Wow! Despite Italy’s decidedly dodgy postal service, Amazon has finally set up shop in Italy. Hello Amazon.it! Amazon.com Inc even visited BlogfromItaly.com in May 2010 to read my How to Post things to Italy post, according to BlogfromItaly.com’s Google Analytics data. Very interesting.
Not sure who is handling deliveries for them, but if it’s the Italian post office, Amazon will need to keep an eye on things, as they will know after having read my post, and the comments. Amazon has done business in Spain, France and Germany for a few years, but seemed to have steered clear of Italy. Until now that is.
Not a Fake!
I admit that when I first saw the Amazon.it web site, I thought it might be a fake, but a quick Whois search revealed that the Amazon.it domain is indeed owned by Jeff Bezos US based Amazon.com Inc. Have no fear that your credit card information will be used for illicit purposes – provided Amazon.it employees are not ex-Italian post office workers!
Free Delivery – with Amazon Prime
I suspect Amazon will have engaged the services of another courier such as Fed Ex, TNT or Italy’s own Bartolini to deliver items, but this is not clear. Other online shops in Italy do use Italy’s postal service, but many offer alternative courier based delivery services. Anyway, Amazon.it is promising speedy and free delivery on purchases of over €19 for a month. Pay €9.99 and you get free 2-3 day delivery in Italy for one year with the Amazon Prime service, which is available pretty much all over Italy, but not in the organised crime strongholds of Sicily and Calabria. Although Naples does get Amazon Prime – a sign that the camorra is being beaten? Possibly.
The Amazon.it site is mono-lingual for the moment, being only in Italian. This is a slight shame as the expat community here will be very happy to save lots of money on postal charges which are high from the UK and from the USA, not to mention possible customs hold-ups.
I suppose you clicking finger is itching to visit Amazon.it, so here you are: Amazon.it Just in time for you to do some Christmas shopping too. Excellent timing Amazon!
Maureen says
I read about this here before I saw it anywhere else. (You’re a trendsetter!!) I’m thrilled that it’s here and hope it does well and grows like other amazon sites. You can buy anything at amazon in the US and the UK. I do hate that there are almost zero descriptions of any of the books but it’s easy enough to go to the USA or UK site to read the summaries and comments.
For what it’s worth, I’ve ordered from the USA, UK and now the Italian site, and all use the same details as far as my log-in onfo. (Credit card, addresses and all)
Thanks for what you do here. It’s interesting to get another perspective on living here.
LindyLouMac says
It is not actually free shipping just no postage charges on orders of over £25 which is quite a few paperbacks if you look for the special offers. I think it will stay it has done so in the UK for orders over £15.
This is why probably for the time being anyway I will continue to use Amazon.co.uk if I want to order books at least.
The selection of English books on Amazon.it is obviously somewhat limited but it is interesting that despite the site being mono lingual that I am able to sign in with my Amazon uk details.
Anyway I think it is great news!
Alex Roe says
People do get a little confused over the free shipping thing, this is true, LindyLouMac.
I imagine Amazon.it’s selection of English language book will increase in time.
Interesting to hear that you can sign in with your Amazon.co.uk account. I did not know that and will update the article above to mention this.
One possible advantage of Amazon.it over the other Amazon’s, particulalry Amazon.com, is the absence of customs hassle, and the fact that being transported internally in Italy your items should not go astray as easily. Crossing borders increases problems, although I don’t know if Amazon.co.uk ships orders by air or by ground transport.
I agree with you, Amazon.it is good news! I do hope it takes of too.
Best,
Alex
Cathy says
hi
some progress I guess… but, Amazon.co.uk now offers free shipping to Italy.
Alex Roe says
I could be wrong, Kathy, but I think the free shipping to Italy offer will stop shortly. I suspect the free shipping to Italy was also a means of testing the market for Amazon in Italy – which is probably reasonable – Amazon is a well known brand here. Once Amazon.it is flourishing, Amazon will re-think it’s connection to Amazon.co.uk.
It will be interesting to see how Amazon get on – if they tell us, that is.
Best,
Alex
David N. Welton says
The monolingual foreign sites is par for the course for Amazon. Their Germany site, for instance, is completely and totally in German. I don’t really get all of the choices they make; I think you ought to be able to choose your location and language, and have their system figure out the cheapest way to route books to you, but perhaps legally that’s not so easy…
I recently got a Kindle, and that is, in some ways, an even better way of getting English language reading material quickly and easily, since you can get it straight from Amazon US.
Alex Roe says
Hi David –
Yes, I know Amazon tends to be strictly mono-lingual, and I don’t fully understand why – but I suspect, as you do, that there are legal, and tax, aspects they have to take into account. Google translate can help quite a lot, I imagine.
I don’t have a real Kindle, but use Kindle software on my Mac – I signed up with Amazon.com initially and but want to change to Kindle at Amazon.co.uk – but this seems fiddly – I may ‘lose’ the .com books!
I imagine Kindle.it will emerge sooner or later – and Kindle books are difficult to steal too!
Best,
Alex
PS Perhaps you should contact Mikamai. If you do, tell Liz I sent you.
David N. Welton says
I have a pretty good setup with the Kindle: billing address and shipping address in the US for the payment, which means that I don’t pay VAT tax on the books, and don’t pay sales tax either (I’m from Oregon, which doesn’t have one). Cheap, fast books in (weak) dollars… I’m happy.
The actual device is very well done though; I’m pleasantly surprised how nice it is to read on it. The other side of that is that it’s not a very good “general purpose” thing because the screen refresh is so slow, and of course it’s grayscale only.
It’s a small world: I do consulting work with the guys at Mikamai and have been collaborating with Liz on a project.