Why we shouldnt worry if Amazon doesnt accept btc!

[jjc326]

Yes Amazon has very low margins, in fact I think usually it isn't even in the black, which is ridiculous for a company its size.  Frankly I don't know why they do it, you'd think they should exploit their dominant position a little more and make more profit. 

[beetcoin]

Yes Amazon has very low margins, in fact I think usually it isn't even in the black, which is ridiculous for a company its size.  Frankly I don't know why they do it, you'd think they should exploit their dominant position a little more and make more profit. 

how would they go about exploiting? the reason why they have grown to the size that they are is that they've kept prices competitive/low.

[Cablez]

I never worry about the merchants accepting bitcoin as that will come eventually.   Now what worries me is the conglomeration of BTC into the hands of 2 large payment processors (BP/CB) as most mainstream merchants I would suspect do not keep bitcoin on hand.  What do these companies do with all of the accumulated BTC?  Who do they sell to and how?  A bit of transparency would be nice.

[kerafym]

I never worry about the merchants accepting bitcoin as that will come eventually.   Now what worries me is the conglomeration of BTC into the hands of 2 large payment processors (BP/CB) as most mainstream merchants I would suspect do not keep bitcoin on hand.  What do these companies do with all of the accumulated BTC?  Who do they sell to and how?  A bit of transparency would be nice.

There will be more local payment processors as the bitcoin market grows. Can't expect BP and CB have the ability to comply with regulations for every country.

[Microbit001]

All these market-giants have protested against bitcoin once. Knowing the amount of BTC in market and its demand, they are one siding with it.

It wouldn't be surprize if e-bay makes user friendly policies for BTC too.

[DeboraMeeks]

All these market-giants have protested against bitcoin once. Knowing the amount of BTC in market and its demand, they are one siding with it.

It wouldn't be surprize if e-bay makes user friendly policies for BTC too.

If ebay accepts it, then amazon will surely too, to avoid losses on not accepting it!

[Dabs]

I'm not worried. I either buy a gift card, or use my regular credit card, and then pay the bill with bitcoins. Or run the coins through an exchange to pay the bill.

[evanito]

One of the main features Amazon features is volume, they have TONS of different things you would then be able to buy with bitcoin.

[pening]

...
I think your both missing the point.  People say the issue with Bitcoin is they don't have much use for it other then speculating on the future price.  That issue is being addressed when they have the option to use Bitcoin for their everyday purchases.  Now if someone needs something and can use a Bitcoin that is one less reason to deny Bitcoin's value. ...

Yes, it does give Bitcoin more purpose and credibility, its one less reason to deny Bitcoin's use.  Not necessarily its value.  Here's the deeper economic point: its depleting its value, as you valued the purchased item more than you did the Bitcoin.  With normal currency this isn't an issue as the vendor values the currency.  However here they don't, and promptly offload immediately.  This is not a good thing long term, its a constant selling pressure on the currency.

[marcotheminer]

I still want Amazon to accept it as a payment option 

[MoonTime]

If amazon does not accept BTC then its their bad move, they are loosing a lot of potential business.

[CozyLife]

Sounds good to be, but the bigger they are, the harder they fall. If the company doesn't trust Bitcoin just yet, they'll be more reluctant to try things out than smaller companies will. If smaller companies do well, bigger companies will jump on board. Dell is the largest company to date to accept Bitcoin payments, but they exchange it for fiat right away. That creates a "downward pressure" on the bitcoin value.

[itsAj]

...
I think your both missing the point.  People say the issue with Bitcoin is they don't have much use for it other then speculating on the future price.  That issue is being addressed when they have the option to use Bitcoin for their everyday purchases.  Now if someone needs something and can use a Bitcoin that is one less reason to deny Bitcoin's value. ...

Yes, it does give Bitcoin more purpose and credibility, its one less reason to deny Bitcoin's use.  Not necessarily its value.  Here's the deeper economic point: its depleting its value, as you valued the purchased item more than you did the Bitcoin.  With normal currency this isn't an issue as the vendor values the currency.  However here they don't, and promptly offload immediately.  This is not a good thing long term, its a constant selling pressure on the currency.

This would assume that anyone who would buy something with bitcoin already had bitcoin and would not have otherwise spent/sold it. I would argue that most of the time this is not the case, I think that most people that spend bitcoin have semi recently purchased bitcoin with the intention of spending it.   

[Kluge]

Yes Amazon has very low margins, in fact I think usually it isn't even in the black, which is ridiculous for a company its size.  Frankly I don't know why they do it, you'd think they should exploit their dominant position a little more and make more profit. 

Amazon's been struggling the more they introduce new schemes, products, and services, increasingly becoming a conglomerate and trying to "force the market," pushing funds to stuff like Lab126. They posted a tiny loss in '12, but made ~$274M in '13. They're estimating effectively breaking even this year, and are expected to post weak profits next year. They used to post many hundreds of $millions and even $billions per year. Amazon grows rapidly, but the stock's basically ev- or neutral at best mid-term and long-term almost any way you look at it. I'd argue they have been exploiting their dominant position (or at least trying to), and failing largely because of it.

