How Retailers Win In The Age Of Amazon

A conversation with Matt Mullen, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, ProShip

Amazon finally disclosed how many Prime members it has. What does this mean for today’s retailers?

Mullen: How many other retailers have 100 million participants in their loyalty program?  Not many — if any.  If I were a retailer, I would be asking myself, why them and not me? And then identifying opportunities to deliver experiences the customers want so that I can drive loyalty.  This bears repeating — give the customer the correct experience, and they will return more frequently, spend more, and advocate for your business.

What would you tell companies aiming to compete with or beat Amazon?

Mullen: Take the online experience as seriously as you take the in-store experience.  Retailers doing business online have three opportunities to satisfy the customer: 

1. When they are on the site — do you have the right products at the right price, are they easy to find, do you have my size/color/style/shape/brand/etc. 
2. When they are checking out — do you have the options I want and need; are those options priced to meet my expectations, and
3. When the product arrives — did it get there on time; is it damaged; is it packaged well? 

Two of the three involve shipping.  Amazon started online — they understood they only had three customer touchpoints, so that is all they thought about.  They designed their business model so that the limited touchpoints they had were designed to delight the customer – how many physical retailers that are now doing business online can say the same?