The rise and rise of Amazon continues… how will it affect you?

By Sharon Fussell, February 7, 2013

You may remember in the past I have stated that Amazon are going to take over the world – well, as more and more high street media shops (like the late HMV) close giving more and more power to Amazon my prophesy seems increasingly likely!

Each year sees online sales increase and Amazon’s market share of those sales is very significant to say the least.

Is this a good thing? Well I suppose as someone that makes a living off of Amazon’s coat tails, it is good that Amazon is so popular…

Although, as a seller of books, it could be concerning that Amazon is marketing their Kindle more and more, which could have a very real impact on the printing of ‘real’ books and interfere directly with the used market (after all, if customers do not buy ‘real’ books, they won’t have any to donate to charity shops!)

So, do Kindle’s book sales impact on the regular book market? I guess if you sell new books it may well impact you adversely. But most used books tend to be much cheaper than Kindle downloads – and so are perhaps not quite so likely to be affected as buyers will often opt to buy a cheap paperback rather than a more expensive download of the same title.

Also, perhaps – given time – if there are less ‘real’ books about, it will create a collectors market for books currently being sold for low values.

Whatever happens, it does look as though the Kindle (electronic reader device) is here to stay no matter what. We can only make adjustments to ensure we stay on the Amazon bandwagon and continue to benefit from their success.

Amazon’s Latest Weapon

But for now, Amazon has a new trick up its sleeve… look at their latest move: the introduction of a virtual ‘coin’ to replace ‘real’ money…

According to Andrew Laughlin, Amazon is in the processes of charming developers with a new virtual currency:

“Amazon has announced that it will introduce a new virtual currency into its Kindle Fire app store as part of efforts to increase customer loyalty and cosy up to third-party developers.

Amazon Coins, will be launched in the US in May as an “easy way” for Kindle Fire tablet users to spend money on developers’ apps in the Amazon Appstore, or on in-app purchases.

Amazon says that Coins – each worth one cent in America – will offer developers a “substantial opportunity to drive traffic, downloads and increase monetisation even further”.

This is partially because Amazon has said that it will give away “tens of millions” of dollars’ worth of Amazon Coins to use on any apps in the store that have been submitted and approved by April 25 this year.

This essentially means Amazon will inject a large amount of cash into the Kindle Fire app store ecosystem that will mostly go to both new and existing developers (they get 70% of any purchases, while Amazon takes 30%).

After the initial free giveaway, Amazon said that it will make it quick and easy for customers to buy additional Amazon Coins using their Amazon accounts…”

Andrew Laughlin, ‘Digital Spy’

This ‘currency’ is due to be released in the States in May, but there’s no doubt it will soon be on its way here.

Perhaps Amazon’s new virtual coins will lead indirectly to an increase in ‘real’ coins for us…

How?

Well, a currency redeemable solely on the Amazon site could encourage more varied browsing habits in customers… browsing habits that could include a greater interest in used media products – and those products might just be yours!

Let’s make sure we are ready… I’ll have lots of tips and tricks for you over the coming weeks to make sure we are.