Active use of digital technologies and social services creates a fundamentally new environment in which comfort and the speed of interaction between the seller and the buyer are very important. The number of customers who use online tools to make purchases is increasing, and businesses have to use all available methods to build effective communication between the brand and the consumer. The meaning of omnichannel marketing is to create favorable conditions for the clients under which they can easily select and purchase goods, receive service support, pay for the services, or find relevant information. This paper aims to analyze the success of Amazon’s application of omnichannel strategies to achieve a customer-centric experience.
Amazon uses several key strategies that demonstrate its client-oriented experience. First, Amazon focuses on customer service by using data unification to build personalized and quick interaction across every channel. It means collecting and uniting data from the customers such as purchases, demographic data, and customer behavior (Berg & Knights, 2019). Second, they integrate their channels in the backend, which involves satisfying customers’ needs in any preferable channel. Amazon Prime is another customer-centric tool that has 112 million members, despite the constant price increase (Berg & Knights, 2019). It is very popular among buyers since it assures fast and free shipping.
Another Amazon’s useful omnichannel strategy is productive interaction with clients via social media. Amazon also uses Pinterest as an addition to its main website. After clicking on a Pin from Amazon, a client is taken directly to a page on Amazon.com (Berg & Knights, 2019). This SEO strategy is built to stimulate Pinterest users to make purchases on Amazon. Amazon also uses Facebook to highlight discounts and encourage sales. Before the holidays and celebrations, the Facebook page is abundant with gift ideas and coupons from Amazon. The customers with Facebook accounts will also see products they have searched for or put on their Amazon Wish Lists (Berg & Knights, 2019). The company’s Twitter campaign is now less active on promotions than in the past. However, its activity on this social media serves to encourage as many followers as possible.
The customers who purchase online can feel the “store experience” since Amazon contributes much to communication. Being known as “Earth’s most customer-centric company” (Berg & Knights, 2019, p. 8), Amazon uses many options for interaction. With the help of a well-developed communication system, Amazon can be easily reached and its service can resolve the issues quickly. Like in an offline store, customers can compare the prices, read the detailed description, view the products in high-quality photos and videos. It creates the feeling that you see the product live. Of course, like in any online store, it is impossible to try on different styles and sizes of clothing or test household appliances. However, quick purchasing and shipping motivate people to choose online retailers.
Being a recognized leader in online e-commerce, Amazon has a well-developed mobile app. The application provides users with the opportunity to read detailed information about a product of interest and reviews of previous customers. Besides, the application has a function to compare products. You can compare prices and view product availability by barcode or product photo (Berg & Knights, 2019). Amazon app’s target audience is mostly busy people who value their time and want to buy products quickly: place an order in one click and pay for it using online payment methods.
As for the prices, clients might expect price consistency when purchasing on Amazon, but prices may significantly differ across multiple channels. When the customers first shop on the website or the mobile app and then go to the store, they can see the same product at a different price. The reason is that the app user may have some kind of discount, designed specifically for online customers (Berg & Knights, 2019). Amazon has also created algorithms that change prices many times per day depending on the product availability or demand. Amazon can lower prices as a kind of promotion to match the price of another retailer. Keeping prices stable unchanging in all possible channels means that the company can lose the online competition. For this reason, Amazon has dynamic prices based on various factors. As for the availability, Amazon occasionally goes out of stock on some frequently purchased products, and it hides a particular item page from the customer search results (Berg & Knights, 2019). Amazon does not want clients to find an item page that is sold out since it leads to dissatisfaction.
Amazon has one of its best strategies, but there is still a place for improvement, especially in product quality. The retailer now spends billions of dollars a year to combat counterfeit items. It has the most advanced data analysis systems with AI, which determine the seller of counterfeit goods by indirect signs (Berg & Knights, 2019). If there are several billion goods sold every year, and over two million sellers work on Amazon, it becomes almost impossible to carefully check each one. However, the solution to this problem will improve the customer-centric strategy of the company.
To sum up, the only method to survive in the constantly changing world of commerce is to adapt to the clients’ needs. Amazon has put a great impact on how people purchase and affected customers’ behavior. It has gained such popularity by using omnichannel and customer-centric strategies. Focusing on clients’ needs and offering exactly what people want is the key to prosperity, so many retailers can learn from this company.
Reference
Berg, N., & Knights, M. (2019). Amazon: How the world’s most relentless retailer will continue to revolutionize commerce. Kogan Page. continue to revolutionize commerce. Kogan Page Publishers.