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Disenchantment with Amazon just weeks after Israel launch

“You can’t blame shoppers,” Amazon adviser Elad Goldenberg told Haaretz. “They expected to see good deals and low prices.”

By World Israel News Staff 

Disenchantment is reportedly growing with Amazon’s operations with Israel, just weeks after the much-anticipated launch of the e-commerce giant in the Jewish State.

A senior representative of a large Israeli manufacturer, which is said to have invested hundreds of thousands of shekels in anticipation of a boom in business, complained to Ynet that Amazon is “not doing anything to advance or bring in traffic,” adding that it was “disappointing” that the website was not even in Hebrew.

The lack of activity is said to be especially evident now amid the buzz surrounding Shopping IL.

It has been two months since the launch of what was supposed to be an Israel-specific outlet for Amazon. After an earlier delay, the operation began in time for the crucial Jewish holiday season.

After an initial period of some excitement, the last couple of weeks have been very quiet, say vendors, according to Ynet.

“I expected that the High Holidays would give a boost to sales,” said a vendor quoted by the Haaretz daily, “but I sold only a little merchandise and haven’t begun to recover the big upfront costs that Amazon required from me whether it was for customer service, logistics, or fees.”

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‘There are no local logistics centers,” says Haaretz reporter Hadar Kane. “The site is mainly a place for Israeli vendors to sell to local shoppers as long as they meet Amazon’s strict standards for, among other things, delivery times.”

Ynet cites a leading CEO as saying that a key problem is that there was so much hype in advance of the Amazon launch, making it hard now to keep up with the expectations.

“You can’t blame shoppers,” says Elad Goldenberg, an Amazon adviser and former eBay executive, quoted by Haaretz.

“They expected to see good deals and low prices, but they discovered there weren’t any, so they went back to shopping on global sites. They’ve become accustomed to finding good deals and if there aren’t any, it’s just not as attractive from their viewpoint,” Goldenberg added.