One of the world’s leading online retailer is now allowing customers to haggle prices online with sellers. Amazon has added a new “make-an-offer” option on its website which can be used to bid for lower prices on over 150,000 items, which includes but is not limited to items like fine art and rare coins, all of which are sold by third party sellers.
The feature isn’t similar to eBay, it’s not going to be an auction. Instead customers can provide their own valuation for a product which the seller can either choose to accept or decline, or come back with a counter offer. All of these discussions are private between the seller and buyer, and the amount that has to be paid will never exceed the item’s list price.
A survey of sellers conducted by Amazon revealed that almost half of the respondents felt giving customers the ability to haggle prices would aid in driving more sales.
Once an offer has been submitted, the sellers will only be given 72 offers to reject or accept it, or make a counter offer. Once the counter offer has been made, the purchase then has 72 hours to make a response.
This option won’t be limited to just 150,000 items. Amazon says that it plans to extend it to “hundreds of thousands” of items in the coming year.
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