Amazon is irrelevant to our type of business, so from my standpoint, there's no benefit.

You can say that again! I'd love to see some type of integration. I think it would have to be opt in though, why would anyone who doesnt need it be willing to pay for it. For our store it has a lot of value and I cant wait for it!

Amazons cost per sale convert to roughly 25% more than I target for PPC.

Furhermore, Amazon sells some of my products themselves.

Still, becasue some of my competitors are selling with them I might as well give it a try.

Just feed the Behemoth!

I think this may be a point where Amaz0n gets themselves into trouble and makes it hard to attract 3rd party sellers. Im not sure why they would even want to create 3rd party categories for items they carry themselves, unless they are only carrying those items to fill in the gap until enough sellers commit to their market.

Something I thought Id mention, that maybe not everyone realizes is that Amazon sellers have full control over pricing of product and shipping. Some of the comments in this thread made me think that there could be confusion about that.

Its not necessary to have the best price. There are no ppc expenses involved, so being listed as a higher dollar seller does no harm. It is really just another way to get your products listed and out there.

I bought my wife a jacket I found through an Amazon seller and have since returned to their store directly through their email links. It does work to build additional direct sales.

I agree! - We find Amazon a better marketplace for us than eBay with much better visibility (of course, we're in the apparel market which is different than books) - costs end up being roughly the same and Amazon doesn't have all the limitations/constraints that eBay places on vendors.

So, BIG THUMBS UP for Amazon integration from us!