网站上很少有购物者访问的一个单独区域。
亚马逊的最新举措也许会有较好的运气，因为当前个人提供的商品将与亚马逊的主要服务更好的整合在一起。该公司称，比如在购物者搜索商品时，这些产品将出现在醒目位置，他们还将被包括进亚马逊自动推荐的行列。但是购物者并不能单独搜出这些新商户；购物者必须搜索一种商品，这些商户才有可能出现。购物者可以通过同一个亚马逊结帐页面为此类商品付帐。
亚马逊网站将这些商户视为非亚马逊部分。消费者可以像eBay买家那样对商户评级。亚马逊的产品保证则适用于这些商户：如果商品与所承诺商品有著实质上的不同，或者商品未交付给用户，亚马逊表示将给于最高2,500美元的赔偿。
当然，现在还不清楚购物者是否会来到亚马逊上寻购五花八门的商品，许多人将此类商品与eBay联系在一起。Alan MacRunnels称，自他在5月中旬将熏香、火炉和木柴等收集品放在亚马逊上出售以来，他还没有售出任何一件商品。但是Incensio de Santa Fe Inc.的老板MacRunnels称，他喜欢将他的产品与亚马逊这样的网上零售商联系在一起。
MacRunnels说，“我们不在eBay上出售，那里有点像跳蚤市场。”
