The three secrets behind Amazon's success

Hello wonderful steemian community, how are you all doing.

So the other day i was reading “the everything store” by Brad Stone. And i decided to write a thing or two about the book or better still i decided to write about Amazon's success because i knew that there were still many people who were still struggling to find their footing in their current business and i wanted this post to serve as motivation and a pointer to those guys.

So without further adieu let's begin

Amazon started in Jeff Bezos' garage only with his vision to sell everything, everywhere. This article is a book summary of, "The Everything Store" by Brad Stone. the book shows the unique thinking Bezos had to make his dream a reality. Amazon's success is a result of MANY things they did right. Here are a few reasons why they became a company that's feared so much by its competition.

#1 Amazon Is Genuine

"We are genuinely customer-centric, we are genuinely long-term oriented and we genuinely like to invent." Page 12.

Most companies claim to be these traits but rarely are they all three. Big businesses tend to react to their competition rather than focusing on their customer. Amazon gives a good reason for customers to keep coming back for more.

For example, Bezos still makes his employees pay for parking because he'd rather spend money lowering prices... It's always customers first at Amazon.

#2 The Flywheel

Jeff Bezos runs Amazon like he's playing multiple games of chess at the same time. He favours long term strategy over short term profitability.

To the shock of book publishers, he priced all eBooks at $9.99, taking a loss on each sale. He's done this many times with many products, but why does this strategy work?

Amazon has a virtuous cycle that powers their business. Here is Amazon's "secret sauce" from page 126:

"Lower prices led to more customer visits. More customers increased the volume of sales and attracted more commission-paying third-party sellers to the site. That allowed Amazon to get more out of fixed costs like the fulfillment centers and the servers needed to run the website. This greater efficiency then enabled it to lower prices further. Feed any part of this flywheel, they reasoned, and it should accelerate the loop."

By learning how to have the lowest prices possible, Amazon gains customers, marketshare, and profit long-term. By focusing on what they're good at, Amazon is always a few steps ahead of everyone else.

#3 Innovate Fast

Despite Amazon's massive size, they still innovate quickly like a startup.

With lots of innovation comes lots of failure. Despite that, their successful ideas pay off many times over. Amazon has created products that make them much more than an eCommerce store.

One Click Checkout, Amazon Web Services, Amazon Cloud Drive, KDP, Amazon Marketplace, Amazon Prime, Amazon Instant Video just to name a few.

To support his long-term strategy and innovation, Bezos was building the Kindle before there was even a market for e-readers. If books would be digital in the future, Bezos wanted to sell all of them.

He started development with no proven market and waited for the right time to release the Kindle. He was right, and when the market was ready Amazon dominated eBook sales by over 90%.

The Kindle is just one example showing how innovation is embedded within Amazon's culture.

Summary

Jeff Bezos is similar to Sam Walton who built the Wal-Mart empire. He uses innovative and bold ideas that always revolve around his customer focus.