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Technology Stocks : Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Victor Lazlo who wrote (72529)	8/7/1999 1:20:00 PM
From: Olu Emuleomo	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 164684

>>>> Re repeat business, repeat customers order fewer items from amzn than do new customers; often just one item per order for repeat customers.<<< I believe you are wrong. 1st, do you shop at AMZN? I do! And I almost never order just one item. It's too costly to do so, wrt S/H. If I want to buy a CD or a book, I go to AMZN, store the item in my cart (for up to 90 days) and when have accumulated say 3-4 items, then I complete my order. --Olu E.

To: Victor Lazlo who wrote (72529)	8/7/1999 4:57:00 PM
From: Glenn D. Rudolph	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

lenn, I'll have to have my staff recheck those figs. <g> Re repeat business, repeat customers order fewer items from amzn than do new customers; often just one item per order for repeat customers. This results (or was until recently if not still) in significantly more cost per revenue dollar to fulfill the order. (New customers placing their first order usually order several items due to the novelty of it). Kind of like portion control in a restraunt - people overlook it as a minor factor, but repeated thousands of times, it becomes a big factor. If this continues to be the case, repeat customer businees is actually problematic for amzn. Victor, I want you to know I am not trying to make a bullish argument for Amazon. In fact, I could make an excellent argument that is bearish. I will say that these numbers may be a bit in doubt. The explanation you gave does come from Henry Blodget. I do not know if he gets those numbers from management itself or he calculates it based on revenue divided by the number of customers. Any confusion here is really the fault of Amazon management due to their refusal to break out sales. It is my opinion that breaking out sales would not help the competition a bit. My point is I do not know if Blodget's figures are accurate and more importantly, his conclusions. The fly in the oitment is the auctions. Revenues per customer would be very low at least those going to Amazon itself. The buying online can be a form of a fad. The newbie buyer likes it and buys a lot. Then it becomes old had and they seldomly buy and only buy a little. What we have not seen, is a much larger variety of products that Amazon carries now, being sold during the holiday season. Will the shopper do a lot of their shopping at the same site so that Amazon can benefit from multiple product lines. I can't say I have a clue but I can say that retailers as a rule, are not profitable during the non holiday season. The results of this holiday season should be very telling in my opinion. You have any opinions on this? Glenn