Amazon wants you to stop filling your shopping cart — the rare anti-upsell strategy
Clear eyes, full carts, can't lose... Amazon begs to differ. Its stock just hit a record high as it enjoys record online shopping demand, but it's not all rainbows and smiles in Bezosland. Amazon is struggling to manage the insane lockdown order surge, which has led to late shipments, unavailable items, and frustrated Prime members.
- Unlike a predictable holiday surge, the COVID-19 surge came out of the blue and escalated quickly — Amazon had no time to prep its forces for the flood.
- Even with the 175K new employees it's hiring and the $500M it spent on extra pay for warehouse workers, Amazon can't handle the heat. It could take over 2 months for Amazon to regain its pre-pandemic reliability. So...
Don't even think about adding the jade roller... Amazon is doing something unheard of: it's re-working its website to make you buy less. It doesn't want your business so badly, that it even limited advertising on Google.
- Goodbye Recommendations: You went to Amazon to buy one yoga mat, but the "you might also like" algorithm was so powerful that you ended up with a full gym in your cart. Amazon is removing these "others also bought" recommendations.
- Goodbye Promotions: Prime Day is postponed indefinitely, and you can say bye to Mother's and Father's Day deals too. Promotions get you to throw stuff you don't need into your cart — Amazon's new worst nightmare.
The recommended upsell is Amazon's greatest trick... Recommendations have the same effect as the new episode that auto-plays after you promised it was "the last one" — they're key to boosting sales/consumption. 35% of Amazon sales and 75% of Netflix views come from personalized recommendations. Personal preference data is marketing gold, and it's the secret to Amazon's retail profits. Removing these recs only highlights their effectiveness.