Can Amazon’s New “Make an Offer” Positively Change Customer Experience?

amazon customer experience

Online behemoth Amazon.com always seems to be on the forefront of innovation, one of the main reasons why it has taken customer engagement to another level in the marketplace. Now, Amazon is letting customers negotiate lower prices on items through its “Make an Offer” experience that allows customers to negotiate even lower prices on thousands of items.

Expanding on Amazon’s traditional fixed price model, the new pricing feature allows customers to offer to buy items at even lower prices. If agreed upon, customers can then purchase the items at a savings from the listed price. To start, more than 150,000 items from sellers on Amazon are enabled with the “Make an Offer” experience across sports and entertainment collectibles, collectible coins, and fine art. The new feature will expand to hundreds of thousands of items from sellers in 2015. Customers can browse ‘Make an Offer’ eligible items at www.amazon.com/makeanoffer.

PunchTab CEO Mike Mansbach told Loyalty360 that Amazon’s “Make an Offer” offering is “perfect timing” for the holiday season.

“2015 will be the year of the consumer,” Mansbach told Loyalty360. “This is a great way for Amazon to acquire new consumers who are going to be thrilled with hunting for a deal at the world's biggest store. And this represents a new category of consumers for Amazon. Not to mention, it’s a big shot across eBay’s bow. It’s the data that really matters. Even more interesting will be what Amazon learns when they crunch the data they’ll be getting. Down which of its virtual aisles will buyers and sellers most greatly benefit from price elasticity? These are the insights that will drive growth. This may be starting in one-offs like art, but certainly won’t end there.”

Mansbach added that current Amazon consumers who buy for convenience and trust and don’t discount shop on eBay may look at new categories simply to see if they can make a deal.

“This is a whole new play for wallet-share,” Mansbach explained. “They’re moving the work of establishing value to the edges -- connecting consumers directly to Amazon article customer experiencesellers. This is very, very smart. Amazon becomes a clearinghouse for consumer/vendor conversations, instead of just a transactional entity.”

Here’s how it works: 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. Amazon article customer experienceWhen 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.

All negotiations are 1-to-1 and private between individual customers and sellers. A seller is able to accept a customer’s offer at any time. The intention is to lower prices, and a customer negotiating with a seller will never pay more than the listed price.

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