Comment by block_dagger
20 days ago
After looking at the history of Amazon, I'm convinced their early success was due more to ruthless business practices than being an especially good book store.
20 days ago
After looking at the history of Amazon, I'm convinced their early success was due more to ruthless business practices than being an especially good book store.
Ruthless business practice? Maybe too, but very good customer support from my point as a customer, e.g.
- a shopping cart which kept my choices forever. I remember a startup clone about 20+ years ago here in Europe, whose shopping cart automatically cleared after 24 hours. That was annoying if you wanted to look for some reviews for a book later in, before deciding to buy.
- the suggestions engine "customers who bought this also bought..." was excellent 20 years ago, especially for niche products. It helped me find a lot oft interesting music, once CDs where added to the shop.
- customer comments/reviews on products. And comments on reviews, correcting facts more often than not.
Most of this started to degrade years later. No comments on reviews any more, no downvotes on bad reviews, fake reviews, "sponsored" products "suggested" in extreme, etc.
The thing I always remember was a former colleague bought a TV from Amazon in about 2008. He got an email a few weeks later from Amazon saying that they'd refunded some of his money, as the TV had gone on sale not long after he'd bought it. That is insanely good customer service.
Don't forget one click to pay. Remove all friction from the payment process.