Amazon.com is considered by most people to be a great Internet success. Ahtough they had been losing money, they have grown greatly and beginning to see some black ink.
How did Amazon achieve its success? Most pundits when discussing s;uch things, talk of investments, acquisitions, paratnerships, affiliataes, promotion, etc. No doubt excellent execution of such deals were important factors. But I am here to claim that a great portion of Amazon's success is due to the fact that it is a Learning Fountain.
Right from the beginning in 1995, Amazon developed a website which helps visitors learn. Just a few examples of what it did with books (Of course, now it sells music, dvd, electronics, software, toys, etc.):
- The site loads fast, in deference to the visitor
- They made it easy to find any book, by name, by author, by; subject
- They offered whatever commentary they could find on each book: what editors said, and what readers said
- If you told them your interest, they would notify you of the arrival of a book in a given subject or by a certain author
- Trasactions were made simple, easy, private and secure
- They tried as hard as possible to make fast delivery
When you visit Amazon, you find no self-promotion. The emphasis is entirely on you and helping you learn. You know you'll get the right information to help you make a good decision. You unhesitatingly buy.
One more point. Amazon does a lot of advertising, especially on the popular search engines. When you go to Yahoo and enter a keyword, out pops Amazon to tell you that they have a book on the subject you are concerned with. This type of ad is not manipulative. It is informative.
Amazon.com is successful because it tries to be as helpful as possible. Although no one from the company told me so, I think they believe in Helpfulness Marketing.
