FUTURE OF LPVIEWPOINT ACADEMIC
Brick-and-Mortar Is Not Dead; Amazon Just Proved It
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The Amazon Prime service has a fee associated with it but is very similar to a loyalty program. For a yearly fee, you get expedited shipping and access to content like music, videos, and books. All the benefits are tangible and easy to understand. When you think of loyalty programs, normally what comes to mind is airlines and hospitality. While airlines and hospitality seem to have the loyalty piece figured out, it’s far from being straightforward and often has a lot of confusing fine print. Amazon Prime, on the other hand, was designed to be simple: pay this fee every year, and—bam—you get benefits. Free two-day shipping, a better price in some circumstances, free content like videos, music, books, and magazines, and access to digital services are only some of the perks. Amazon Prime is more about the customer experience and the technology itself. While most will look back and say Amazon is a technology company, I would challenge you to think about how they use technology to enhance the customer’s experience.
What Amazon has done, and some retailers have failed to do, is figured out how to create a customer experience that is conducive to the evolution of technology, economic state, and the generational differences.
Amazon Go
Amazon Go, while technically still a pilot, is a small-footprint store with minimal customer detractors. This allows the customer experience to be quick and easy. It can be considered the next generation of self-checkout. While the Amazon Go concept is still in pilot, it draws attention to the fact that Amazon is always geared toward the customer experience or at least the presentation is. Amazon Go uses advanced technology to allow the customer to go into a store, pick up an item, and leave without ever interacting with a cashier or point-of-sale (POS) system by using a smartphone and sensors throughout the store. My point with Amazon Go is not whether it is a good or a bad idea. The simple fact is that Amazon is consistently willing to try to enhance the customer experience.
Today, customers are more educated than ever on product costs, sales, and quality. The Internet allows customers to be more educated than ever and to set the tone for the experience and their expectations. Don’t forget that the demographic of the world is changing, and there are more people from more generations than ever. So how does a retailer cater to everyone? While I certainly don’t have the exact answer, I want to throw out a few things that Amazon has done to continue to grow and thrive, regardless of their success, profitability, or longevity.
JULY–AUGUST 2017
Meehan is the chief strategy officer and chief information security officer for CONTROLTEK. Previously he was director of technology and investigations with Bloomingdale’s, where he was responsible for physical security, investigations, systems, and data analytics. He currently serves as the chair of the Loss Prevention Research Council’s innovations working group. Prior to his 13-year tenure at Bloomingdale’s, he worked for Home Depot in loss prevention, and has had various technology, loss prevention, and operational roles at several other companies. He can be reached at tom.meehan@controltekusa.com.
Amazon Prime
rick-and-mortar didn’t die, and Amazon just confirmed it with its purchase of Whole Foods. Unless you live under a rock, you have seen the news related to Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods for more than $13 billion. Over 90 percent of retail purchases are made in-store today. So why all the news of store closings and retailers that are underperforming? Have all the mergers and acquisitions over the years made some retailers too big to maintain their size, or have some retailers not evolved with the change in consumer behaviors? Could it be that customer expectations have changed rapidly in the last five years with technology? What role does the Internet play?
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By Tom Meehan, CFI
Amazon Books
Amazon Books is a brick-and-mortar bookstore with a lot of extras. When you think of Amazon Books and you include Amazon Prime, it takes the best of both
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