Just over six months after entering the e-commerce space of other physical goods through internet in Brazil, Amazon will soon begin to sell books, making its debut in the country in the segment that Amazon has revolutionize the way business is done.
When it reached the country– back in December 2012 — Amazon sold 13,000 digital books in Portuguese. Today there are 35 000, considering other languages, reaching more than 2 million. These titles will now have to share shelf space from Amazon with over 150 000 physical titles that the company will begin selling.
“We’ve already sold millions of books since our history began here 20 months ago,” said Alexandre Szapiro, vice president of Amazon in Brazil. “Two years ago, the digital book market represented less than 1% of the total. Today, the segment of digital books, according to what publishers believe, should close the year 2014 between 4% and 5%,” says executive.
The entrance of Amazon in online trading of physical items occurred in February, when the company began selling the Kindle e-reader. “When I sell a Kindle, I’m taking between 4% and 5% of the readers. Now, we shall meet the other 95% who have no interest in digital,”, said Szapiro.
In the catalog — which the executive claims to be the largest in Brazil — will showcase 2,100 publishers such as Record and Companhia das Letras. The country is the first in Latin America where the Amazon will begin selling books. The company has just arrived in August 2013 to Mexico, other Latin where it is present. The last country where Amazon does not books is Australia.
With Amazon finally entering the Brazilian publishing market, questions will soon arise around its aggressive price policy. The latest move in the conflict between writers and publishers had Amazon in one side and, on the other, 909 writers who signed a letter to The New York Times last week, asking Amazon to stop making things difficult for the writers.
