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Happy Thanksgiving. Hope you have a peaceful, family-oriented holiday and have chosen (as I have) to ignore Black Friday. Despite the billions of ad messages for everything from SUV’s to CPU’s with special Black Friday sale prices, I believe this retail phenomenon is fading fast in customer appeal. There are many reasons for it. Mostly that customers have figured out that they can get as good if not better discounts prior to the Friday after Thanksgiving (as we used to call it in my department store days) or almost any day prior to Christmas as just about any store of their choosing. But I think there’s another factor that’s contributing to the demise as they say in Germany of“Freitag Schwarz” (I’m going to cruise the Rhine next week so I thought I should practice my Deutsch in advance.). That factor is Amazon!
As an article recently in the New York Times pointed out, Amazon is far outpacing its competitors by building a “retail” operation that nobody can effectively compete with, especially at this time of year. Amazon’s stock performance (double in value) this year has outpaced the rest of the market. The big reason is that after years of development and investment in technology and logistics, Amazon works! It struck me as I saw the ads for Macy’s “Believe” campaign which I still think captures the spirit that made department store the Christmas headquarters for shopping several years ago. I also watched the promotions for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade that has been a tradition at our household for viewing for as long as I can remember. What struck me is that I hadn’t been in Macy’s—or any other department store– for at least a year and certainly hadn’t purchased anything at the stores for even longer. However, our family has made at least 50 purchases from Amazon (and Amazon Prime) this year. Everything from swimming pool pumps to water filters to books to videos to shoes to toys…and I could go on. And to top it all off, we had almost all of the items delivered at no cost, to our front door, the next day. And…at prices that beat most Black Friday deals this week.
It’s no surprise why Amazon’s retail sales more than doubled in the last quarter, twice the growth of Wal-Mart who does a far better job of merchandising than all of the department stores put together. Why is this happening? No surprise here either. It’s all about branding. The Amazon brand has gone far beyond the bookstore brand that gave Amazon its beginning several years ago. But the brand goes beyond just expanding what you can buy at Amazon, it’s the way they have developed a relationship with its customers and in the 
process developed a brand that resonates with so many customers today. That relationship is strengthened by the “personal” communication that out performs even the best of the traditional holiday gift stores. First, with a website that makes it so easy to find what you want, when you want, at a great price. Next with a CRM program called Amazon Prime that for an annual fee of $99 you can get free delivery, usually next day, with one click on your keyboard. You’ll get order status, shipping status, delivery status (even from the USPS), and a liberal return policy just in case you order the wrong size or color. Oh, and the return is just as easy to make. Want to watch a TV series that you missed on primetime? Prime video makes it easy to watch as simply as Netflix or Apple TV…and it’s usually free to download. Want to see if other people have purchased this product and were satisfied? Amazon’s customer rating system is comprehensive and validated so well it’s like calling a good friend who bought the product and is ready to recommend or suggest alternate items. I could go on, but these are just a few reasons why Prime now has over 40 million subscribers and growing every day (Black or not) before the holiday shopping season is over. Click on this linkview a great TV spot for Amazon Prime that really supports the brand. https://youtu.be/RpW3lfKKxPc
Amazon is a brand that lives up to its promise and exceeds customer expectations at every transaction. It’s communications are more personal than…. well, real persons. And it’s growing in brand preference at lightning speed that will keep the competition far behind for many Black Friday’s to come.
Hope you have a great Thanksgiving and a peaceful Christmas season.
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