Amazon makes customers an offer they can refuse

Amazon.com is rolling out a new haggling feature on its website as the company looks to further cement its low-price reputation among consumers.

The new “Make an Offer” feature allows sellers to accept or reject bids on more than 150,000 items across the categories of Sports and Entertainment Collectibles, Collectible Coins and Fine Art.

The new option, which will expand to hundreds of thousands of items in 2015, could help sellers move items that they didn’t price competitively. Sellers have three days to respond to bids, which are made privately, and can make counter-offers, according to Amazon.

“The new ‘Make an Offer’ experience is a game-changer for Amazon customers looking for great prices on one-of-a-kind items, and for sellers looking to communicate and negotiate directly with customers in an online marketplace environment just like they do normally in their own physical store or gallery,” said Peter Faricy, VP for Amazon Marketplace. “In a recent survey of our sellers, nearly half of the respondents told us that the ability to negotiate prices with customers would be important to drive more sales on Amazon. ‘Make an Offer’ delivers that functionality and makes customers feel confident they are getting an item they want at the lowest price possible.”

Amazon built its reputation in part on offering lower prices than brick-and-mortar retailers. But it has faced stiff competition from rivals that have placed a heavier emphasis on online sales.

The new feature represents a renewed attempt by Amazon to move beyond the fixed-price model on its site. In 1999, Amazon launched an online auction site, but the effort failed to compete with eBay Inc. Amazon went on to create a lucrative marketplace for third-party sellers that now accounts for about 40 percent of its quarterly unit sales.