My wife and I are both Amazon enthusiasts. We shop there first, elsewhere if necessary. Amazon’s pricing is generally between good and great, but the convenience of the shopping experience is the reason they capture a significant amount of our household business. Our kids certainly notice every time the doorbell rings, and we attempt to discreetly take the mysterious contents to places unknown (it’s our closet…please don’t tell my children).
This year, though, I noticed that we did something different that caught my attention. Instead of tracking ideas on a spreadsheet as we had in years past, we just started adding them to our cart or “save for later” list. We might select a different model of the item (or abandon it altogether), but Amazon is now hosting the list in a way that is more convenient than writing it down or typing it into a list. Well done, Mr. Bezos…well done.

This blog is an attempt to summarize a few of the key components that are enabling this customer’s behavior. What has Amazon done to earn the business of so many of us that we don’t even shop around unless there’s some abnormally compelling reason?

1. An Accessible, Seamless User Interface Makes Shopping Easier

Amazon invested heavily in a multi-device user interface that simplifies shopping, and it is seamless, explains Rachel Metz of MIT Technology Review. Throughout a normal holiday week, I might open a browser window 20-30 times and open their mobile app another 5-10 times. The browser and app both remember all the items that I have searched; especially the ones I have not yet purchased.

The customer reviews on products have become a necessity to enable success for E-commerce vendors selling through Amazon, and I recently noticed the Amazon product search bar mimics a modern browser, refining their prediction of what I’m searching for with each additional character I type. Walmart and Target also do this; Best Buy does not.

2. Amazon as an Online Marketplace

Amazon understands the value of their product search-engine, and have designed several ways to turn that understanding into revenue. Like every major retailer, Amazon purchases a wholesale product and offers it to consumers with a price markup. But unlike most retailers, they have at least two other methods of generating e-commerce revenue. With Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA), they make money providing third-party logistics (3PL) services for large and small companies alike. FBA can be used for all of a merchant’s channels, not just Amazon-generated purchases. Secondly, they offer their user interface as an online marketplace, irrespective of whether they are fulfilling the orders. In fact, Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos has said that close to 50% of the units purchased on Amazon come from third-party sellers, reports Fortune.

3. Fair Pricing Provides Peace of Mind and Saves Time

It’s been said that “time is money.” I find that I do not spend time price-shopping when Amazon’s track-record of fair pricing builds confidence in my ability to skip that step. Amazon uses complex algorithms to perpetually update prices, so much so that there is now even a website called www.CamelCamelCamel.com dedicated to tracking price changes of products on Amazon. P.S. If you learn the origin of that website name, please let me know!

4. Free Shipping Keeps Holiday Costs Down

Amazon changed the game on free shipping many years ago with the introduction of Prime Membership. The world is moving in this direction. As an example, Walmart replaced its Prime Membership-competitor, ShippingPass, reports Business Insider, with free two-day shipping on all orders over $35 last February.

Free 2-day shipping for prime members on most purchases is great, but I don’t always need it. They provide an incentive for me to select a cheaper, slower shipping method. And the incentive typically benefits their new programs. It has been a discount on digital media, Prime Pantry, or Prime Now. Just now I saved $0.62 on a hardcover book about chess for my son. It will still arrive on December 20th, so why not? And good for them…I am fairly certain they will be saving considerably more than sixty-two cents in shipping costs. Bonus points if they combine that order with something else we order on a different day.

5. Easy Returns Reduces Stress

Many retailers think they will be inconveniencing their customers if they force them to print a return shipping label at home, so they include one in the shipment. As a result, the retailer never gains visibility into which orders are intended to be returned or the reason the customer is returning them. Amazon’s process is simple and very logical: find your order online, select the appropriate reason you are returning the product, and print the label. Return shipping is free for most situations you would expect free shipping.

6. Great Customer Service Is Automatic

This one is strange because I have literally never spoken to an Amazon representative. I don’t think that I have ever emailed or chatted with one either. They set up their systems in a way that is fair and very clearly documented rules and processes. Want to return something 1 day after the 30-day return window closed? You cannot initiate the return, and you don’t have the opportunity to get mad at a customer service representative that lacks the authority to bend the rules. It’s brilliant!

And if you cannot figure it out, the Amazon’s Help Search bar seems to have all the answers.

7. They Know What I Want to Buy Before I Do

I do love their suggestions throughout the shopping experience. They are using data in a way that makes it easy for me to find items that I might want to purchase.

Amazon has proven to be a leader in bringing everything from A to Z to millions around the globe. Amazon Prime Membership has doubled in membership from original predictions in 2015, says Business Insider, and the company expects continued growth with the launch of additional products using artificial intelligence (AI), asserts The Wall Street Journal. They continue to innovate with new services like Amazon Key, in which delivery drivers are able to bring packages directly into subscribers’ homes through a smart lock installed on their front door. Sorry, chimney access is not yet offered…