Not happy with the list price of that autographed sports jersey on Amazon? Enter an offer and press a button to start your negotiation.
That’s the concept behind Amazon’s new “Make an Offer” feature, launched this morning for customers buying collectibles and fine art from third-party sellers on Amazon.com.
The feature moves Amazon further into eBay’s traditional territory, expanding beyond the Seattle-based company’s traditional fixed-price model by creating a platform for buyers and sellers to come to terms on price. However, Amazon is careful to point out that it’s not an auction, but rather a one-on-one negotiation.
Here’s how the company explains the process.
Sellers enable the ‘Make an Offer’ feature for items to show customers they are willing to negotiate for a lower price than the price listed. When selecting ‘Make an Offer’ on an item’s product detail page, a customer can enter and submit a new price of their choosing. The seller will receive the customer’s lower price offer through email, at which point the seller can accept, reject or counter the offer. The seller and customer can continue to negotiate through email until the negotiation is complete. When a seller accepts a customer’s offer, the customer is notified and can place the item into their shopping cart at the agreed upon new price for checkout and purchase.
The negotiation is private, and buyers aren’t able to pay more than the original listed price.
The feature is launching with 150,000 items, and Amazon says it will expand to “hundreds of thousands’ of items in the next year.
