I continue my look into the possible future markets to be colonized by Amazon. The question:
What happens when Amazon becomes an online specialty retailer of comics, games, and other geeky sidelines?
Don’t think they won’t, or can’t?
Maybe you bought shoes from Zappos. Or bought gourmet food at Whole Foods Markets. Both are owned by Amazon.
How can Amazon replicate the unique fandom community found in comics shops? What about the expert advice? 
Most likely they accomplish this by replicating their Internet Movie Database by purchasing a comics database, which would allow members to edit and review titles, and redirect users to purchase items via Amazon, just like IMDb advertises for Amazon Prime Video, DVDs, and sundry.
Most likely they accomplish this by replicating their Internet Movie Database by purchasing a comics database, which would allow members to edit and review titles, and redirect users to purchase items via Amazon, just like IMDb advertises for Amazon Prime Video, DVDs, and sundry.
(IMDb also offers IMDb Pro, for industry professionals. They could do the same for comics.)
Finally, there’s ComiXology, the biggest name in the digital distribution of comics. They started in 2007 as an online community for comics fans. Currently, they are known for selling digital comics. That could easily be the kernel for a much more robust retail presence. (Like many other Amazon subsidiaries, they are producing original content. In 2017, they won an Eisner Award.)
There is also the print-on-demand model. Warner Archives offers their long-tail catalog of cinematic curiosities online, where a singular DVD is manufactured to fulfill your order. With terabytes of digital comics in storage at Comixology, a user could either reprint a single issue, a graphic novel or story arc, or even create a bespoke collection from a variety of series and publishers! (Would this affect the back issue market? Depends... How much of it is based on people wanting to read a copy or have a copy for the bookshelf, and how much of the market is based on the idea of "comics as fetish item"? Somewhere, someone will slab a copy of the blank Wonder Woman comic.)
How would Amazon sell comics and other related merchandise online?
Well, two ways. One is they buy an established online retailer and acquire expert staff, as well as significant back-issue inventory. (Quite a few retailers are approaching retirement.) And/or they utilize data from AbeBooks (purchased by Amazon in 2008) and create a mirror site which features antiquarian comics, graphic novels, and books.
The other is they go big, and utilize their.books gTLD as an aggregator for geeky product found on Amazon.com.
What? gTLD? .books? Check my next post as I explore Amazon's new frontier online!
There is also the print-on-demand model. Warner Archives offers their long-tail catalog of cinematic curiosities online, where a singular DVD is manufactured to fulfill your order. With terabytes of digital comics in storage at Comixology, a user could either reprint a single issue, a graphic novel or story arc, or even create a bespoke collection from a variety of series and publishers! (Would this affect the back issue market? Depends... How much of it is based on people wanting to read a copy or have a copy for the bookshelf, and how much of the market is based on the idea of "comics as fetish item"? Somewhere, someone will slab a copy of the blank Wonder Woman comic.)
How would Amazon sell comics and other related merchandise online?
Well, two ways. One is they buy an established online retailer and acquire expert staff, as well as significant back-issue inventory. (Quite a few retailers are approaching retirement.) And/or they utilize data from AbeBooks (purchased by Amazon in 2008) and create a mirror site which features antiquarian comics, graphic novels, and books.
The other is they go big, and utilize their.books gTLD as an aggregator for geeky product found on Amazon.com.
What? gTLD? .books? Check my next post as I explore Amazon's new frontier online!
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