Amazon Launches SMS Buying Service

April 2nd, 2008 at 3:39 am

This should definitely increase some Amazon sales… more impulse buys.

April 2nd, 2008 at 3:56 am

very clever, I thought for a moment they were creating a web service around sms and that would of been very cool.

April 2nd, 2008 at 4:30 am

Amazon is becoming more creative and innovative. It has to otherwise it will be like Yahoo being trampled by Google’s creative innovation.

April 2nd, 2008 at 4:51 am

I’m no patent attorney but doesn’t this look dangerously similar to the Google GPay patent application that was reported a while back?

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007.....phone-app/

April 2nd, 2008 at 5:04 am

I call April Fool!

April 2nd, 2008 at 7:00 am

what a great, new service!
basically we just wanted to get acquired by google. now of course amazon is on our list too.

April 2nd, 2008 at 7:43 am

Looks like it’s been done before by Price.ru

April 2nd, 2008 at 8:26 am

Frucall (www.frucall.com) started this service a couple of years ago.

April 2nd, 2008 at 10:53 am

this is the stupidest thing i’ve ever heard. wtf would someone go through the pain in ass of searching and transacting via text message with amazon then recieve a mobile call from a sales associate to complete the order?? with things like 1-click… etc… people do NOT walk around the bookstore and then think to themselves… “hey, i know.. i’ll text message amazon back and forth and wait 4 days for my book”…. come off it Amazon… you just aren’t that important to us. If we’re in a bookstore, that’s because you’ve already failed so you need to piss off of this whole ‘try to sneak into the bookstore’ approach… your better to partner with them and set up in store terminals etc… if you weren’t so hell bent on putting bookstores out of business you might find yourself with a lot of lucrative partnerships… but you’re stuck with this self image problem… get over it, for us… you know, the people who made you what you are… Eventually bookstores will prohibit mobile device usage in their stores… thanks for nothing Amazon.

April 2nd, 2008 at 11:16 am

@17 - amazon is usually cheaper than bn. it would be totally awesome to just order from amazon after groping the product at a bn

April 2nd, 2008 at 12:20 pm

This is darn clever, although I believe someone else must have tried it. But it is Amazon who has the muscle to make this a real success. Amazon is the prefect company to do it.

I can see the trend that traditional retailers will have to partner with Amazon to become the fulfillment centers for Amazon. Continuing on this model, once the customer find a better price from Amazon, he would rather buy it from Amazon. Then why can’t the order be fulfilled at the physical store where the customer is shopping? e.g., If Best Buy make a deal with Amazon so that the order is routed back to Best Buy, then the customer get the merchandise with little delay. A win-win-win for Amazon, Best Buy and the customer.

This can be an extension of in-store pickup service offered by major retailers like BestBuy and Circuit City. The difference is now it requires collaboration between multiple big retailers. Patents already exist to describe how it can be done.

At Vertour, we are doing some interesting things around the in-store pickup service.

- Kevin

Founder, Vertour — The green way to deliver

April 2nd, 2008 at 1:01 pm

Amazon should let you add items to a “Wish List” so you could look them over later. Amazon is not only cheaper then BN/Borders, it has Ratings and Reviews! I would love if I could both browse in a bookstore, add a dozen books to a list, then get the great prices and information before buying.

April 2nd, 2008 at 3:44 pm

(yawn)

April 4th, 2008 at 9:52 am

As someone who is currently setting-up a SMS advertising/networking service targeted at small to medium businesses, I think this service is really neat. B&N has to always be planning how they can seal the deal for customers that walk in and NOT let them go home and look on Amazon. This just killed all their customer service tactics.

The only question I have is, what if I want to buy 3 books at one time? I wouldn’t go as far as the phone call purchase because it sounds like you can only do one item per call. I would text each ISBN or title to compare the prices, then go home and get on Amazon and do the order for all 3 books.

Does that sound like how it will have to work to you all? It would be a good addition for Amazon to figure out how to allow multiple item text purchases.