Basically, I think they've grown too large for their pool and don't have anywhere to go, but they don't really know what to do with their money because they're expected to be multiplying revenue figures like madmen, so they throw it into bad projects. From an investment perspective, it'd probably be good to "go back to their roots," look at their "real" business (distribution/sales platform), and look at ways of squeezing more profits out of their revenue, which'd obviously include accepting BTC (and dumping Prime ).

If Amazon were able to convert just 5% of their fiat sales to BTC, assuming an effective 3% overhead/fees on CC & .5% on BTC, they'd be posting ~$100M less in expenses this year without revenue loss while also ignoring any customer acquisition from the move. -But Amazon acts like a consumer-oriented charity while Bezos sells out of it instead of getting rid of the things generating both revenues and net losses, so with its Profit Retardation philosophy, other companies like Exxon and Shell may actually adopt BTC before Amazon, while also being more important steps for Bitcoin.

ETA: Sometimes I think Amazon's trying the Walmart strategy of inhuman growth and pushing through that strain & pain just to push out other B&M businesses in an area, then raising prices once a monopoly's established - which makes no fucking sense since the barrier to entry in a virtual supermarket is pennies on the dollar of producing a B&M supermarket. You can't keep competition out when barrier to entry is roughly equivalent to opening a freakin' lemonade stand.

[Mightycoin]

If amazon does not accept btc then its their own problem, their own loss. It won't  affect BTC>.

[pening]

...
I think your both missing the point.  People say the issue with Bitcoin is they don't have much use for it other then speculating on the future price.  That issue is being addressed when they have the option to use Bitcoin for their everyday purchases.  Now if someone needs something and can use a Bitcoin that is one less reason to deny Bitcoin's value. ...

Yes, it does give Bitcoin more purpose and credibility, its one less reason to deny Bitcoin's use.  Not necessarily its value.  Here's the deeper economic point: its depleting its value, as you valued the purchased item more than you did the Bitcoin.  With normal currency this isn't an issue as the vendor values the currency.  However here they don't, and promptly offload immediately.  This is not a good thing long term, its a constant selling pressure on the currency.

This would assume that anyone who would buy something with bitcoin already had bitcoin and would not have otherwise spent/sold it. I would argue that most of the time this is not the case, I think that most people that spend bitcoin have semi recently purchased bitcoin with the intention of spending it.  

I find this notion that people are aquiring Bitcoins in the market to then spend at a normal retail establishment to be quite odd.  Its daft to purchase something only to use it to purchase something else, where that interim step is unnecessary.  I'm sure there some cases, some for the novelty or to see how it works, or edge case financial situations.  But it doesn't make much sense to risk the loses in exchange or the transaction costs to do so regularly.  I expect the vast majority of Bitcoin sales through regular retailers are from self-mined stockpiles.

[oceans]

Seeing Amazon accept bitcoin would be big however they seem to be quite reluctant on accepting many payment methods so I wouldn't hold our hopes up too much for them accepting this. As of yet I don't think they have accepted one of the bigger payment merchants which is PayPal so would they consider this with it still being so small and not too well known with a lot of people?

[Cream]

I never had trouble buying things off amazon, btc is only a side option for me.

Thanks for the share though.

[marcotheminer]

Seeing Amazon accept bitcoin would be big however they seem to be quite reluctant on accepting many payment methods so I wouldn't hold our hopes up too much for them accepting this. As of yet I don't think they have accepted one of the bigger payment merchants which is PayPal so would they consider this with it still being so small and not too well known with a lot of people?

Because PayPal is an eBay company. Do you think before you post or do you just put a bunch of words together, hope they make sense and get paid from Stunna? 

[halfawake]

If Amazon were able to convert just 5% of their fiat sales to BTC, assuming an effective 3% overhead/fees on CC & .5% on BTC, they'd be posting ~$100M less in expenses this year without revenue loss while also ignoring any customer acquisition from the move. -But Amazon acts like a consumer-oriented charity while Bezos sells out of it instead of getting rid of the things generating both revenues and net losses, so with its Profit Retardation philosophy, other companies like Exxon and Shell may actually adopt BTC before Amazon, while also being more important steps for Bitcoin.

Five percent of their sales?  That'd be huge and rather surprising, given the massive volume that Amazon has.  Overstock is a reasonably large business, but it pales in comparison to Amazon...

In any case, I really think this is one of those be careful what you wish for situations.  As amazing as Amazon adopting bitcoin would be, I really hope it doesn't happen for several years.  There just isn't enough people using bitcoin yet for a company the size of Amazon to be able to accept bitcoin and not have the price plunge in value from them cashing out. 

Also, right now, while I'm sure the management is thinking about it, it's probably a long term plan.  The accounting headaches of doing this (assuming they didn't cash out everything immediately) would probably be greater than their dollar savings, unless they truly do make 5% of their sales in bitcoin, which as I said, would surprise me very much.  Regardless, for a company the size of Amazon, I really think we'll need a good and proper price hedging system for them to be able to accept it, and ideally, a large amount of their suppliers who accept bitcoin directly.