HOW TO BEAT AMAZON

With the announcement of Amazon’s second quarter earnings, once again all throughout the land there are many that are headed for the hills and hiding places screaming in fear. Those without special powers and body armor are petrified that this evil villain will destroy them once again. They plead to the Gods and the government for some relief from this amazon-ification of the land. Who will put a stop to this crippling forces hell bent on world domination. Many have given up, folded their tents and gone home to retirement and/or Florida. Still others have succumbed to the lure of “partnering” with the goliath and giving their best shot.

For me, while I respect the power of Amazon and the “public” path they have taken to achieve the $1trillion dollar value status that they now enjoy, I am not afraid. In fact, enthusiasm and excitement fill my being as I do believe that “small business” can beat Amazon. None of what Amazon has done over the past 20 + years has been a secret. The company understood that direct to consumer was going to be the mainstream of the US economy in the same way that Steve Jobs understood that consumers were going to embrace the graphical user interface versus a MS DOS prompt. The big difference in Amazon’s success is that Jeff Bezos had the chops to move in the right direction while the rest of the market was in denial. He and the company have made this their DNA throughout the years. When others were in denial, Amazon was aggressive.

Last time I checked, there are still a handful of courageous leaders in the US market. Many of them own and operate small businesses in our country. While some relegate them to “mom & pop” status, I see them as budding entrepreneurs in need of real counsel and advice. There is really no need to fear Amazon which has become a faceless, interactive platform available on all sorts of devices. Like you, I purchase there but have no real “personal connection” with the company. In fact, other than some marketing folks that I know…I don’t know ANYONE who helps assemble my order and ship it on its way to me. Latest news from the company is that with the rise of AI and other drone like delivery methods, there will come a day when NO human interaction will be necessary to support your order requests. 

That’s the road ahead for the behemoth Amazon; a retailing organization that is serving the needs of human being consumers by doing all it can to remove human beings (they are just overhead) from as many aspects of customer service as can be done. In doing so, they will become less human; opening the door for small business to make its move. It is the very Achilles heel that Amazon has today and on the road ahead. Small business can take advantage of this opportunity if you seize the opportunity and ACT with great courage, enthusiasm and passion.

Some thoughts on getting started.

·      Be a Direct Marketer – Need to lose the idea that you are opening a new “brick and mortar” retail store or business. You own and operate a direct marketing organization. Consumers must interact with your business either thru your front door and/or your web based interface. You must invest in effective direct marketing that is relevant to today’s consumer. That means forget about the legacy platforms ( print, cable, billboards, direct mail, catalogs etc). Your customer isn’t consuming content that way. You need to embrace the digital tool kit; search, social, web based interfaces etc. Some of you are probably still spending lots of cash on advertising platforms that are outdated. You aren’t going to win and beat anyone much less Amazon by not playing on the right landscape

·      Build Your Customer Database – If you haven’t begun building your customer email database; what are you waiting for? Amazon has over 100 Million prime members (with their email addresses) YOUR customers are shopping for products that YOU sell on Amazon. Amazon is doing a better job than you are of servicing YOUR customers. You must…must collect your customer’s email addresses…first name, last name etc. You can’t build a profitable direct marketing business without knowing and engaging with your customers.

·      Customers are Friends – Treat them Well – Time to dust off that concept of CRM. These are your customers, you must invest in building a robust integration between your customer’s profile and their transactions with your business. In order to win, customers want to build a relationship with your business that is highly personal and engaging. You won’t be able to do this without a real time understanding of their likes and dislikes; their preferences.

·      Relevancy is Key – Your customers don’t want to be treated like it’s a replay of “50 First Dates” every time they interact with you. Remember the old days when you used to greet your customer by first name and had a great understanding of what they liked and preferred. You would never suggest that they buy something that didn’t match their profile or need. What is old is new again. Your customers have no time to waste on relationships that don’t value their business enough to learn about them and provide relevant offers and services. Amazon’s does a good job at this….but I am not buying the idea that the “Hi Al” in their opening screen is all that personal.

·      Remember Customer Service? – Here’s the HUGE Win potential. Believe it or not; human beings like dealing with other human beings…with one caveat. We must have training programs in place to teach our employees at all levels how to treat, great and service customers in the most polite and professional manner. There are many service based companies that do an awesome job of training in this regard and instilling a sense of pride and ownership in their employees that transcends the company and creates great customer relationships. The quality of the human interaction with customers is your best and last hope to defeating Amazon and building a sustaining business. As business owners we must truly have a “customer first” mentality in all that we do and all of the ways that we serve. Without that commitment to the highest level of service, retailers will be crushed by the highly efficient Amazon interface in aggregating and delivering products to customers.

·      It takes WORK – None of this is easy. It takes hard work and thinking out of the box. We must abandon the strategies, tactics and thinking of years gone by. We must end any romantic sense of the good old days and embrace the reality of the new world. Most of us don’t embrace change at the level that we need. We need to grow our courage and passion for rebuilding our business again in the age of Amazon. Many of their tactics can be altered and installed in YOUR business as a way to level the playing field. It just takes smarts, work and a dedication to changing things and monitoring performance with an eye towards real time optimization.

As for me, I choose to be excited about the challenge ahead. I know that waiting around thinking that Amazon will trip and fall in one aspect or another is just a waste of time. This is a smart organization doing a lot of things right. They are diversifying and remaking themselves on a daily basis. It’s a big challenge for small business but it is NOT insurmountable. I have great trust that smart business owners with fresh thinking can get the job done for your company and your employees. You have the “human” factor on your side, don’t miss the tremendous importance of playing that card. Time will tell whether the drones will take over the world….it will happen only if we humans allow it.

Al D