Jeff Bezos on the Zappos deal, and four other videos
I once had the pleasure of meeting Amazon's Jeff Bezos, a man who is in some dictionaries the very definition of 'Enthusiasm' (with a capital E). He's pretty hard not to like.
So last night when I heard that Amazon had very discreetly negotiated a deal to buy customer-centric Zappos I felt that it was a great fit for both companies. I also happen to think that Amazon has the better deal, with Zappos going for less than one year's revenue (and about 95% of the $930m deal is to be paid in Amazon stock). But it's obviously fantastic for Tony and the rest of the Zappos team. Congratulations all round.
At any rate, Amazon's Jeff Bezos has been explaining why he bought Zappos in a video, in which he also explains "everything he knows" in a series of flipchart 'slides'.
Bezos riffs on customer obsession, something that he says Amazon shares with Zappos, which he says has a "unique culture". On Zappos: "I have a good feeling about how important that culture is to the Zappos brand, employees and customers."
Anyway, here's the video so you can see for yourself. I've added a few others for your viewing pleasure. Bezos FTW!
Z to A: Amazon.com gobbles up Zappos.com
Zappos.com, an internet retailer that launched in 1999, survived the
.com bust and went on to become the number one online footwear seller,
has been purchased by Amazon.com in a mostly-stock deal worth over
$900m.
Amazon plans to run Zappos as a wholly-owned subsidiary, with its new acquisition maintaining its own branding and separate operations.
Tesco opens up its DB, offers affiliates lifetime commissions
A move by Tesco may provide some hints about the state of affiliate marketing and its future.
Earlier this month, Tesco sent the 150 developers who have been working with Tesco.com's Grocery API an email detailing that the company was opening up its database to them and giving them the ability to build applications that could potentially generate lifelong affiliate commissions.
Amazon's Ministry of DRM goes after Orwell's Kindle readers
For those of us who questioned the desirability of reading a book on a screen, the Kindle's success has been a surprise.
But some Kindle owners who love George Orwell got a surprise of their own last week: their digital copies of 1984 and Animal Farm mysteriously vanished. Was this the handiwork of the Ministry of Truth?
Mobile commerce: best practice tips
Mobile commerce is still in its early stages and, while there are very few m-commerce sites in the UK, 5% of the Top 500 US online retailers have them, with more on the way.
Translating the desktop shopping experience to mobiles isn't easy, and keeping it simple and usable is important for users with small screens and often slow internet connections.
With this in mind, I've come up with a few best practice tips for mobile commerce based on the sites I have seen...
EBay's identity crisis
The recession is making it hard for retailers right now, but online auction site ebay is especially hurting from efforts to diversify its core business.
For over a year now, eBay has been expanding its offerings to include retail items, and putting itself in closer competition with retail giant Amazon. But that has come at the expense of its core business.
Ina Steiner, the editor of AuctionBytes, a news service for eBay sellers, has found that eBay’s Web traffic has been steadily falling since last fall. She attributes that drop to the company's current “identity crisis.”
Amazon goes 'microsite' to sell mobile phones
Amazon is expanding its e-commerce empire. Although the online retailer has been selling mobile phones for years, it has launched AmazonWireless to serve the market in a more finely-tailored fashion.
AmazonWireless, which is in beta, is essentially the online retail equivalent of a 'microsite' and is quite simply designed to provide a one-stop shopping experience for US consumers looking for a new cell phone or service plan.
Never run out of toilet paper again
Down to one square of TP? Is the dog out of kibble, the soap in the bathroom down to a sliver, and you can't find an envelope to mail that letter or a bandage for your blister? Don't blame Alice if you can't think, plan or shop ahead.
Alice.com launched today in beta. The new commerce site sells "household essentials," those necessary staples such as soap and shampoo, tissues and detergent, pet food and aluminum foil...and doesn't charge a shipping fee. Instead, they rely on customer loyalty -- the fact that consumers need to keep buying all this stuff
Does your checkout process deal with shoppers' concerns?
To minimise abandonment rates, a good checkout process should be able to deal smoothly with any unanswered questions before customers pay for their items.
I've been reading an article by Brendan Regan on the FutureNow blog, in which he looks at five questions that customers may have in their minds when they reach the shopping cart, though he is referring to the checkout process as a whole rather than just the shopping basket page.
FTC cracks down on paid bloggers
Journalists have long been held accountable to readers about what companies they receive money from and invest in. But bloggers have had more leeway in exchanging free products and services for coverage. But the Federal Trade Commission would like to change that, with new rules that would require bloggers to disclose any conflicts of interest in their online coverage.
According to the Associated Press:
"New guidelines, expected to be approved late this summer with possible modifications, would clarify that the agency can go after bloggers--as well as the companies that compensate them--for any false claims or failure to disclose conflicts of interest. It would be the first time the FTC tries to patrol systematically what bloggers say and do online. The common practice of posting a graphical ad or a link to an online retailer — and getting commissions for any sales from it — would be enough to trigger oversight."
As blogging becomes more institutionalized, the matter of where money goes online becomes more important. However, with the new guidelines unfinalized, it remains unclear on how effective — or ruthless — they will be.
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
