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

To: Glenn D. Rudolph who wrote (5478)	6/10/1998 11:18:00 PM
From: Mark Fowler	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 164684

I would think people would want to compare the way the sites are layed out not to mention price although that could be done with a bot. The majority of people on the net are not that net savy as of yet.<< I cannot argue with the lead. That is a fact. I am not certain that means too much. There is no loyalty in retail buying. << I would think so too, if you have the time to compare. Too, a lot of people are afraid to give their credit card information etc. out over the internet and i think this will help keep current customers coming back to Amzn. Again, i know we disagree here, however brand name and loyalty does affect peoples buying habits. I know i think about it when i do my purchases over the net. Here's is something else that i didn't realize until i read this article in the wallstreet Paper: But Internet commerce may well be a two-edged sword. It's true that consumers can sniff out book bargains on-line, but booksellers can raise prices at an on-line bookstore faster than in a store, where they have to reprice every copy of a given book. As buyers rush to get bargains on the Internet, booksellers can change prices quickly. Airlines have already become highly sophisticated in manipulating seat prices to fill planes and maximize profit. Looking ahead, there could be further price-cutting, of course, as price wars break out on the Net. But as merchants figure out how to cut transaction costs, eliminating salespeople, middlemen, delivery charges and processing costs, they may wind up slashing prices but maintaining or even increasing profit margins. Believers in the "new economy" of the Information Age ascribe huge importance to this possibility. Over time, though, the Internet may turn out to be more of a price leveler than a price cutter. To economic theorists, perfect market information tends to make prices converge. Mr. Orton of Preview Travel says the spread of bargain finders may serve to narrow the wide gap between similar seats on a given flight. By similar logic, it could trim the customary markup that many businesses enjoy outside their home markets. "Companies are going to have to come to terms with losing the international markup," says Mary Cronin, a Boston College management professor who expects the Internet to push sellers toward a single global price. Perhaps. At a point when 80% of Internet users are in foreign countries, these pressures could build. Today, though, the Internet is still 80% American, and the problems it poses for merchants is just more of what is already going on: a 1990s consumer culture in which beating down price is becoming a hobby, a sport and almost an art form.