Amazon offers cyber shelf space to small merchants

BANGALORE: Online retailer Amazon.com Inc said it will open its cyber-storefront to small merchants as one of several new services intended to speed customer payments to small businesses and speed the search for goods sold on the World Wide Web.

Amazon.com founder and chief executive officer Jeff Bezos said the new initiatives include zShops, a feature to enable "anyone" to sell merchandise – excluding guns and animals – on Amazon.com, and Amazon.com Payments, which will facilitate payments to small businesses. Booksellers are welcome to launch a zShop, he said, despite the possible cannibalization of Amazon.com's primary business of selling books. ``Amazon has been great at providing a good customer experience, and now they are opening up their customers to an uncontrollable group of merchants," said Jupiter Communications Analyst Nicole Vanderbilt. ``The question is whether they alienate their customers or not," he said. To protect shoppers, Amazon said it would provide a guarantee of up to $1,000 on purchases made through Amazon.com Payments.