Introduction
Amazon is an e-commerce company that provides its clients with a platform for selling and purchasing products across the world and also provides cloud services. Regarding revenue and market capitalization, Amazon is ranked first and only comes second to Alibaba regarding sales. In 2017, Amazon collected revenues upwards of 170 billion dollars. Amazon started as a small business that diversified into a franchise. There are a lot of lessons that small business ventures can learn from Amazon.
Understand your customers
Amazon has been able to know their customers through their purchases. When a customer buys products such as furniture, Amazon recommends products similar to their purchased product. And based on your previous purchases, Amazon suggests matching products. Roughly a third of Amazon sales are because of recommendations made by their system. It provides customers with an effortless shopping experience.
Track your products
Amazon offers its retailers with an online order management system, which is computer software that is used for order entry and processing. It enables retailers to track their products, that is, lets them know what products have many purchases, which products have more market value and which of your products is favored most by your customers. This allows them to provide customers with items that match their preferences.
Have a customer-based business
Over the years Amazon has worked hard to strengthen their customer relations. Through services like Prime and Mayday button, which provides round the clock technical support for their Kindle Fire devices, they have been able to maintain and increase their customer loyalty. If you concentrate on providing a fulfilling experience to your customers rather than what the competition offers, your customers will be satisfied, and they will act as brand advocates for your business.
Take risks
Amazon has had many failed products such as the Fire phone whose market value decreased rapidly. Through such failed ventures, Amazon has proven that for a business to grow, risks need to be taken. If you are afraid of failure, then you will be afraid to take risks and deny your business an opportunity to grow. Many ventures, no matter how calculated, will fail but failure helps to build creativeness.
Innovativeness
Amazon has been a benchmark for innovativeness. Amazon started out as an online bookstore and transformed to become one of the world’s leading online retailing markets. To keep your business relevant and long-lasting, you need to keep on re-inventing ways of delivering services that match the customer’s needs. Providing quality services always attracts customers and helps build your market base.
Build yourself to build others
Amazon provides cloud computing services to its customers and also to other companies like Netflix. They created this service to allow their clients access to their information from anywhere. Thus killing the monotony of having to recreate technological infrastructure every time. Business owners need to learn that solutions to problems within the business can turn out to be lucrative business ideas. Therefore business may need to consider such solutions as opportunities rather than solutions alone.
Reward loyal customers
The goal of every small business is to grow. For this to be accomplished, you need loyal customers that feel they are getting value for their money. Nothing encourages loyalty more than promotions. Amazon Prime Day was a Day that marked the second decade in business; it was marked by offering Prime clients with special deals on a set of items. It motivates customers to keep shopping with you, and it’s a brilliant idea if you want to market your business.
Conclusion
As much as many businesses would like to reach the status and caliber of Amazon, a global franchise, not many will be able to achieve such success. But the lessons learned can be applied to all businesses no matter how small. These lessons can be very instrumental in the eventual growth of the business.
