“When a magician waves his hand and says, “This is where the magic is happening.” The real trick is happening somewhere else. Misdirection.” – Thaddeus Bradley in Now You See Me
What was everyone’s focus on Amazon’s Prime Day? This is from their press release:
The second annual Prime Day was the biggest day ever for Amazon. Amazon today announced customer orders surpassed Prime Day 2015 by more than 60% worldwide and more than 50% in the U.S. It was also the biggest day ever for Amazon devices globally and record Prime Day for each Amazon device category including Fire TV, Fire tablets, Kindle e-readers and Alexa-enabled devices. Prime Day was a great savings day too – members globally saved more than double on deals over Prime Day 2015.
Prime Day was a success. It also revealed where the future of commerce (not just eCommerce) is headed.
Voice is the big reveal
Amazon, as always, is focused on improving customer experience. Prime Day is valuable to Amazon but focusing there is simply misdirection. Pay careful attention to Amazon’s magic, they’re focusing on voice as the primary UI (user interface) and IoT (Internet of Things).
How Amazon creates sales momentum
Voice and IoT improve the customer experience. This is from Amazon’s press release – Prime Day 2016 highlights from the U.S.:
- Amazon devices were up over 3x compared to Prime Day last year.
- Biggest day ever for Amazon Echo – up over 2.5x compared to previous record day.
- The most popular Amazon Dash Button brands purchased on Prime Day were Cascade, Charmin, and Tide.
Amazon’s flywheel, they call it a virtuous cycle, always puts the customer front and center. This is the way they draw it:
Conversion rate (an output) is a result of the many inputs that make up the customer experience. Amazon understands that the experience they provide has the chance to annoy, satisfy or delight their customers. They continuously optimize their inputs. Their superior experience is rewarded with higher conversion rates. It’s this laser focus on the input of customer experience that is responsible for Amazon’s 74% conversion rate from Prime Members.
More than half of all Amazon customers in the US are now also Amazon Prime subscribers.
Where have eCommerce executives been focused?
There is a slight shift of focus in 2016. “The big rise of explicit mentions of the word “customer” was very noticeable in the results of this year’s survey,” said Mark Raskino, Vice President and Gartner Fellow. “CEOs seem to be concerned about improving customer service, relationship, and satisfaction levels.”
Amazon has changed the game. While those CEO’s get around to improving customer service, relationship,and satisfaction levels Amazon is eating their lunch.
Amazon is consistently trying to stay ahead of their customers’ behavior instead of their competitors.
Focus On Your Customers!
Please remember that for you to achieve your goals, visitors must first achieve theirs.
