E-commerce giant Amazon has announced the introduction of Amazon Home Services, a marketplace where shoppers can schedule and pay for home services such as gutter repair, TV wall mounting, and basic home improvement tasks like painting. Pricing for each professional service is available upfront and the professionals providing the services have all been vetted by Amazon with a background and licensing check. Customer reviews will be available to help shoppers make their decisions.
Amazon is launching the service with more than 2 million service offers across 700 different service categories. The company claims that customers can buy pre-packaged services through this marketplace in about a minute. Amazon will make money from the services by charging the businesses a selling fee of 10 to 20 percent of the price of the service booked. A refund for the services will be provided by Amazon if a customer is unhappy with the service provider’s work.
Amazon is aiming to be a one-stop destination for buying a wide variety of items and services. Amazon’s internal data shows over 85 million of its customers are shopping for products that require professional services, so it will to list related services alongside its products. Amazon is already a leader in both the retail and video streaming industries.
By entering the home services market, Amazon will be competing with sites such as Angie’s List and Yelp that have already built wide audiences in the home services market. However, Angie’s List keeps its reviews and listings behind a paywall and Yelp has no seamless way to book services from the site. By providing the listings and reviews freely and adding a way for customers to book services from the product page that they are on, Amazon may have an edge in the industry.
