Aug 12, 2014 | < 1 
New Local Services Marketplace on Horizon for Amazon
From books to movies to exercise equipment, you can pretty much get anything on Amazon. It’s one of the leading online marketplaces today. Would you turn to Amazon to find an electrician? What about a car repair company? How about a home improvement contractor? Soon you will be able to.
Amazon has plans to launch a new local services marketplace in late 2014. The local services marketplace will seek to connect individuals with local businesses. This new service will put Amazon in direct competition with Angie’s List and Yelp.
The roll out is expected to start in a single market allowing Amazon to test logistics and demand before moving on to more and larger markets nationwide. This strategy worked for Amazon with their Amazon Fresh rollout. Amazon Fresh is a grocery delivery service now available in Seattle, Los Angeles and San Francisco. It was originally launched in Seattle and tested for several years before expanding to other West Coast cities.
The local services marketplace is estimated to be a $400 billion market. The home repair and improvement sector alone is estimated at $250 billion. While Yelp and Angie’s List currently dominate this market, there is plenty of room for a behemoth like Amazon to come in and shake things up.
