Bricks and mortar retailers, don't throw in the towel yet!

It’s a little easy to get overwhelmed by Amazon, the e-commerce giant. As a huge presence in retail, they have been extremely successful; light years ahead of everyone with incredible logistics and a prime account which makes buying online a no-brainer. Before admitting defeat or trying to take Amazon head-on, let’s first look at a partial SWOT analysis of Amazon. What are their strengths and what are their weaknesses:

Strengths

1. Wide variety of products

2. Low cost structure

3. Third party sellers

4. Synergy between the Marketplace, Prime, and AWS

5. Logistics

Weaknesses

1. Customer Service (Jeff Bezos doesn’t agree with me but I’ll explain below)

2. They don’t provide a compelling customer experience

3. They are not nimble

Opportunities for Retailers

Rather than become Amazon 2.0, retailers should identify their own strengths and determine where they can distinguish themselves. Some segments are in a better position (such as Dollar stores) but Amazon is coming after them as well. However, I believe everyone can compete successfully with the right strategy. The key to developing a successful strategy is to make sure that it is designed with the Amazon of the future in mind not the Amazon of today. I believe that one of the best ways for retailers to be competitive is to fully optimize their customer experience. Multiple articles claim that Amazon is superior in customer service and even Jeff Bezos claims it as Amazon’s greatest strength. I disagree. Have you ever tried to return an item to Amazon before you received it? How about when Amazon claims your package was delivered but it’s absolutely not there? Amazon claims that it can take up to 48 hours for you to receive a package that has been marked as delivered. What? How exactly does that make sense? As humans, we seek out personal interaction and I don’t see Amazon providing that. They excel at solving most customer service problems but what about those that aren’t typical? If you can tap into those customers, they become brand ambassadors and you can be certain they will tell everyone they know about their exceptional experience. Fill that void!