Comments on: Amazon: Our Holiday Sales Were Great. Just Don't Ask Us to Tell You About Them

By: Could Movies, Books and Music Be Amazon’s Achilles’ Heel? [MediaMemo] | UpOff.com

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:30:55 +0000

[...] June 22nd, 2009 Even as the rest of the retail world stumbled in the past year, Amazon kept cruising and increasing market share. So if a cratering economy can’t hurt the e-commerce giant, what could? Citigroup (C) analyst [...]

By: Could Movies, Books and Music Be Amazon’s Achilles Heel? [MediaMemo] | UpOff.com

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:14:49 +0000

[...] as the rest of the retail world stumbled in the last year, Amazon (AMZN) kept cruising and increasing market share. So if a cratering economy can’t hurt the ecommerce giant, what could? Citigroup (C) analyst [...]

By: Could Movies, Books and Music Be Amazon’s Achilles Heel? | Peter Kafka | MediaMemo | AllThingsD

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:58:41 +0000

By: Amazon: Crash Proof? | John Paczkowski | Digital Daily | AllThingsD

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 21:26:36 +0000

[...] Amazon (AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos claimed that the 2008 holiday season the company’s best yet, but he offered nothing in the way of data to back it up. Well, here’s the [...]

By: Carlos Portocarrero

Carlos Portocarrero — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 15:38:19 +0000

Mac is spot on about Wal Mart. People love to complain about how they do business, but when it comes time to saving money, all those moral issues go out the door. In “The Wal-Mart Effect” there are a bunch of stories of people that lost their jobs because of a Wal-Mart coming to town but they shop there because it’s the only place they can afford.

Now that’s the power of branding/pricing.

By: Amazon Wins An Award It Didn’t Give Itself: Tops In Customer Satisfaction | Peter Kafka | MediaMemo | AllThingsD

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 12:46:09 +0000

[...] data-free claim that it posted its “best ever” holiday season this month has gotten a deservedly [...]

By: Peter Kafka

Peter Kafka — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 16:43:03 +0000

I don’t doubt that Amazon sold more units than they have in the past. There’s on overall trend toward e-commerce, which benefits Amazon for obvious reasons. What we don’t know yet is what kind of stuff people were buying, and what kind of margins. My gut is that both AMZN and B&M were selling lots of lower-priced items at steep discounts.

By: Jeff Stevens

Jeff Stevens — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 16:31:35 +0000

AMZN put out the same press release on 12/26/2007. The issue is whether they beat last year in profit while B&M lost.
Personally I was unable to find what I wanted much less size in B&M even though I could touch and feel. Then go back online and buy “in stock”. There is also a red flag on the prices. I thought there was a law that said regular prices were indeed regular. Because I thought the 50% sales were a good starting point. B&M could have done better than we think, if they had money to stock in the first place.

By: Ken Okel

Ken Okel — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 16:11:23 +0000

Both brick and mortar and online retailers need to stop focusing so much on the holiday season. Produce good products, offer good support, and listen to your customers. These are things that any retailer can do all year long. Yes, the holidays produce the biggest sales but that doesn’t mean you can’t profit from the rest of the year. Stop selling like people did 100 years ago. The world has changed.

By: Mac Beach

Mac Beach — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 21:50:14 +0000

Doesn’t seem surprising that discounters did well in an economic downturn (regardless if it is real, perceived, or some combination of the two… perception is everything).

I think a lot of people with formerly “religious” misgivings about Walmart decided that saving money was more important than taking a stand this year.

In my case I’ve been a fan of Walmart for years, but made the switch this year to doing all my holiday shopping from the comfort of my living room. paying Amazon’s flat rate for free shipping all year was well worth it.

Not coincidentally, I got more last minute e-mail solicitations from companies I didn’t even know had my e-mail address than ever before.

Clearly some who missed the big wave are getting their boards ready for the secondary ones.

By: Eli Bensky

Eli Bensky — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 21:41:58 +0000

AMZN’s sales are up because when you shop there you’re treated as a valued customer when you need help plus it’s easy to do on your own.

Go to a brick and mortar and it’s nothing but a hassle from parking to getting some help from “salespeople” who are hired to do stock work. Helping customers is on their Top 100 Priorities – somewhere between numbers 90 and 95.

Wait until their December sales come out: “It’s a difficult environment, customers are not spending as much etc etc”. Blah, blah, blah.

Tell that to Mr. Bezos!

By: Jeff Stevens

Jeff Stevens — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 20:50:50 +0000

Your article sounds skeptical of Amazon’s results, as have the broadcasters CNBC. If that isn’t the case, I apologize.
AMZN blew away numbers in 2007 and confirmed that online retail had taken hold. Brick and Mortar seem to be going away quickly.
Even Apple ships directly from China with online orders.

By: Peter Kafka

Peter Kafka — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 20:11:20 +0000

Jeff, I’m confused. Am I holding back AMZN from bigger gains? Or am I keeping it afloat? Please clarify which one. And more important – how I’m doing it.

By: Jeff Stevens

Jeff Stevens — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 18:31:58 +0000

AMZN is only up slightly because of the bashers on CNBC and yourself. When they prefer to focus on the the same old bad news retail store song.
While CNBC allows the Gold pumper to go uncontested.
They same way they allowed T Boone to pump oil to $140 earlier this year.
The power of media, and day traders!