Did you notice that amazon.com, the company that practically invented online bookselling, has reinvented itself?
The company’s not asking to be called “The online retailer formerly known as a bookseller.” But it’s quietly yet methodically put so much energy into broadening its offerings that, for the first time in its 15-year history, this year amazon’s selling more general merchandise than books, music and movies. In other words, it’s become something of a web Walmart… and more.
This matters to you the inventor for a few key reasons:
1. Walmart may not return your calls (or grant you an appointment), but it’s relatively easy to set up an online store and/or to sell your invention on amazon. In fact, amazon makes it easy to do all this because you’d then be helping bring more people to amazon.
2. Amazon’s become THE online destination shoppers go to for product reviews from real people. So if you believe in your invention and think it provides real value, don’t you want it out there where people can not only buy it but sing its praises very publicly?
3. We don’t recommend producing your invention before confirming there’s a market for it. But if you’ve gone ahead and built inventory, putting it on amazon can be a cheap way to help assess the selling proposition—if it sells well, you’re on to something; if not, you’ve still got work to do. All that said, putting your invention out there too early is risky, so you’d only want to go down this path after thoughtfully weighing the pros & cons.
So, how are you leveraging the reinvented amazon for your invention?
For more info on what amazon’s up to, you can click here for a recent overview in the NY Times (free registration required).
