"zShops" empowers anyone to establish an e-commerce business; "Amazon.com Payments" allows individuals and small businesses to accept payments through Amazon.com's 1-Click; "All Products Search" is Web's first search engine dedicated to shopping

SEATTLE, September 30, 1999--Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN), the leading online retailer, today introduced three e-commerce innovations that significantly advance and improve how people shop and sell on the Internet. Together, these innovations vastly expand the selection of merchandise available at Amazon.com, simplify the online shopping experience for both buyers and sellers, and empower anyone to set up shop on the Internet.

 

  • zShops enables anyone to offer merchandise for sale at Amazon.com, whether they are micro-manufacturers or major manufacturers, small businesses or global corporations, specialized retailers or "mega-conglomerates." All can now offer a vast array of popular or hard-to-find items to Amazon.com's more than 12 million customers.
  • Amazon.com Payments now allows individuals and small businesses to accept payments through Amazon.com's 1-Click payment feature, thus eliminating what is considered the greatest inconvenience of online transactions between individuals: the delays and hassles of sending checks and money orders through regular mail.
  • All Products Search helps shoppers find anything for sale on the 'net, providing customers with a convenient, easy-to-use guide for finding and discovering exactly what they want among the 'net's millions of offerings. This customized and specialized Web search engine is dedicated solely to shopping.

"Amazon.com's heart and soul is all about making shopping better for customers," said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. "This is a win for customers who get bigger selection, a win for sellers who can now reach more than 12 million customers hassle-free, and a win for Amazon.com because we're now an even better shopping destination. This is all about finding what you want and saving time and money."

Amazon.com zShops

Amazon.com zShops is a new place on the Amazon.com site (www.amazon.com) where any seller can establish an online store, thus overcoming the distribution barriers of trying to sell in the physical world as well as overcoming the significant barriers of trying to sell online. Amazon.com is providing sellers easy access to its more than 12 million customers -- the largest and most experienced shopping base on the Internet.

zShops offers hundreds-of-thousands of new, used, and hard-to-find products from specialty retailers, small businesses, and individuals - random examples include buffalo steaks, office furniture, maternity clothes, golf clubs, car parts, and even time share accommodations at resorts.

"We're delighted to welcome to Amazon.com the thousands of companies and individuals - hobbyists, specialty retailers, entrepreneurs, inventors - anyone with something interesting to offer," said Bezos

Amazon.com Payments for Individuals, Small Business

Extending its familiar 1-Click payment technology, Amazon.com Payments now provides the first integrated payment system that enables people to use their credit cards to pay each other online. Eliminating a major hassle for individuals transacting with each other on the Internet, credit card payments provide a safer, faster and more convenient method for the seller and the buyer.

Available to Amazon.com's zShops customers, 1-Click payments are executed through Amazon.com and are guaranteed for both buyers and sellers (only Amazon.com's secure servers receive buyers' credit card information). For shoppers who use 1-Click with a zShops merchant, Amazon.com charges the buyer's credit card and makes a direct deposit into the seller's checking account. An e-mail instantly advises sellers of the transaction so they can ship their goods immediately without waiting for money orders to arrive or checks to clear.

"We're extending our convenient 1-Click payment feature already used by millions of customers to individuals and small merchants selling through zShops," said Bezos. "Our goal is to level the playing field for sellers and increase selection for shoppers, while at the same time making Amazon.com an even better shopping destination."

All Products Search

Now shoppers can start at Amazon.com whenever they think of shopping. With All Products Search, shoppers can come to one shopping destination and find, discover and buy any product online -- even if Amazon.com or a zShops seller doesn't have it.

Amazon.com's powerful, customized, shopping-only search engine now provides shoppers with access to an unprecedented range of products available for purchase on the Internet, whatever it is. Items are clearly and conveniently arranged as being available at Amazon.com, Amazon.com zShops, Amazon.com Auctions, and other online merchants.

Search results provide detailed category information and merchant editorial as well as a place for customers to share merchant reviews and ratings.

"Our goal is to build a place where customers can go to find and discover Anything -- with a capital A - they might want to buy online," said Bezos. "With All Products Search, if we don't have it, we'll still try to help you find it."

About Amazon.com, Inc.

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), the Internet's No. 1 music, No. 1 video, and No. 1 book retailer, opened its virtual doors on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth's Biggest Selection TM with online auctions, toys, electronics, free electronic greeting cards, and more than 4.7 million book, music-CD, video, DVD, and computer-game titles. Amazon.com seeks to be the world's most customer-centric company, where people can find and discover anything they may want to buy online. As part of its efforts to provide the best shopping experience for customers, Amazon.com provides secure credit-card payment, personalized recommendations, streamlined ordering through 1-Click SM technology, and hassle-free auction bidding with Bid-ClickSM.

Amazon.com operates two international Web sites: www.amazon.co.uk in the United Kingdom and www.amazon.de in Germany. Amazon.com also operates PlanetAll (www.planetall.com), a Web-based address book, calendar, and reminder service. It also operates the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com), the Web's comprehensive and authoritative source of information on more than 150,000 movies and entertainment programs and 500,000 cast and crew members dating from the birth of film in 1892 to the present. Amazon.com also operates LiveBid.com (www.livebid.com), the sole provider of live-event auctions on the Internet.

In addition, Amazon.com has invested in leading Internet retailers that are improving the lives of customers by making shopping easier and more convenient: drugstore.com, an online retail and information source for health, beauty, wellness, personal care and pharmacy, at www.drugstore.com; Pets.com, the online leader for pet products, expert information, and services, at www.pets.com; HomeGrocer.com, the first fully integrated Internet grocery-shopping and home-delivery service, with operations in Seattle and Portland, Oregon, at www.homegrocer.com; and Gear.com, which offers brand-name sporting goods at prices from 20 to 90 percent off retail, at www.gear.com.

This announcement contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, Amazon.com's limited operating history, anticipated losses, unpredictability of future revenues, potential fluctuations in quarterly operating results, seasonality, consumer trends, competition, risks of system interruption, management of potential growth, risks related to auction services, and risks of new business areas, international expansion, business combinations, and strategic alliances. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1998 and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended March 31, 1999 and June 30, 1999.

Amazon.com, Amazon.com Auctions, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Internet Movie Database, PlanetAll, Earth's Biggest Selection, Bid-Click, and 1-Click are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates. All other names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.