.png)
In this Amazon Seller's Week in Review, Julie Spear, our Operations Manager, shares her take on recent news highlights and what these could mean for brands selling on the Amazon marketplace.
Amazon's Stem Toys Homepage
Amazon Launches STEM Toy Subscription Service
Further investing in the Stem Technology Engineering Math (STEM) Toy market, Amazon launched a new subscription service last week. This new service takes Amazon’s STEM Toys and Game Store, launched in 2015, one step further. For $19.99 a month, subscribers will receive STEM toys, exclusive to Amazon. Customers select an age range and Amazon will deliver age-appropriate toys from robotics to the natural sciences.
Amazon to take on car spare parts market in the US?
The auto spare parts market is a profitable one in the US, earning $50 billion a year. It seems Amazon might want a piece of that pie as they have reportedly struck deals with several of the the largest car part manufacturers including Robert Bosch, Federal-Mogul, Dorman Products and Cardone. If Amazon reports hold true, this is a move that could create a challenge for other retail auto parts stores.
By land, by air and now...by sea
Amazon makes a move to further control the logistics of shipping goods by assuming the role of freight forwarder (much like FedEx or UPS). Working with carriers that directly own vessels, Amazon has been booking cargo space to ship goods to their warehouses in the US. According to a report by Tech Crunch, Amazon has organized approximately 150 containers of goods imported from merchants in China since October. Owning yet another piece of the logistics puzzle enables Amazon to control its operational costs.
Amazon & PayPal in Conversations
According to a report in Bloomberg, PayPal may soon be an option on Amazon. PayPal CEO, Dan Schulman, shared they have been “in talks” with Amazon. While Amazon has declined comment on plans, Schulman noted PayPal’s 200 million users make this a deal well worth consideration for the online retail giant. PayPal was once the payment platform for Ebay; however, they parted with Ebay in 2015 and have been pursuing other retailer partnerships since.
