The predictions below come from Todd Krizelman, CEO and Co-Founder of MediaRadar.
Amazon’s ascent selling advertising is remarkable. In an already crowded market, it showed that it could insert itself. That’s why MediaRadar CEO, Todd Krizelman, envisions a prosperous year for the multinational technology company.
Some will find this prediction obvious, but this is hardly the case!
There is nothing inevitable about Amazon‘s success. Even this seemingly immortal powerhouse has been met with some failures.
Amazon‘s Flop
In June 2014, the company announced the launch of its first smartphone: Amazon Fire.
According to Wired, in a desperate attempt to seem “cool” and push Amazon Prime members to purchase more product, founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, created a phone. It had interesting party tricks, but was way too expensive and lacked certain capabilities smartphone users really wanted.
CNET noted that the Fire had 3D graphics and Firefly, which let consumers scan and identify thousands of products, songs, and bar codes and, then, make purchases via Amazon. But, what the phone didn’t have was access to Google Maps, Gmail, Apple iTunes, or even the Starbucks Coffee app. Plus, the starting contract price was $650.
Three months later, Amazon took a $170 million loss on the Fire phone.
Though publicly damning, this defeat taught the company a lot about mobile and, in the words of Baird analyst Colin Sebastian, it also taught Amazon “that everything they do won’t be a success.” Nothing says e-commerce acumen is transferable to building a mobile phone, or even a successful media business.
Why is Amazon Really Successful?
The company’s success is not innate, or the result of its scale. Instead, most of its accomplishments are the result of separate factors like better general management as well as …
A Culture that is Rabid
The cornerstone of Amazon is its customers, as the CEO has preached over and over again.
Not only has this become a defining principle, but, after being woven into the company’s overall strategy, it has also become one of the business’ most lucrative moves, according to an article by Business Insider.
In 2005, Bezos developed Amazon Prime, a paid subscription service that guarantees free delivery in two days, knowing full well that customers love free shipping and successful, timely deliveries.
While Jeff Bezos is customer-obsessed, buyers have become Amazon Prime-obsessed. The free and fast shipping first enticed members while the numerous other perks got them hooked.
The company even created Amazon Dash and Amazon Prime Now, which shortened delivery times to just hours.
Other perks include early access to lightening deals, unlimited photo storage, and new television and movies as well as deep discounts on products like video games, free books, commercial-free music, and even the ability to share these rewards with others.
Two cards, the Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Card and the Amazon Prime Store Card, also came about, offering members 3% rewards back for Amazon purchases, 2% at restaurants, gas stations, and drug stores, and 1% back for all other transactions, according to an article by One Good Thing.
Then, there was Prime Pantry, which relieved the stress of food shopping, and Prime Family that offered a 15% discount on eligible products and 20% off diapers, reported TheStreet.
All these efforts aim to keep customers shopping with Amazon and, for the most part, they’ve really worked, as shown by the growing list of rave reviews.
Experience Launching New Companies
Amazon has sprouted many new divisions or, in another sense, smaller companies.
In addition to Amazon Prime, it also successfully launched Amazon‘s Storefront Portal, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and others.
Amazon‘s Storefront Portal became another section of its site that lists products sold solely by small businesses.
AWS is a secure, cloud computing platform that offers reliable, affordable, and scalable services.
If Amazon has the necessary resources and knowledge to start multiple businesses, it can most likely continue doing so, profiting and expanding.
Brand and Data Safety
Instances of brand safety violations and data breaches were publicized, beginning in 2017. Big companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter were under fire.
Perhaps, the most notable transgression was YouTube‘s. Following the egregious placement of ads alongside neo-Nazis and pro-ISIS videos, the video-sharing website lost 5% of its top advertisers in the US and Canada.
Unlike YouTube, Facebook, Google, and Twitter, Amazon hasn’t committed any brand safety violations or data breaches. For the most part, that’s why the company has remained trusted by consumers and financially stable in the past couple of years.
Conclusion
We forecast 2019 to another superb year for Amazon.
As we look ahead, expect divisions of the company like AWS, Amazon‘s Storefront Portal, and Amazon Prime — as well as the growth of Amazon as a whole — to flourish in 2019. Any developments by the company will also add to its success next year, and beyond.
