Amazon is Making Some Changes

Amazon (AMZN: Nasdaq) is about to make some big changes. They are changing the way you can check out online products as well as receiving them.

They are trying to compete with brick and mortar stores as they want to test a bike messenger service in the Big Apple, aka New York City. You will be able to receive your product within an hour, says Amazon. The ecommerce giant is also unveiling a new feature on how you can actually purchase a product. They are unveiling “Make an Offer” which gives the customer the ability to negotiate lower prices with the seller.

What are they calling the super-fast bike service in NYC? “Amazon Prime Now.” This is the company’s attempt to shorten the last mile of its deliveries making it faster for customers to receive purchases. You could expect same day deliveries, if not faster, in large metropolitan areas outside of the City.

The endgame for Amazon is the ability to make same day deliveries in as many markets as possible. Especially where they are most feasible, in large metro areas like NYC, which is the start of the pilot program. Amazon plans on expanding fulfillment centers in local areas. This means customers will receive products from Amazon vehicles. Especially if they start expanding this so called “last mile” delivery program.

The new bidding service, or feature, will allow customers to negotiate prices and well over 150,000 items. Should the seller want to participate, then they could enable the “make and offer” feature. This will indicate to buyers they are willing to negotiate. What is the difference between this program and those used by eBay (EBAY: Nasdaq] or Priceline [PCLN: Nasdaq]? Negotiations will take place behind the scenes between emails. When a buyer accepts the offer, the seller is notified and her or she places the item in the shopping cart at the agreed upon price.

The new “Make an Offer” program will appeal to the smaller marketplaces and their sellers. There will be room to make price changes and this should appeal to bargain hunters. These are the people looking for good deals. Ebay tried something similar, but it was not a big volume changer. We will have to wait and see if Amazon will have a higher degree of success with their haggle feature.