So, my question is why doesn’t Costco.com use Fulfillment by Amazon? Here’s the reason I’m asking this question: When I recently purchased a new Canon EOS 5D Mark II Digital SLR
[Update: a correspondent recommends the Transcend TS32GCF133 133x 32GB Compact Flash Card
As it turns out, trying to buy this simple memory card sent me back down one of my least favorite Amazon.com “rabbit holes” – that of not being able to find the item I’m looking for as being sold directly by Amazon. Instead, Amazon presented me with listings from a bunch of third-party sellers who are selling this memory card through the Amazon platform. Grrr.
By the way, the same thing happened as I was trying to buy the 5D Mark II on Amazon. Only by accidentally checking one afternoon and seeing that the 5D Mark II was actually in stock at Amazon was I able to buy the camera the way I wanted to buy it – from Amazon.com and not from a list of third-party sellers that I’d never heard of! I couldn’t even find a way to have Amazon notify me when the item arrived back in stock – something that seems pretty obvious (to me anyway!).
Frankly, I’m an Amazon Prime fanatic – and almost all of these third-parties aren’t part of that program. I also have a lot more confidence in the goods from Amazon being “factory fresh” vs. those from the third-party sellers I’ve never heard of. In other words, when I shop on Amazon, I want to buy from Amazon directly using Amazon Prime.
After wasting about 10 minutes trying to find a suitable 16GB CompactFlash memory card, I gave up – and headed to Costco.com. At least on Costco.com I’m confident that the goods are “factory fresh”, come with great prices, etc. Costco’s satisfaction guarantee is superb (even though I’ve neve returned anything, I know I can without hassle!).
What’s missing? Frankly, Costco.com’s fulfillment process is downright lousy as compared to Amazon Prime. With Costco.com, it takes days for things to arrive and shipping costs extra.
So, back to my basic, initial question – why don’t these two superb online retailers collaborate on fulfillment? I suppose another option would be for Costco to become a third-party seller on Amazon.com directly. Either (or both) would make a dynamite combination – from two Seattle-based companies who could simply meet over a few cups of Seattle’s Best Coffee and figure it out!
3 replies on “Why Doesn’t Costco.com Use Fulfillment by Amazon?”
I use Fulfillment by Amazon for sales of one of my books. For Costco to do so would require them to keep inventory of all items at Amazon and this would only be for sales from the Amazon store. Not that it wouldn’t be a good collaboration (from the customer’s perspective), but I’m not sure it would be all that good from Costco’s view since they’d have to maintain double inventory. As a fellow Amazon Prime customer, I, too, would love to see it happen.
I have been selling books via Amazon FBA since the summer of 2007. This has been one of the best decisions I have made.
Here are some benefits:
-I make around $2 more per book.
-Books sell faster.
-I have been able to grow an inventory of 20,000+ books by myself.
-I have tons of time to pursue other interests/revenue streams.
-I am able to purchase inventory that would NOT be suitable for regular merchant fulfilled, but is profitable for FBA (ie. lower priced books).
-I could go on and on…
Nathan Holmquist
http://www.booktothefuture.com/
“Instead, Amazon presented me with listings from a bunch of third-party sellers who are selling this memory card through the Amazon platform. Grrr.”
What wrong with 3rd seller on Amazon? They can be better than Amazon itself sometime. Dont be so typical there.
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