TechCrunch recently posted an article by Ingrid Lunden (@ingridlunden) about Amazon’s new ‘make an offer’ option. Customers can negotiate prices or communicate with merchants one-to-one. This new offer is intentionally different than eBay’s auction-like bidding.

“All negotiations are 1:1 and private between individual customers and sellers,” the company notes. “A seller is able to accept a customer’s offer at any time. The intention is to lower prices, and a customer negotiating with a seller will never pay more than the listed price.”What do we think?

Amazon is empowering its customers to engage with one another; they know that a two-way conversation is a part of the modern day purchase. Negotiation requires a seamless messaging system.

Our founders at Near Me knew that this would be valuable for marketplace users, so they built a seamless messaging system into the platform. If you don’t have that available in your ecommerce site, you’re already falling behind.

In addition, the modern day online shopper likes having options--whether a controlled price, the option to bid, make an offer, trade or rent. Amazon is definitely evolving and reacting to the changes in ecommerce.

So, what’s the best part? Negotiating for a lower price is nothing new for marketplaces and you can see that, today, at outdoor marketplaces all over the world. Look at farmer’s markets, flea markets and markets throughout Asia, Europe and Africa. Similar to peer-to-peer, negotiating is not new business. It’s the oldest form of business, but now, it can be done online.

So, are you ready to have one-to-one conversations with your customers?