Publishers Adopt Agency Model for e-Books

Interesting article by Mike Shatzin about the evolving channel pricing model for e-books. Publishers evidently sell books to retailers at roughly a 50% discount and retailers are free to mark it up wherever they like. With e-books, 5 of the 6 largest publishers forced Amazon to adopt an agency model where the publisher sets the price and the channel’s margin. This is a good example of the suppliers, in this case the publishers, realizing their value without ceding that value and the corresponding margin to the channel.

Distributor Pricing Service Risky for Vendors

This new pricing service by Tech Data puts more pressure on vendors to manage their price exceptions more effectively. Distributors and VARs will have the tools to track exceptions and exploit inconsistencies.