Internet Retailer: Amazon relying more on web services to build merchant connections

Amazon.com wants its alliance partners to have the same quality data the retailing giant has itself. To grow closer to its partners, Amazon is aggressively providing data services to get affiliates directly downloading pricing and product information from its own databases. Amazon reports that thousands of developers have downloaded the company's free kit. Third parties, like Monsoon, are even developing meta applications like price optimization testing for multiple markets.