With the Amazon Seller Conference concluded, here are a few final observations (admittedly a week late) from Day 3 at Amazon’s corporate headquarter overlooking downtown Seattle (stunning view). There were 2 items on the agenda for the 100+ attendees:

Panel discussion with SVP Sebastian Gunningham’s management team (facilitated by VP of Technology Jacob Levanon).
Four focus groups [...]

It appears that Amazon has officially launched its rumored Amazon Checkout product, the PayPal Express Checkout / Google Checkout competitor. While there has been no press release on this, you can see and read all about it on the CBA (Checkout By Amazon) product page here.

How does it work? Very similar to other third-party [...]

Not much news around Amazon this week asides from the blockbuster Q2 2008 financial results which I have already talked about. I also still plan on summarizing Day 3 of the Amazon Seller Conference that concluded this past Monday. Two interesting items though that are worth checking out:

Amazon UK Managing Director Brian McBride was interviewed [...]

Amazon released their Q2 2008 earnings report last night (here’s the call transcript from Seeking Alpha) and, as expected, it was another smashing quarter. Continuing it’s e-Commerce market share grab (35% vs. 17% in US alone), world-wide revenue overall (excluding FX) grew by 35% to $4.06 billion with an increased full-year forecast / guidance of [...]

Joseph Sirosh, VP  of Transaction Risk Management Services at Amazon, is responsible for all aspects of trust and safety on the site. He manages the five teams responsible for this area: Buyer Fraud Prevention, ID Theft and Merchant Fraud, Feedback, A-Z Guarantee and Merchant Performance Management with the single goal of protecting all Amazon customers: [...]

I am attending the Amazon Seller Conference in Seattle and Day 2 is solely focused on updates by Amazon management to the approx. 150-200 sellers present. Yesterday was mostly operations-type of presentations on marketing, taxes, logistics to help 3P Amazon sellers with running their businesses.
First up, Sebastian Gunningham, SVP of Amazon Services and chief over [...]

Amazon has announced that it is testing a new Product Detail Page layout that will let consumers compare alternative offers from “Buy Box-eligible merchants” without navigating away from the main product detail page (compare this to the existing layout here).
Being an active Amazon shopper I find navigating between the Product Listing Page (”X New and [...]

Amazon today announced its holiday policy for the much-coveted Toys & Games category on Amazon.com. Not many surprises if you’ve followed this annual ritual — although the qualification criteria is spelled out clearer then I recall from past years and it’s early enough in the year to give every seller in this category a fair [...]

Along with Randy over at MyBlogUtopia.com I am a big fan of the Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) program. There are significant benefits for both increased revenue (increased buyer trust and search relevance with FBA tag) and reduced costs (low fulfillment costs and “shipping bonus”). However, there is concern among sellers about Amazon’s ability to provide [...]

Amazon officially announced yesterday (via Seller Central) that starting in August 2008 it will require UPC codes in the Home & Garden category (in the US). I believe that only leaves Jewelry as the only “no UPC required” category on Amazon.