Is Best Buy's gain Amazon.com's loss? An article/discussion last month on RetailWire explored the why's behind Amazon's continued sales growth in states even after it has begun to collect sales tax. Now, a Best Buy financial report shows that while its physical stores didn't get a huge boost in states where Amazon has started to add sales tax charges to purchases, its website has seen a pickup in dollar volume.
http://www.retailwire.com/discussion/16459/amazon-not-slowed-by-sales-taxes
Amazon Not Slowed By Sales
Taxes
It's long been argued by retailers operating
stores in states where Amazon.com doesn't collect sales taxes that the
e-tailing giant has an unfair advantage because consumers can see that with
them they can save perhaps six or seven percent. But a funny thing has happened
as more states work out deals for Amazon to collect sales taxes — the company
continues to grow.
Amazon signs another tax deal
Amazon.com Inc. will begin to collect sales tax on Nov. 1, 2013, from customers in Massachusetts, the retailer and state officials announced yesterday. As part of the agreement, Amazon, No. 1 in the Internet Retailer Top 500, has promised to create hundreds of jobs in the state and to work with state officials in support of pending federal legislation designed to produce states with more sales tax revenue from online and catalog purchases. In return, Amazon gets another year to avoid sales tax collection even though its acquisition earlier this year of warehouse robotics company Kiva Systems Inc., which is based in Massachusetts, requires it to collect sales tax in the state under existing law.
http://racked.com/archives/2013/01/15/amazons-threat-to-open-physical-stores-is-freaking-out-the-retail-industy.php
Retail Industry Is Freaking Out Over Threat of Amazon Store
Amazon.com Founder Jeff Bezos took home the National Retail Federation's prestigious Gold Medal Award yesterday, marking the first time an online retailer has received the award. Amazon has probably been the single most disruptive force in retail in the past years, and is therefore not exactly beloved by the traditional brick-and-mortar industry. So as NRF's membership base is comprised mainly of brick-and-mortar retailers, acknowledgement from the organization is a bit of a big deal for e-commerce.
