Amazon Germany Dual Ranking Verkaufsrang in Bücher

While I keep a fairly regular eye on Amazon UK, I only check Amazon.de (Germany), Amazon.fr (France), Amazon.co.jp (Japan) and Amazon.ca (Canada) from time to time to see what's new. Since I don't read German (beyond English being Germanic) I brought along Gretchen to be my guest blogger today.



I'm not used to seeing 24 hour shipping outside North America and the UK on my Lightning Source titles, so I was quite surprised to see:

"Verfügbarkeit: Gewöhnlich versandfertig bei Amazon in 24 Stunden. Verkauf und Versand durch Amazon.de."

Which Gretchen translated as:

"Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours. Ships from and sold by Amazon Germany"

I asked her why it took so many words to express in German, and she growled.

Next I spotted the line:

"Nur noch 1 Stück verfügbar -- jetzt bestellen (Warenneulieferung in Kürze).

Which Gretchen assured me translates to:

"Only 1 left in stock--order soon (more on the way)."

I pointed out again the discrepancypency in length, and Gretchen actually gave a sharp bark. I thought it would be best to pass quickly to my final question, a line I'd never seen on any Amazon before:

"Amazon.de Verkaufsrang: #88,134 in English Books, #356,208 in Bücher"

Gretchen tells me that Amazon in Germany shows two ranks for English books, a rank comparing them to other English books, and an overall rank for all books.

So, I learned something new, Gretchen didn't bite me, and it appears that the software upgrades Amazon has been rolling out are a worldwide phenomena. Maybe next thing Amazon.fr and Amazon.jp will adopt dual ranking schemes as well. It does seem that the German Amazon has done away with English only category lists, something I believe all of the offshore Amazon's used to feature.