Amazon is a lot of things including too big to fail and not paying its fair share of taxes while it Craigslists a lot of economic sectors.
However, Bezos is one sharp cookie. My bet for smartest CEO in America. One lesson I take from him is plan long term.
Most corporations look quarter to quarter; that is not strategic. They are paying attention to stock price and investors; not customers.
So lesson one is have a long term strategy. Where is the puck going? Not where is now (or worse where has it been)?
Lesson 2 is take all of the friction out of sales that you can. People say that they shop at Amazon because it is cheap. (They say the same about WalMart but actually in both cases they are not always the cheapest!) It is about convenience. It is fast with great UX design – the website, the app.
Wal-Mart e-commerce is clunky. Sears is too. Find a store; is there inventory; wait… wait; more hoops and hurdles. That is all friction!
Waiting on quotes; no e-signature for paperwork; additional paperwork; lack of communication through the FOC date; these are all friction in our industry.
Amazon lets you track every order. And handle returns online in a quick, painless process. Are any of your customer facing processes painless or frictionless?
It all comes down to frictionless customer experience (CX) which is lesson 2. Your Lesson 1 should be to improve your CX until it is frictionless.