Amazon news from the holiday season

January 9, 2014

Reading time: 2 minutes

It’s been awhile since we’ve taken a look at what’s been going on in Amazon news.

Today Stefana, from SellerEngine Services, will give you her thoughts on what’s been going on over the holiday season.

Keep reading to learn more!

Drone Delivery

This was the biggest Amazon story of the past month or so.

I’m skeptical that this will be possible within the next 5 years. I don’t want to be a doubting Thomas, but it’s hard to imagine a sky full of drones.

I just don’t think that Amazon will be able to overcome the regulatory hurdles needed to ensure safe, accurate, reliable delivery via drone. But I’m sure we’ll all be hearing a lot more about this in the coming years.

Changes for UK Super Saver Shipping

While Amazon.com was raising the Super Saver Shipping threshold, Amazon.co.uk is lowering it!

Well, sort of. As of January 7, 2014, Amazon.co.uk all orders of £10 (about $16.50 as of January 8th) or more will be eligible for free shipping! Previously items in books, music, film & tv and other media categories weren’t eligible for £10 Super Saver Shipping. This is a big move and one that I think will lead to even more purchases on Amazon.co.uk. But how will it affect Amazon’s bottom line?

Record Setting Holiday Season?

Amazon won’t be releasing their Q4 report for a few weeks, but I think we’re going to see some very big numbers! On Cyber Monday alone, Amazon took in orders for nearly 40 million items! Even if Amazon does post record-setting sales figures, how will their profits look? I think we’ll be seeing yet another loss. One reason for this is the huge number of returns that Amazon and other online merchants accept. Returns cost money, not only in returned products and refunds, but in return shipping, logistics, restocking and more. And Amazon is famous for it’s customer-first mentality, meaning that they’re willing to eat more of these costs than other online merchants.