Online retail giant Amazon has been expanding beyond e-commerce into new business opportunities, including same-day delivery through AmazonFresh and the still-in-development Amazon Prime Air, which would use drones to quickly deliver purchases. Field service could be the latest business opportunity for Amazon as it eyes a move into the lucrative, $400 billion local services market, according to Reuters.
The company already sells everything under the sun, but the online retail giant intends to be the marketplace where customers turn to find local technicians who can install, repair and maintain the products they’ve purchased. Amazon is currently testing the program in Seattle, Los Angeles and New York, and it has plans to expand to additional cities in the near future.
As soon as mid-August, Amazon will begin to take a 15 to 20 percent cut of services booked through its marketplace, Reuters reports. It wouldn’t be the first company to try to create an online marketplace for service professionals — online services such as Angie’s List, Yelp and Thumbtack have created marketplaces to connect consumers with local businesses — but Amazon’s massive customer base and recommendation algorithms have captured analysts’ attention.
Some, however, are skeptical that Amazon’s push into services will be successful, citing a lack of deep relationships with local providers. Amazon’s interest in the local services market shows how lucrative services can be. If Amazon is successful, it could have big implications for how people hire field service technicians — and how local providers market their businesses.
Read more at Reuters
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