At first, I was tempted to play devil's advocate with this question, and try to make a case for how and why a publisher could manage to successfully sell books in large volume through their own website. Certainly, the profits of direct sales seem incentive enough for the publisher to make the effort.
But after substantial thought, I simply couldn't make a case for it. Currently, average consumers just don't care much about who the publisher of a book is, regardless of the book's popularity, and it would take a monumental effort on the part of the publisher to change this dynamic. The reality is that it would require far more effort and capital than it would ultimately produce. In fact, I could imagine that the publisher could even conceivably lose money at this effort. As we talked about in class, Amazon is able to offer discounts to consumers in such a way that publishers couldn't possibly compete.
Of course, it is necessary for publisher, as with almost any business, to have an online presence. But they have plenty to offer concerning author info and interviews, event info, promotional book information, videos, and podcasts. I think it would be better, despite the profit concession, if they could try to view their distributors as channel partners rather than as competitors. In that regard, publishers and their various distributors should be willing to set up reciprocal links to one anothers' websites. For example, they could consolidate their marketing efforts by using Amazon solely for the book sales, but with tag lines about author signings and supplemental information on the page that directs the user to the publisher's link to view. Bestselling books will often intruige consumers to find more information, and will likely draw traffic to the publisher's website.
After all, a consumer doesn't go to GM's website to buy a car; they go there to find more information about the product and then they go to the dealership (distrubutor) to make the purchase.
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What if a publisher had special offers through their website, like signed editions, package deals, coupons, or personalized gift wrapping?
Those promotional ideas are good ones, but I still feel that, ultimately, it wouldn't be enough of a pull to draw the majority of consumers away from their usual shopping sites. People tend to be creatures of habit, so unless there was something very specific someone was looking for, I'm not sure they'd find out what the publisher has to offer rather than just using their usual website for their book purchases.
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