Amazon approaches uncovered territory for daily deals on Kindle

As the world waits for even just an announcement of an Amazon tablet, AmazonLocal is uncovering an untouched territory for the daily deals market: e-book readers.

Amazon has announced that it will be rotating in local deal promotions that stem from AmazonLocal into the circulation of digital ads that appear on the Wi-Fi and 3G Kindles with Special Offers.

Jay Marine, director for the Amazon Kindle department, asserted in a statement that the Special Offers versions of the Kindle have become Amazon's fastest selling editions of its e-book reader offerings.

AmazonLocal is accessible online and via daily emails with promotions in a handful of states at the moment -- although based on the fact that every state is listed the drop down menu, it's obvious that Amazon is planning to expand this nationwide. That shouldn't be difficult as AmazonLocal serves as an aggregator of sorts, promoting deals from LivingSocial and other partners.

The interesting thing about AmazonLocal on the Kindle is that users will be able to reserve deals directly on their e-book readers rather than just seeing the ad and having to move over to a computer or smartphone. The voucher then appears on the Kindle home screen, and the user can show that to the merchant when redeeming the coupon. (Or they can be old school about it and still print from their AmazonLocal account from a browser window.)

This new way to access daily deals could be polarizing to customers. It's either a great new way to get people's attention, or it will annoy those who are already frustrated by too many daily deal emails. A survey in June found that more than half of U.S. consumers are already overwhelmed by the amount of daily deal emails they receive.

However, Kindle owners could opt to turn off the email alerts as they are bound to end up seeing the same ads on their e-book readers if they use them often. Of course, it could also serve as a reminder to customers who might have been interested in a deal but forgot about it over the course of the day -- or just automatically trashed an email without paying attention.

Thus, this new medium for daily and local deal advertisements has definite potential -- at least for some consumers. This move also opens the door for seeing daily and local deals on more than just websites and emails. How soon will it be before we see them on digital signage at bus stops and elsewhere?

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