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

To: Glenn D. Rudolph who wrote (31149)	12/25/1998 3:20:00 PM
From: Jack T. Pearson	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 164684

How can Amazon ever turn a profit when fulfillment costs are greater than the gross margins? It is difficult to conduct this kind of discussion on-line because we have to sort out the business model including definitions and reliable sources of data before we can agree on the conclusions. I'm not interested in working through that at a detailed level. What I am interested in is the fundamentals of Internet businesses. I believe the advantage goes to businesses that are the largest (because the development costs are lower per unit delivered and because they can get better deals from suppliers), provide the best customer service, and have the best name recognition. Internet businesses also have an advantage in that they are accessible 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Another advantage is that they seem to provide more information about their products than most non-Internet retailers provide. For example, when I go to Amazon to purchase a book, I can read detailed descriptions and reviews before I make my decision. Another advantage on-line retailers have is inventory management. There are other advantages.