My first and only experience with Web Store by Amazon was a disaster from my viewpoint. Where I expected tightly coupled information between my Amazon catalog and the Amazon Web Store there was none. Realistically to use the site correctly we were looking at going back and touching every single item in our 12,000 plus Amazon merchants account inventory. The time it would take to do that would be phenomenal as it took us two years just to get where we were at when we looked at Amazon web store.
For me, this was the deal killer, but Techflash is reporting that Amazon is rolling out a new store, and honestly I will go take a look at it, but I really do want tightly coupled, not the loose item set that the Amazon Web Store was as an experience a year ago. I rely on Amazon, but they know what is a book, a DVD, and a comic book, going back through a mid sized inventory would take a very long time to make that happen with the old model.
The news and information is sketchy at best about what Amazon is changing, but Techflash is reporting that there is a new inventory tool set to make this easier. I am hoping that they are looking at the process of keeping inventory tightly coupled between the pro merchant account and the Amazon Web Store. Really that is the killer option here, that Amazon Web Store automatically knows what is a book, a DVD, and a comic book when the Web Store comes up.
Without that simple chunk of functionality, any attempt at a web store for mid sized Amazon sellers is going to be problematic. No one has the time to go through a large inventory and touch every single item in it to accurately dump it into its larger type box (comic, book, DVD).
If Amazon is listening, I would love to use web store by Amazon, but I need a tightly coupled inventory management system, one inventory entry system, that when the item is entered drops the entry in the Web Store by Amazon into the right bucket without having to go back and touch each item that is entered twice.
(Cross-posted @ TechWag )
