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Amazon Marketplace is Amazon.com's fixed-price online marketplace that allows sellers to offer their goods alongside Amazon's offerings. Amazon UK [1], France, Germany and most recently Japan also have a similar platform. Buyers can buy new and secondhand items sold directly by a third party through Amazon.com using Amazon Marketplace. This concept is similar to eBay's successful half.com.

This sales strategy and program has been very profitable for Amazon.com.^{[citation needed]} Amazon charges a commission rate based on the sale price, a transaction fee, and a variable closing fee.^{[citation needed]}

Buyers need to be aware that the list of items for sale are being sold by non-Amazon merchants. This means that they are all individual and can differ in a number of ways.

1. Business legal status: sellers may be private individuals selling unwanted items, or may be businesses. This may trigger different consumer legislation in some countries - notably the UK, where the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling Regulation) apply only to consumer contracts (i.e. business sellers selling to private buyers).

2. Marketplace purchases do not qualify for any free postage and packing deals offered by Amazon. Instead there is a fixed postal charge applied automatically by Amazon. The seller does not have any control over this. The buyer needs to take this into consideration when ordering. This sometimes results in items appearing to be for sale for 1p or 1c, etc. This because the postage charge is sufficient to cover the shipping costs and still make an acceptable profit for the seller.

3. Quality of service can vary as widely as people on a planet.

Users can leave feedback on transactions using a five-star rating system. Any feedback less than four stars will negatively affect the seller's rating, because the system is based on a percentage of feedback ratings, and any that are not 'positive' will detract from the 100% score. This has a disproportionate effect on lower volume sellers, whereas large warehouse sellers can absorb it by their volume. If buyers read the comments left with the feedback, rather than rely solely on the score, they can judge the seller's reputation for themselves.

[edit] External links

• Amazon Marketplace