Amazon anecdote: I bought a very expensive Canon 70-200mm lens for my camera on a Thursday afternoon. I had the lens shipped overnight so that I could use it for a weightlifting meet to be held that Sunday. Unfortunately, amazon.com informed me, the item did not ship until Friday, which meant I would not get my product until Monday - This, for obvious reasons, was unacceptable.<p>So I emailed amazon. Twenty minutes later I got a CALL from Executive Customer Relations and they spoke in great detail about how they would ASSURE me I would get my product with Saturday delivery. They canceled the existing order mid-shipment and sent out another one with Saturday delivery AND killed the exuberant shipping charge. I got my product in time to use that Sunday and I was a happy camper.<p>That, my friends, is how you kick ass at business.
Businesses thrive like Amazon by being efficient and well polished. Amazon is able to handle exceptions well because they do such a polished job of the majority of orders. When exceptions are such a minority, it's easy to give them the time and attention that they deserve. When exceptions are always popping up, you can't afford the labor to deal with them in a way that makes customers happy. When exceptions aren't usual, their added cost doesn't make that much of a difference to your bottom line.<p>Amazon automates their system well and runs a tight ship where most orders go through with no hassle, no interference, etc. That makes it easy for them to spend a little more on certain cases to make customers happy.<p>Part of it is just that other retailers aren't so efficient. If you're hiring store staff, most of the day people are in work and they have little to do. Even during busy times, they won't be able to move merchandise like Amazon where it can be made more assembly-line oriented.<p>So, Amazon is able to give people the experience that they want because all the easy things take no time for them.
An excerpt illustrating the value of <i>underpromise, overdeliver</i>:<p>"For a store that aims to give you a bargain, it also excels at customer service. Here's something that happens often: I'll buy an item on Monday afternoon and be told to expect it to arrive Wednesday. Then, sometime Tuesday, the UPS guy rings my door—amazingly, Amazon has moved the product from its shipping center in Nevada to my apartment in San Francisco in less than a day, for no extra charge."<p>Imagine what the author would have written had Amazon said the package would arrive Tuesday but the packaged didn't show up until Wednesday.
My Anecdotal experience:<p>I need a new iPod cable and as I was at my local shopping center, I decided to check at Circuit City. I expected the price to be ~$10.00 but the prices was $24.99<p>I checked with amazon when I got home. I was able to buy a 3 pack, regular cable, car charger cable and 110v outlet cable for $8.00 including shipping.<p>It's not a mystery why retailers are suffering when you see price gouging like that.
I am amazed "tax free" isn't anywhere in that article. Being tax free and having what is certainly a more affluent shopping base absolutely can't hurt in tight economic times.<p>I will say Prime is simply amazing. Amazon with it and Amazon without it are entirely different experience. With "super saver shipping" my entire order would need to group and be ready, which literally took months on some occasions. With Prime everything ships as soon as it is available and usually within the same day.
Amazon anecdote from today:<p>I was at a bookstore and saw a Vernor Vinge book that I didn't have already. Unfortunately it was $18 for the paperback. On my gphone I checked on Amazon and found a used-but-mint-condition copy for $3, plus $4 shipping. So I just ordered it from Amazon and left without buying anything.<p>I do feel bad for not helping out the bookstore, but it's hard to spend an extra $11 for nothing.
we launched our retail apparel site in October in the midst of the huge stock market loss days. on a suggestion from my cofounder we started listing on amazon in early December. Dec sales from amazon accounted for a 1/4 of sales, and more then 3/4 in Jan, as sales dipped on our site.<p>we get tons of sales on amazon from places in the midwest where on our site we get mostly right and left coast locations.<p>im actually lifting forecasts right now due to the strength of that channel. additionally we are often the low price on amazon, and the item is marked up from what is sells for on our site, so its not low margin dumping ground like eBay. horray for amazon.
Here's a little story about Amazon's efficieny from another perspective.<p>When I applied to Microsoft for a summer internship, the process was: go to info session, submit resume, wait a couple weeks, be asked to schedule an on-campus interview, wait a few days, be invited up to Redmond, schedule flights, fly up to Seattle. Pretty standard, but...<p>When I applied to Amazon, the process was: Go to career fair, hand them my resume, have my resume looked at for ~20 seconds, be asked to write a C-string function on the back, wait a few days, and be invited for a final round interview on campus.<p>The point is that they cut out an enormous amount of overhead by recruiting this way. They probably wouldn't get much information out of a typical first round interview or phone screen that they didn't get by asking me to write that function on my resume and keeping an eye on how long it took me. And rather than fly people up to Seattle, they probably just fly 2-4 interviews down here. Amazon strikes me as a very shrewd company in some ways.
At the business I work at, we have been thriving as well. We're not anywhere near as big as Amazon, infact we only have 5 employees (and one part time accountant)<p>Yet, we've had our 3 best months in a row since November, and February is shaping up to be pretty good<p>We sell outdoor and indoor recreation items, so no one needs them, but everything is below retail. We also sell through about 5 different channels (Our websites, Our small retail store, Pennysaver, Kijiji, eBay..)<p>We also make sure to ship everything same-day, answer every customer email within 12 hours, and run a super tight ship when it comes to inventory counts so we're not in a big mess.<p>Of course, I'm sure there is many guys like us but I thought it'd be ok to share some good news from a small retail business :)
I really like Amazon as a company, I know their products, market and believe AWS, Kindle are great growth areas. I really wanted to buy their stock but I dollar cost avg my existing positions instead. AMZN has gone from ~$40 when I was looking to over $60 today. nharman is a sad panda.
People who live off the beaten path love Amazon, and especially Amazon Prime. The big box retailers are still good for everyday stuff, but you really appreciate the convenience, price and selection Amazon offers when you have severely limited retail options.
Retail stores are basically warehouses. The consumer has to waste some time looking through all the inventory and some of it may not be there, etc.<p>Amazon, on the other hand, hides its warehouses and gives you a clean interface to the inventory.