• by Shankar Gupta , August 26, 2005

E-commerce giant Amazon.com recently brought a slew of adult products--roughly 40,000--out of the obscurity of a third-party site, drugstore.com. The products now are searchable from the home page of the main site, raising the question of whether Amazon.com will face a shift in brand perception.

Currently, products reside in the "Sex & Sensuality" section of Amazon's health and personal care section, where they are subdivided into categories such as "enhancers" and "romantic delights."

An Amazon spokeswoman said the company's motive in repositioning the material was to increase the range of products available to Amazon's customers. Still, the question remains whether Amazon.com--which has thus far shied away from offering adult material from its main set of stores--could face a backlash.

Jupiter Research Retail Analyst Patti Freeman Evans said that a consumer backlash is a distinct possibility. "Any time you put up a particular product, which is potentially a controversial type of product, you'll potentially see a backlash."

But, she added, the public at large might not be particularly upset by Amazon's decision. "The products that they're selling are relatively tame. It's just a category that sounds very risqué."

Amazon, which has no age verification system, also might come under pressure to warn off minors--which could be an expensive endeavor. "The reach of these companies is pretty universal, so that anybody and everybody can see these products, and the controls are more costly to put into place," Evans said.