Amazon Expansion November 17, 1998 Amazon moved into a few new product categories today selling videos and some consumer products in a gift store. With competitive pricing in books and music being part of the sell, it's interesting to look at some of the latest products added to the catalog like the Palm Pilots from 3Com. Palm Pilot III The PalmPilot III at Amazon is listed at $332.10 with a 10% discount. A price list at Computers.Com of PalmPilot IIIs seems to indicate that it's certainly not a price leader. With the prices listed ranging from $274.95 at BuyComp to I assume a list price of $369 at 3Com. Sony Digital Mavica Camera (MVC-FD51) Amazon had this Sony Mavica digital camera listed at $539.95 also with a 10% discount. This time Computers.Com's price list for the camera would have had Amazon as the most expensive compared to the other shops listed. With the lowest price being $429.95 also at BuyComp. $$$ Is price everything when it comes down to online shopping? No. I would consider security, shipping options, return policies as some of the important comparison points. But when you have access to price lists like the one provided at Computers.Com, it makes me wonder if it's even a big deal for Amazon. Sticking Amazon in the Computers.Com price lists might be a good wake-up call. For Amazon and their customers. This was looking at a few high end products in the gift store, but even with computer games there seems to be some stiff competition in pricing. Amazon Stock Jumps With Holiday-Shop Opening (Reuters): "Kate Delhagen, an analyst at Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research, said toys and electronics were natural extensions in part because Amazon.com can exploit its growing database on the book and music preferences of its 4.5 million customers to cross-promote items selectively. She said the company was unlikely to expand further into higher-priced items such as computers because of the high inventory costs. Instead, she said she predicted Amazon would forge deals to steer customers to other online retailers as it becomes the Internet's first e-commerce "hub."" Reprise: Update on Amazon Expansion, December 1, 1998. Amazon responds with higher discounts on some of the products examined in this story.

Related links [1] Amazon branches out and up; News.Com [2] Study looks at Amazon's future; News.Com [3] Amazon.com to sell videos, other gifts; SJ Mercury [4] Amazon Stock Jumps With Holiday-Shop Opening; TechWeb