[Sigia-l] Amazon Prime (subscription-like service) - an innovation?

[Andrew Boyd]

Hi Bill,

Overall, it is probably a great idea, and on thinking about it, I am 
surprised it took them this long.

Personally, I find it annoying that I went to the trouble of setting up 
a profile in Amazon that included my address (Australia) and, on logging 
in, am offered a service I can't use (no shipping reduction to 
Australian customers). Why bother personalising and then continue to 
sell the benefits of something I can't use? (I still get the 'Buy More! 
You may qualify for reduced shipping charges!' stuff). The only 
reduction in shipping available to me is to combine items, which is OK 
when they are all in stock and can ship together, but rarely happens.

In case you're wondering, I use Amazon because, as annoying as some of 
these 'features' are, they are still more efficient than going through 
an Australian distributor for a book that often has to come from 
overseas anyway, and historically, they are a lot less likely to screw 
up orders. That, and Amazon is usually cheaper :)

Best regards, Andrew

Bill Pawlak wrote:

>Has anyone tried this yet
>(http://www.amazon.com/gp/subs/primeclub/signup/main.html)?  I'd
>imagine you'd have to shop quite a bit to make it worth your while...
>but here's a snip from the welcome message I just received:
>
>"We expect Amazon Prime to be expensive for Amazon.com in the short
>term.  In the long term, we hope to earn even more of your business,
>which will make it good for us, too.  We hope you enjoy our latest
>innovation."
>
>Is this really an innovation?  Think they'll try to patent it?  It's
>different from Netflix in that the annual fee only covers shipping on
>products whereas something like Netflix covers the rental of the
>product and the shipping...  It seems like if anything it'll clutter
>up an already unwieldy interface...
>
>Any thoughts?
>
>bill
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-- 
_________________________________________
Andrew Boyd 
Business Development Manager
Daily Basis P/L
Phone 02 6282 9797 or 02 4885 1357
Mobile 0412 641 074
Email andrew at dailybasis.com.au
or andrew_db at bigpond.com
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