BuyBundle manages your Amazon Marketplace listings on Google Base

Pro-Merchants these days are wondering if Amazon is actually trying to kill their business, and get rid of third-party sellers.

Major problems: The non-functional Marketplace Stores we're left with following zShops. Emphasis on "Fulfilled by Amazon" and "Prime" shipping is making us less competitive.

Some sellers are wondering whether it's all a plan to get us to sign up for WebStores, and pay $60 a month for the privilege. I don't think so. Looks like it will be a blue Christmas for many of us.

The outlook may be brighter next year, because it will be much easier to get exposure for your Marketplace listings, thanks to some innovations by Google and some other entrepreneurial companies. Google recently released some free software allowing you to upload your Marketplace listings to Google Base, and you can also upload listings from eBay or Yahoo stores. The free software is called Google Base Store Connector.

Only problem is, you'll have to manually delete things on Google Base when something sells, which could be quite a chore. Luckily, someone has come up with a solution: BuyBundle. Its software automatically synchronizes your listings with Base and Amazon, and you can take PayPal. The service is free, but on sales you'll pay a 10 percent commission.

This is all very new, it's not going to produce a gusher of sales until Google really starts promoting Base, which could be several more months down the road. But I think this could be huge someday, for this reason: Currently Google sends most people searching for book titles to Amazon. (Obviously, lots of people start their search at Amazon, nevertheless, a lot of people get there via Google). What's to stop Google from sending all that search traffic to Base instead of Amazon? Nothing. Especially if they want to develop Base into a real marketplace.

I recently spoke with Venkatesh Akella of BuyBundle, and I thought his perspective on this was really interesting:

Q: How has your launch been going?

A: The response has been quite positive. We already have over 100 sellers in less than 2 weeks. There have been a few orders come in through Google Base as well, even though we have not started marketing the service to buyers yet and Google has not made the product search announcement yet.

We are focused on our mission, which is:

Providing a lower cost alternative to Amazon by leveraging Google's potential for customer acquisition and providing a mechanism for sellers to compete not just on price, but on their inventory and knowledge of the domain and customer, much like a local bookstore in a community.

We have received lots of requests for new features, but initially we are focused on stability and ease of use and we'll unveil more features in a controlled manner.

Q: How will Google Base affect small sellers on Amazon and eBay, and also larger sellers who might have an independent e-commerce site?

A: We believe that this is best piece of news for small sellers in a long time. The small seller has been forced to pay significantly for customer acquisition. Google has 10 times the reach of Amazon and eBay (hence you find eBay and Amazon advertising on Google). It is only natural that Google monetize this reach by enabling the smaller sellers to sell effectively. Since they have no book business to cannibalize, we believe that they will offer the most efficient and cost effective channel.

However, we believe that ultimately it is going to be one huge "comparison shopping lottery", even on Google, so it is important to "know your customer and build a relationship with the customer" to succeed. Google will get you a click, but you need to convert the click to a sale, you need to retain the customer and hopefully sell more (upsell) to the customer. That is where we see an opportunity for companies like BuyBundle.

Large sellers with an independent e-commerce sites might be able to do some of that themselves; for them Google will be a cost-effective buyer acquisition engine.

Q: Do you think it will be more important or less important for a small seller to be affiliated with a site like Amazon or eBay?

For a small seller I think it will be less important to be affiliated with Amazon or eBay, unless Amazon "levels the playing field", that is it gives them the same technology platform that Amazon uses for itself. In the Amazon ecosystem, a seller is "anonymous", Amazon likes it that way. That is not good for a seller -- they need a way to build a brand (albeit small) for themselves to succeed on the Internet where price comparison is trivial and services like PayPal, etc., are taking care of the hassle of payment.

So, the only way to succeed is to have a unique inventory and build a brand for yourself based on the knowledge of the domain (like history, children's books, mystery, science fiction) and build a relationship with the customer. So things like personalization and recommendations are key in the emerging world. Now Amazon/eBay do not give this to an average seller, so there is less of a reason to be affiliated with them, especially if customer acquisition is solved, by some other way -- in this case, Google.

Q: Do you think Base will have a negative impact on eBay or Amazon revenues?

A: That is hard to say, because we don't know whether the shift to Google will be gradual or fast. If it is fast, Amazon will probably respond with lower commission and perhaps additional services etc. But, ultimately Google is a big threat to Amazon/eBay, that is for sure. So, the next year or so should be very interesting to see how things shape up.