Tag: book

Amazon gives loans to small sellers

Posted on June 29, 2015 by - News

amazonAmazon.com is extending its business loan program for small sellers later this year in eight more countries including China.

Until now, the e-retailer has offered the service only in the United States and Japan.

Now, according to the head of Amazon Marketplace, Peter Faricy, Amazon Lending, founded in 2012, now plans to offer short-term working capital loans in other countries where it operates a third-party, seller-run marketplace business,.

The scheme is being rolled out in Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom as an “invite-only” .

Amazon offers three- to six-month loans of $1,000 to $600,000 to help merchants buy inventory. It makes money on interest and takes a cut of all sales on its marketplace, which now account for about 40 percent of total Amazon site sales.

Amazon said it has offered hundreds of millions of dollars in loans since 2012, with more than half of its sellers opting for a repeat loan.

Faricy said the company has become better at understanding the inflection points in a small or medium business where capital can make a difference.

“We know a lot about our sellers’ business and invite only those who we think are in the best position to take capital and grow,” he said.

Amazon uses internal algorithms to choose sellers based on the frequency with which they run out of stock, the popularity of their products and their inventory cycles.

Amazon getting into advertising business

Posted on August 25, 2014 by - News

amazonOnline bookseller Amazon is getting into the internet advertising business.

The Wall Street Journal has been telling the world+dog that the in-house platform aims to replace ads supplied by Google on Amazon’s own website.

However the plan is to later expand the program to challenge Google and Microsoft advertising business in the future.

Amazon’s system is similar to Google’s AdWords, and is planned to make it easier for marketers to reach the company’s users.

The retailer is also building a tool that would help advertising agencies buy in bulk for thousands of advertisers.

Analysts have been wondering how long it would take Amazon to try to stick its foot in the door of the advertising industry. After all, if you know what a person reads you can target a lot of advertising their way.

Amazon is sitting on a huge consumer data but has so far been reluctant to use it for advertising.

The company already has an advertising service it employs chiefly on its own website but it is extremely low key in comparison to the potential.

 

Apple wins approval for settlement

Posted on August 4, 2014 by - News

novità-apple-2013The fruity cargo cult Apple has managed to get a court to accept a settlement in a case where it ran an ebook racket with other publishers to jack up the price.

Apple has always denied that its super cool pricing cartel idea was illegal and that it did anything wrong.  In fact it is appealing its conviction.  The settlement is conditional on Apple not getting the case overturned on appeal.

US District Judge Denise Cote approved a $450 million settlement of claims Apple harmed consumers by conspiring with five publishers to raise e-book prices on Friday. In approving the settlement, Cote overcame concerns she had expressed over a settlement provision allowing Apple to pay just $70 million if related litigation were to drag out.

That accord calls for Apple to pay $400 million to consumers and $50 million to lawyers if the federal appeals court in New York upholds Cote’s findings, and nothing if the Cupertino, California-based company wins its appeal.

But if the appeals court overturns Cote and returns the case to her, perhaps for a new trial, Apple will owe only $US50 million to consumers and $US20 million to lawyers.

But in Friday’s decision, she noted that the states and consumers “strongly believe” such a scenario is unlikely, and that the settlement has provisions to reduce its likelihood.

She also said the plaintiffs agreed to provide more details about the settlement to consumers, to help them decide whether to accept its terms or sue Apple separately.