Dive Brief:

• Amazon Tuesday launched a new “Make an Offer” program that allows customers to negotiate prices. 

• The option is available for more than 150,000 products in sports and entertainment, collectible coins, and fine art categories.

• EBay has a similar option that sellers can provide potential customers, which removes them from its auctions or "Buy it now" options. At Amazon a potential customer corresponds directly with the seller, who can accept, reject, or counter the offer. Once there’s an agreement, the item can be added to the Amazon cart.

Dive Insight:

With this new option, Amazon continues its policy of always changing. The program introduces a dynamic between seller and customer that resembles the time-honored art of haggling that you’d find at a bazaar or flea market. 

The move makes sense. Price-matching is essentially already a form of haggling, and many brick-and-mortar retailers, in an effort to combat “showrooming,” are already open to that. In a survey of 2,000 shoppers, Consumer Reports recently released a study finding that nine out of 10 consumers who try to get a better price from retailers are successful to some degree. Amazon’s move could usher in a new era of squishy prices does nothing to end the promotional atmosphere in retail, especially if it expands to more product categories.