5 ways for multichannel distributors to improve service inspired by Amazon

Testing the market with new ideas

Amazon offers a lot of services, however, this is no accident and the internet giant is no accidental empire. Amazon was not a tech triumph that came about because some geek got lucky in his dad’s garage!

Amazon is restless and always seems to be testing the market with a new idea. Some – take drone delivery for example – are truly innovative. Others, such as Fresh (grocery delivery) show it flexing its muscles, trying to leverage the brand and disrupt markets and steal market share from companies that have become complacent and take customers for granted (we can all think of examples of companies like those…).

We looked at one overarching element of its business strategy in a previous blog, ‘Lesson from Amazon: Never stop seeking opportunities to disrupt’. Here we look at some of Amazon’s specific services to see what we can learn from those.

1. Giving premium service with Amazon Prime

Introduced in 2005, Amazon Prime offers next day delivery for members paying an annual subscription fee. In some territories it provides music and video streaming services. As well as the subscription fee this makes it ‘easier’ to order from Amazon and garners loyalty.

How might your business model be modified to roll in uplifted delivery and complementary premium services for a fee?

2. Making it easy with Amazon Prime Wardrobe

Buying fashion and clothing online has always come with the downside of returning unsuitable items. Amazon Prime Wardrobe sweetens the pill by letting members try clothes on before buying and then return them for free. It’s in beta in the US but it looks certain go global in all the developed economies.

How could you make it easier for your multichannel customers to buy from you, especially where there is an unknown (like will it fit) in the purchase?

3. Style policing with Amazon Echo Look

Worried about whether your outfit matches and want to avoid making a fashion faux pas? The Echo look is an Alexa (Amazon’s Artificial Intelligence voice avatar) driven camera and speaker device that can photograph and video your outfit and provide advice and sense check your choice of dress. Bad hair days might be a bit trickier…

How could you offer advice and notes about your products through technology?

4. Discounting products with Amazon Warehouse Deals

Amazon Warehouse Deals are how the online shopping giant disposes of SKUs that it wants to offer at reduced prices. They might be brand new, returned or those that otherwise can’t be sold as brand new.

How might you present an offer for shifting lines that you want to run down quickly, or for returned and unpackaged items?

5. Slimming operations with Fulfilled by Amazon

Fulfilled by Amazon is simply Amazon using its infrastructure, staffing and capacity to deliver 3rd Part Logistics (3PL) services to companies that sell through Amazon Marketplace.

How could you utilise overcapacity and sweat the assets in your business to generate additional revenue?

Exploit opportunities and disrupt markets with BlueBridge One

Whatever ideas you have for introducing new service offers and driving growth, its more than likely you’ll need to leverage technology. ERP is critical to the efficiency of multichannel distributors and the best solutions are flexible and adaptable.

BlueBridge One is a NetSuite 5-Star Award winning system integrator that provides the services to adapt NetSuite ERP to deliver new service offers for your business. If you’ve got a great idea for a new service that you want to move forward with, why not talk to us?

To see how our cloud ERP solutions could help you set up new service offers inspired by Amazon (or anyone else!), simply get in touch today.

Click here for the blog ‘Lesson from Amazon: Never stop seeking opportunities to disrupt’.