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

To: H James Morris who wrote (26284)	11/17/1998 2:30:00 AM
From: H James Morris	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

* Amazon.com <AMZN.O>, the online retailer that already dominates the Internet sales of books and, increasingly, music, is about to start offering a holiday gift selection that will feature consumer electronics, games, toys and other items. > < The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) -- Amazon.com will look more like a shopping mall than a bookstore starting today, with the addition of everything from Barbie dolls to Palm Pilot electronic organizers to its Web site. The Internet's leading book merchant is taking its biggest step yet, becoming a leading Web department store in a drive to lure online shoppers and make them repeat customers. The Seattle-based company told The Associated Press on Monday it will launch an online gift shop featuring products far more varied than most specialized retailers currently dominating the Internet. The venture is planned to run through Christmas, giving traditional retailers a run for their money in their busiest time of the year. In addition, Amazon.com also plans to initiate online video sales today, offering more than 60,000 VHS-formatted and 2,000 DVD-compatable movie titles. That expansion is to be a permanent addition to its stable of products. ''This is just the latest sign of Amazon getting bigger,'' said Jae Kim, an analyst at Paul Kagan & Associates in Carmel, Calif. ''It costs a lot of money to win a shopper on the Internet. Once you get that shopper, you want to keep that shopper.'' While Amazon.com has yet to turn a profit since it was founded in 1995, quarterly sales more than tripled and the number of customer accounts more than quadrupled from a year ago. Its first foray outside of books came in June, when it added music to its site. Within three months of the launch, music sales topped $14 million, putting Amazon.com ahead of rivals CDNow and Music Boulevard. This week's expansion into general merchandise was widely expected in the industry since two strategic purchases in the summer. Amazon.com acquired Junglee Corp., which offers one-stop electronic shopping services to World Wide Web sites, and PlanetAll, a provider of online address books. It said at the time that it planned to use the technology from the two Internet companies to ''personalize'' the shopping experience on its Web site and better know its customers. Among the hundreds of items Amazon.com will promote in its new gift shop are Motorola Walkie Talkies, Nintendo video games, Panasonic DVD players and Sony Walkman stereos. Amazon.com said it looked for products that would match the interests of its existing customers. The online shop will include services such as free batteries and a gift matcher to help shoppers pick their holiday purchases. The company would not elaborate on its long-term plans for the expanded services. With the new video service, shoppers have access to thousands of movie titles as well as cast lists, movie quotes and reviews featured in the Internet Movie Database, which Amazon.com bought earlier this year. < LAS VEGAS, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Online retailer Buy.com Monday joined the ranks of companies selling books over the Internet, and said it had a business plan to beat industry leader Amazon.com Inc <AMZN.O> at its own game. The company, formerly a retailer of computer products that went by the name Buycomp.com, announced at the Comdex technology trade show here that it had changed its name and would add books, videos, music and other consumer products to its retail mix. Buy.com President Scott Blum, who founded the company two years ago, projecting it would generate revenues of $350 million this year and $1 billion by the Year 2000. The Alliso Viejo, Calif. company hopes to draw customers away from other retail sites by offering a mix of products in one location and by guaranteeing the lowest price available on everything it sells. It sometimes forgoes a profit margin to deliver on this promise, and tries to make up the difference through advertising revenues. As part of its plan to offer a broader product mix, it also announced Monday its plans to acquire online book, video and game retailer SpeedServe Inc from Ingram Entertainment. Blum said the Buy.com does not offer all the book titles available on Amazon, but will carry most of them. He said he plans to eventually expand into all "major commodities," including cars. "It's pretty clear to us that Amazon.com is our major competitor," Blum said. "Our goal is to leapfrog (Amazon chairman) Jeff Bezos. The bottom line is better pricing." > This is a better debate than how much gold was actually found in Indonesia.