I have been a fan of Amazon for longer than I can remember. When the first Kindle came out, I jumped on the bandwagon and got mine right away. The company has done great things in the past and it is doing a decent job with Kindle. Yet, I am surprised that Amazon still hasn’t managed to come up with a real pricing strategy for Kindle books. Amazon does sell a lot of e-books for $9.99. That is not only expensive, but certainly not a great way to encourage folks to buy the Kindle. And the $9.99-for-most-books strategy fails when the paper version is sold for half the price.
Take a look at the above book. The No S Diet is a great book for those who want to lose weight. But it’s not so great for Kindle owners. After all, the paper version is being sold for $4.99 whereas the Kindle version is being sold for $9.99. That certainly doesn’t look good for Amazon. Kindle is a great gadget, and it’s certainly worth the money. Nevertheless, a lot of experts do still believe that Amazon can go much lower as far as its pricing strategy is concerned. The times are tough and a more consumer-friendly pricing strategy could help Amazon take the Kindle to the next level. Will Amazon lower its prices on all its ebooks? That’s hard to predict. But why not at least make sure that Kindle books are the most affordable options available on the market?
Your take: should Amazon lower its e-book prices? How would you price them?
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5 Responses to “Amazon Needs a Better Pricing Strategy for Kindle Content”
Since paperbacks are usually half the price of the hardback version, shouldn’t the ebook be half the price of the paperback version?
That is a good idea, but I am sure the negotiations with the authors will be more difficult than that. I just don’t know what Amazon is making per e-book. We know the margin profit is much higher so cutting most the prices to $4.99 should be possible. In the case of this diet book, I agree with you. There is no reason to pay $10 for a book that is being sold for $4 as a paperback. That’s just a bad move by Amazon. Maybe it’s a mistake…
I agree that there’s some issues with pricing kindle ebooks higher than actual real books but I think the bigger issue is the prices being charged for non-mainstream books in general.
Whenever people by the Kindle they are enticed by the > $9.99 pricing of best sellers and the top of the chart books in each category. In actuality, this only represents a small number of kindle books are out there.
The pricing in some of these sections are ridiculous. Check out the programming section (the section I was most interested in):
http://www.amazon.com/s/qid=1240589309/ref=sr_nr_n_7?ie=UTF8&rs=156116011&bbn=156116011&rnid=156116011&rh=n%3A133140011%2Cn%3A!133141011%2Cn%3A154606011%2Cn%3A157325011%2Cn%3A156116011%2Cn%3A156140011
Books go all the way up to $260 with the median being about $25-35 for digitial paper.
I can fit hundreds of books on my Kindle but do you know how much it’d cost me to pay $25 per book? It makes me want to throw my Kindle in the trash.
In defense of Amazon, there are so many other forces at play here that you need to consider such as the big media publishing companies. They are essentially the middle man which will eventually be cut out completely – who needs pr & advertising, startup capital, or physical book publishing when it will all eventually be done online – straight from artist or author to consumer.
This is the same exact thing that has happened with music industry. $.99 cent DRM’d music is still a ridiculous price point and we will see that go down to something like $1 an album (companies everywhere are already starting to offer DRM-free). We just need to wait until the big guys adapt or are forced out of the way. Sell more for less or just ending up selling less.
The book you reference is bargained priced. I very rarely find books that are more expensive on the Kindle than the available print editions. Would I like them to always make the Kindle version cheaper than the cheapest print version, regardless of if it is a inventory blow out price? Absolutely, but I don’t think this is a fair assessment. However, it is a bit disheartening when I buy a Kindle book that is < $1 cheaper than the paperback version. But a lot of that has to do with the publishers and how much Amazon is wanting to make/lose and I don’t blame Amazon at all if they don’t want to lose money on an ebook sale. But I prefer an electronic version that is searchable that I can read on my Kindle v1, v2, and/or iPod Touch.
Oliver, I do agree that the book was priced as a bargain. However, there is just no excuse. If you say, Amazon Kindle books are going to be cheaper, then you better make sure they are! I am a fan of Amazon and do go bashing Amazon like some other people do. But Amazon really needs to get this pricing thing right. I am glad Amazon is not using real time pricing on books. They used to do that for electronics. I remember buying a GPS for $350 just to come back 10 minutes later and find it on Amazon for $299. To Amazon’s credit, they do offer you refunds when they change their prices but I am not sure whether they match prices for Kindle content. That’s the best way to go. If you buy a Kindle book and find it for cheaper in a different format, you should get a refund for the difference.