A few weeks ago, a savvy friend from Bloem (nogal!) was very surprised to hear that I hadn’t yet taken advantage of Amazon UK’s free shipping to South Africa.

Since then, I’ve been spending more free moments than I have available browsing books and DVDs.

It’s not necessarily the most aesthetically pleasing website to spend an inordinate amount of time on. So why do so many people around the world spend - and more importantly, return to spend – so much time and money on Amazon domains?

So why Amazon?

Since their launch in 1995, Amazon has become one of the biggest online retailers. However, when asked what they ascribe their success to, it’s not (as one may expect), the fact that they leveraged the Internet to revolutionise the way in which consumers shop. Rather, Marc Onetto (Senior VP of Amazon Customer Services and Operations globally) stated at a press conference in Cape Town last week that they believe it’s their customer-centric approach to business that made Amazon the international success it is today.

Image Credit: Amazon: Bonding customers with integrated service

He could be right - Amazon consistently ranks as both the top functional and emotional experience among online shoppers. The key offering of the Internet for brands is the ability to engage in a dialogue rather than blast advertising. And this is exactly what Amazon does right. THEY DON’T SHOUT. They talk, nicely. 

The functional experience

As mentioned, the design of the site is functional rather than visually exciting – but then, when you have a myriad of products on offer, I appreciate practical categories that are easy-to-browse. 

The purchase process itself is quick – once set up with an account you can buy a book in under 20 seconds. A functionality much appreciated by users is the ability to return books and use the outstanding payment balance for future purchases instead. Of course, this sounds like a risky offering for Amazon, but as Onetto stated (when speaking on Amazon’s customer service in general) customer service agents are told to ignore the crooks “because we have systems to find them”.  Rather, they are trained to focus on making decisions in the customer’s favour, thereby endorsing positive word-of-mouth among consumers.

And post-purchase? You can log into your account and view your complete Amazon purchase history – which cards you used, the shipping and billing addresses listed for you as well as the delivery status of every order, past and present. 

The really notable aspect of the site, however, is the personalised experience. Amazon uses a preference centre to profile user information and enable users to sign-up for email newsletters and prompts. Users can also interact with the site by reviewing and rating products. 

Based on this information, Amazon then displays your recent search history on the bottom section of the homepage, making it easy for the user to revisit products of interest. It also matches you against other consumers with similar taste, making product recommendations accordingly and allowing you to view their products of interest. You can also select any category page on the site as your homepage whenever you enter Amazon.

Your website visit is tailored to your preferences and all follow-up communications are then personalised accordingly.

The emo experience

Amazon is often cited as an example of effective customer relationship management (CRM). 

As we all know, it’s more cost-effective to retain an existing customer than it is to win a new one - more so when we think loyal-return-to-purchase-time-after-time customers; which is why Amazon chooses to spend their money on customers, rather than marketing. In fact, according to Jeff Bezos (Founder and CEO of Amazon) they develop their technology on the basis of consistently working on eliminating the top ten customer service complaints.

Marketing spend is kept at a minimum, using channels such as banner advertising for acquisition (to target consumers who are already online). Of course, a large part of placing so much emphasis on the customer experience is because they know that no marketing is as convincing as good word-of mouth.

Retention is their biggest focus and as such, customer service is a pivotal point in their operations. Focus is placed on customer convenience, which is why they offer a multitude of customer service channels. The idea is to be contactable on each customer’s channel of choice. Their popular click-to-call system also makes it easier for customer service agents to reach first-call resolution on customer queries: If the customer clicks on the button from within their account, the service agent already has a full buyer history and profile upon calling the customer back.

The personalised experience flows into their Email Marketing, one of their biggest retention strategies. Below, for instance, are example emails sent to a consumer who has identified themselves as a student:

Of course, none of these Customer Relationship Management strategies could not implemented without some in-depth knowledge of their customers – knowledge generated by a solid and impressive technological infrastructure. It boils down to treating customers as individuals.  

Launch of Amazon in Cape Town

Lastly, you would have noticed that Amazon is now officially launched in South Africa. Amazon’s Cape Town customer service centre has been running for more than a year, but last week Monday marked the official launch of their centre in its new premises. 

Unfortunately, this does not (yet) mean the arrival of a Amazon.co.za, but rather the official launch of what they hope will be a 1,400 agent-strong global customer service centre, as well as housing what Onetto views to be one of their top development centres. You may remember that Amazon at one stage stopped shipping to South Africa, due to the problems encountered with our local postal system, however this has been resolved and South Africans can now order via the international sites. (Remember what I said about that free shipping offer?)

Have a browse around and let me know about your Amazon experiences.


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