When you purchase a book on Amazon, you generally have two choices: Buy it directly from Amazon, or purchase it through Amazon but from a third-party vendor. If you go the direct route, Amazon has already purchased the book from a publisher and is holding it in an Amazon fulfillment center—a transaction. If you take the third-party route, Amazon acts as an agent for the supplier and takes a commission of about 10 percent of the value of the merchandise for the right to sell it on Amazon’s platform—a transaction.

Robert black, regional manager for ford in texas and oklahoma, faced a dilemma. the ford f-150 pickup truck was the best-selling pickup ever, yet ford's headquarters in detroit had decided to introduce a completely redesigned f-150. how could mr. black sell both trucks at the same time? he still had "old" f-150s in stock. in his advertising, mr. black referred to the new f-150s as follows: "not a better f-150. just the only truck good enough to be the next f-150." this statement represents ford's of the new f-150.