Name: Varun D Murthy

Roll No.: BD20070

The questions in Mark’s mind are:
1. What if PedalSpark decide to go live on Amazon and then using the consumer
data, Amazon enters the e-bike market?
2. If PedalSpark doesn’t go Amazon’s way, the sales of their new e-bike, even
though one of the best in the market, will experience mediocre sales, compared
to what would have been achieved on Amazon.
According to me, both achieving high sales volume and countering competition are
important and how Mark chooses to balance the two will decide the fate of PedalSpark.
Hence, taking the middle road, PedalSpark should enter Amazon, but, at the same time,
be vary of the fact that Amazon is closely watching them. Amazon uses smaller brands
to figure out their next move and the customer data is readily available to them which
helps them quash the brands which once sold on their own website. Similarly,
PedalSpark should use Amazon only use Amazon to test out the waters.
Amazon as a market place takes a cut from the seller’s margins, hence, PedalSpark’s
margins could go down, but if deemed decent enough, the visibility that Amazon
provides makes up for the cut in margins. Keeping a close eye on the profits, PedalSpark
can pull out of Amazon and sell exclusively on their website when they feel that it isn’t
profitable anymore.
One thing PedalSpark can do is sell the luxury bike on Amazon. Its higher margins will
cushion the cuts taken by Amazon. It will also help PedalSpark in differentiating from
the cheaper products sold on Amazon. It will also make customers on Amazon associate
PedalSpark with a high-end e-bike brand and potentially build a loyal customer base.
One disadvantage though, is that, customers on Amazon are rarely loyal to the brands
selling on the marketplace. This though, could be fixed through better post-sale service,
which builds a brand recall in the mind of the customer.
Having said that, it is inevitable that Amazon will get valuable customer data and there
is a huge possibility that it might get into the e-bikes market. Amazon not only sells its
AmazonBasics line, but it also sells through other subsidiaries such as CloudTail in
India.