Ask any online retailer and marketer in charge of eCommerce and they will likely tell you they aspire to be like Amazon. The giant online retailer sits atop the retail food chain, swallowing categories from celery to web services, and everything in between.
Based on a new research# by digital business intelligence firm L2, the report inaugurates a methodology that will be leveraged for the L2 Amazon Quotient, a score of a brand’s competence on the platform.
Walmart pales in comparison — and they are gearing up to model the more successful features and functionality of Amazon's platform. Recommendations, personalization, and fast checkout move product. Increasingly, that product is CPG, which contributes $1 trillion of added value to the economy:
Companies, including Procter & Gamble, race to be included in consumers’ “first basket” orders, letting Amazon ship directly from its warehouses in a high-profile agreement that captured the attention of the media, and other retailers. In addition to cross-sell bundling deals across Procter & Gamble’s portfolio listings, more P&G products are eligible for Amazon’s Prime Pantry and Subscribe & Save programs than any other CPG firm.
As a consumer, you are probably interested in Amazon Vine, which allows brands to pay for review volume by providing select consumers (i.e. “Vine Voices”) with free product in exchange for writing an Amazon review. Eight of the top ten brands with the most reviews have invested in Vine.
This frenemy-type relationship is one of the reasons why after holding back for as long as possible, free shipping is becoming the new normal for many retailers.
Another differentiator is stores (see chart above) — customers still prefer to pick up items in store, where the option is available, with all the associated benefits of good experience if/when store associates are professionally helpful (Nordstrom's Big Secret).
Is luxury next?
Download the full report (members) or read an excerpt here.
+++
Valeria is an experienced listener. She designs service and product experiences to help businesses rediscover the value of promises and its effect on relationships and culture. She is also frequent speaker at conferences and companies on a variety of topics. Book her to speak here.