To push the sale of its Kindle range of tablets and readers, Amazon.com has introduced a new program known as Amazon Source. Under this scheme, independent bookstores and retailers can sell Kindle devices and accessories. These devices will be sold by Amazon.com to the retailers at discounted price and they would be able to get a profit of around 10 per cent for selling these products. Amazon is offering two types of programs to the retailers :
1. Bookseller Program: Under this program, the seller can earn 10% of the price of every Kindle book purchased by their customers from their Kindle devices for two years from device purchase. This is in addition to the discount the bookseller receives when purchasing the devices and accessories fromAmazon.
2. General Retail Program: The retailer will receive a larger discount when purchasing the devices from Amazon, but will not be entitled to receive revenue from their customers’ Kindle book purchases.
There is another plus point to the above programmes. The first order from Amazon Source is worry-free for retailers–if a retailer decides they no longer want to sell Kindle, Amazon will buy back the inventory for up to six months after their first order, with no questions asked.
“We believe that retailers, online or offline, small or large, should be striving to offer customers what they want–and many customers want to read both digital and print books,” said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. “For many years, bookstores have successfully sold print books on Amazon–now Amazon Source extends this opportunity to digital. With Amazon Source, customers don’t have to choose between e-books and their favorite neighborhood bookstore–they can have both.”
Several bookstores in US have already been using Amazon Source in a pilot program.
