Report: Amazon seeks deals with major retailers

Seattle – Amazom.com is reportedly seeking to strike deals with about 10 major retailers, including Abercrombie & Fitch, Neiman Marcus, J. Crew, Ralph Lauren, and Lord & Taylor, to sell their goods via listings on its e-commerce site. According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazon wants to provide links to the retailers’ own sites from its site, which would boost those retailers’ traffic while providing Amazon with a new stream of customer data and add justification for its reported plan to raise the annual fee for its Amazon Prime free shipping program.



The initiative could begin as soon as summer 2014, with Amazon including goods from those retailers in its Amazon Prime free shipment offering, though the retailers would manage and pay for actual delivery of goods. Amazon has a similar program in place with smaller retailers where they pay Amazon for any traffic or transactions generated and process the transactions, with Amazon collecting customer data.



It is not certain whether any large retailers have already signed on to the program. Amazon declined comment.