My first blog ever, written in 2017BC (Before Covid), for @therobinreport called?"Amazon Ain't Just a River in Egypt"?remains their biggest read ever.?
Given today's brains are all about "Short Attention Span Theatre" (SAPT), I've just included the "17 Step Cure for Amazon Denial Syndrome". The "Cure" remains, somewhat surprisingly, though not totally, super relevant today - with a few slight updated edits. Not every single thing today has to be "re-imagined".
Bozek's Free 17-Step Cure for Amazon Denial Syndrome - May 4, 2017 - Updated edits: 06.2023:
- Figure out who your target audience is. You must pick one. Even if they shop with Amazon or Alibaba.?
- Customer data has never been bigger or more relevant. If you must spend more, spend on this. Don’t just focus on the Lifetime Value metric or what a CAC – Cost of Customer Acquisition — is.?(Edit: use to be less than $50 to CAC a customer, today it's 8-10x higher). There are 10 companies a week launched with a focus on customer metrics of every single shape and size.?However, don’t bother to acquire any customers if you don’t have anything of unique, or at least differentiated, value to sell.
- Search Siri, Google, Yahoo or Bing, etc. for “USP, Unique Selling Proposition” and read every single link you can find. Then gather your team together, debate strongly, then define yours. Only then can you apply Cure?#4.
- Product Rules. Always. Make it authentic. Allow the customers to feel like they have a say in creating it. Co-creation is the next curation. But not at 75 percent off.
- If you must sell a product that is available elsewhere, and that’s a big chunk of retail worldwide, you better triple down on how you “omni” with your customer or Amazon will beat you.
- Music and atmosphere at the mall or in a store is the new elevator music. If you’re a store or a mall you have to find a way to be more enticing and entertaining in order to regain foot traffic into your space. You can be in just about any mall in America and not know the difference. (Edit: except for the crime). Make it fun, make it proprietary. Delight, surprise, and reward the customer. Watch the documentary “The Secrets of Selfridges” on Netflix. Learn that not every single thing in retail needs to be reimagined, some of it is hidden in plain sight.
- If you’re going to add expensive tech to your physical store like those fancy virtual dressing rooms, or open a wine-bar, then train your sales staff how to leverage and use these assets. Moreover, train your sales staff period. Sales people are people too. They’re getting lost in the digital shuffle and when left untrained, they are hurting sales far more than anyone cares to admit. Teach?all?of them to be the store or brand's own “influencer”.?
- Create a reason for customers to interact with your brand or your product every single day – even when they’re not in the mood to shop. Not just in text or email. What’s the “live” thing that drives UGC (User Generated Content) as often as possible? Make yourself indispensable.
- Stay relevant and curious. Don’t depend on your children, friend’s children or co-workers to tell you about?Facebook Live,?Instagram Stories, Tik Tok, Snapchat, YouTubeLive, WeChat, et al. No excuses.
- If you’re in fashion, stop producing expensive fashion shows and sharing them with the world in real-time on Instagram when you can’t actually sell anything for six months. Fashion Journalist will hate this as its just about the only way for them to retain relevancy, let alone be read/heard. In the old days it was just buyers in a showroom. No press were allowed. And when they were, it was only by appointment to meet print deadlines. Sneaky journalists in Paris would hide cameras in canes to try to get the exclusive. Don’t show anyone, except your retailers, anything unless it’s available for delivery that afternoon. No one wants a six-month tease anymore.?Zero impulse. And you’ll likely get knocked-off for much cheaper - way before by H&M or Zara (EDIT: now Shein)?
- Learn what an Influencer is. Try to become one. They used to be editors, journalists and general merchandise managers. Thanks to online Influencers and the virtual ways the world communicates, there has never been a better time to discover or create great brands. See, for example, what the CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers Association) is doing to help launch talented designers and creators.?
- Follow, in any way you can, what is happening in:
a. VR (Virtual Reality) and AR (Augmented Reality) and what they are going to mean for commerce. Start with Facebook’s Oculus. It’s coming, and it’s going to be a big deal for commerce.?
b. Machine Learning – a type of AI (Artificial Intelligence). It’s the development of cognitive computing that teaches itself to get smarter and smarter; algorithms don’t. When it’s eventually applied to the design world,?San Jose will become the new Fashion Capital of the World.
13. Follow everything Marc Lore is doing period.?(well mostly)
14. Enough with all the weekly retail and tech conferences. More and more they feel like mass therapy sessions. Running one really great conference every once a year feels about right – not every other week. (EDIT: FOBO?(Fear?of?Burning?Out - is the new FOMO. The overload of conferences costs too much money, are often a time and margin drain, plus?the content is really only worthy of a Webinar on an iPhone. And you drink much less.?
15. If you’re among the owners of the big European and American luxury brands like LVMH and Kering, keep focusing time and capital on new forms of distribution that you either control or you own. Your brands may be at risk of being lost in the shuffle of the massive disruption occurring in the wholesale/retail relationship.
16. If the first word someone uses to describe you or a colleague is “nice,” you’re in trouble. There is always a “but” that follows. For example: “He’s a?really nice guy, but…”?Be a hundred other things first, but don’t get saddled with the dreaded “nice” moniker. It's much better to be "nice" second. For example, “So & so is super strong with financials AND he’s a really nice guy.” See, no “buts” follow. This cure you will remember for the rest of your career. Guaranteed.?
17. Repeat after me: Change is good. Change is scary. Change hurts. Change is not for everyone. Change is hard. Change is expensive. Change is necessary. Change is here. I accept change.
18. Make every effort possible not to work with assholes, even if they're genius. In the end, their just assholes and life is too short.
19. Learn that its a far better virtue to know where you are not good than where you are good.
20. An excerpt from Desiderata by Max Ehrman - 1927:
a. GO PLACIDLY amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there?may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons….listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.?
b. Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals. And everywhere life is full of heroism...With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.?
