Digitization has given rise to a new breed of customers. This is the breed of customers who surf the internet for material regarding the products they want to buy and are well aware of the specifications they want. These customers seek an online shopping experience that is on par with shopping in a local store. The volume of such customers is increasing by day. Responsible business leaders must ensure that their businesses are ready to adapt to the changes and make themselves ready to attract more customers in these new ways.
Amazon has been one of the front runners in this space, which revolutionized the idea of marrying technology with process to greatly enhance the shopping experience of their customers, leading to a very high sales conversion rate. “Amazonization of the business” is a process that evolved by taking cues from the business-improvement approach of Amazon. It originates from the idea that *Time is Money* for both customer and the seller. Buyers want to make quick decisions by getting just the details they need about products, right when they need that information for choice selection and decision-making. Sellers want to provide a shopping experience that rapidly facilitates purchase by reducing friction and minimizing the time necessary to make selection and purchase. Amazonizing the business is not just about setting up an e-commerce channel on the website. It is a multi-step process to ensure that the business builds a robust funnel to achieve high conversion rates.
Amazonize your website
Amazonization of the business starts with building a website that offers a top notch user experience by maintaining SEO friendly standards and conversion-optimized purchase paths. Keep your website simple and get your message spot on. Once on the homepage, the user should exactly know about the product offerings and the qualities which make your company stand apart from your competitors. Enhance your site browsing experience by avoiding multiple page navigations before getting to the product offerings. Having a search option on the homepage can be handy if you are offering multiple products. Also make sure that the website has a responsive design which can scale based on the size of display. For businesses in the manufacturing industry, which include others in the supply chain, such as distributors and dealers, having a sale-facilitating distributor/dealer portal is a good practice. In a nutshell, then, Amazonizing your website is an iterative and agile process approach to make it visitor/user sales-ready, and then to continually make improvements that increase revenue
Amazonize your sales
Once you ensure that your visitors are presented with a sale-ready website, the next step is to present them an e-commerce platform where you can close the sale. Building an e-commerce portal which helps the users make an online purchase is the first step towards Amazonizing your sales. Have a seamless integration among your product displays and selection pages right to the transaction or payment page. The next step is to build an m-commerce platform to facilitate transactions on the mobile phones. Your website design can also be tweaked if you are building a standalone mobile platform.
The most important step in Amazonizing your sales is making use of APIs (Application Program Interfaces). They are very powerful in creating presence over multiple user touch points like social media, mobile etc. They are also useful in improving your presence in online stores like Amazon and Ebay.
Amazonize your marketing
While designing a marketing plan for your business, think of the individual preferences of your target audience. The product you are selling might be the same, but the motivations of prospective customers to buy your product are likely to be different. Create a representative picture, or persona, of each of your target audiences on geographic, demographic or behavioral differentiation. Determine each group’s motivating factors for choosing your product. The messaging in your online marketing programs, email campaigns or in your offline marketing tactics should mirror the segment-based messages you have defined.
Other key takeaways from Amazon for customized or targeting marketing is the technique of showing relevant products when a user is browsing for a specific product. Especially for manufacturing firms, which have wide variety of products, it is a simple and effective way of marketing your products for the potential buyers. Extending this idea, once a product has been evaluated, you might show similar products others have looked at or purchased. Then when purchases are made, you might ask to store deleted products in a ‘Wish List’ or offer other cross- or up-sell product ideas.
In summary, Amazonization might apply to your website, other online destinations where your business is represented, as well as to your online and offline marketing program. It is a concept about marrying technology with processes, engaging in rapid learning that yields an iterative and agile approach to continual improvement, and in keeping a close eye on your end goal of high sales and high customer satisfaction.
