Amazon adds telephone sales

I spent the early boom years in Seattle as co-founder of OpenSpace.com ('97-'00). I walked by Amazon's first office on 2nd street everyday to/from work - the company was a big part of the .com culture in Seattle. I remember arguing with "ecommerce purists" that Amazon would eventually sell via telesales. "They are in the direct response business and couldn't exclude call center sales and only focus on ecommerce." Well, it took 10 years, but I was right. I just saw my first toll free number on the site. They also offer eStara's click to talk option.

It is surprising that there is still such a narrow view of Internet marketing: web in one corner - offline in the other. National sites still either hide their contact phone numbers or do not publish them online. The (flawed) logic is that consumers shopping online can only interact online. What marketers must do is communicate with consumers in the manner they most prefer at that moment (phone, email, chat.) The "local" crowd seems to get this. They are better at using the web to drive offline conversion.

I am speaking at Search Engine Strategies (SES) in Chicago next week on the Local Track. The session is called: "The Transformation of Local in a Search Driven World." The panel will discuss offline transactions that originate online. I call this "revenge of the brick and mortar." I am a loyal Amazon user, but there are certain purchases I want to buy at local retail. Local search applications such as ShopLocal, who will be on the SES panel with me, are getting better at helping me find what's available and what's in stock. The phone will play a crucial role in bridging the last mile to the local merchant.

Here's the link to the SES session
http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/chicago/agenda2.html

Here's the copy from Amazon:

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