Colin Bryar: E-commerce is not that simple

Jeff Bezos created Amazon on the principle that it had to be «the most customer-centric company in the world». Colin Bryar, his right-hand man for several years, continues to emphasise the relevance of this concept for online commerce.

«It sounds simple, and everyone seems to do it, but many companies create products with an approach based on their own skills – What are we good at? What market do we want to enter? – and there's not enough talk about the word 'customer'», argues the guest on this edition of the show «It's Not That Simple».

The former vice-president of Amazon believes that the most effective tool for achieving customer satisfaction is knowing how to extract the right information from data analysis. It's important to «study» consumer behaviour, «internalise» it and "learn" from it.

What do you promise your customers? When are they disappointed? How long does it take to deliver the product? What causes you to fail to keep your promises to your customers? These are the kind of questions that Amazon uses to collect the majority of its data, which is «really the raw material that provides information on how to innovate to solve real customer problems», explains Colin Bryar.

One example is the change in Amazon’s packaging. Customer feedback spurred the company on to make their packaging lighter and easier to open, rather than being made purely to protect the contents and prevent theft.

When it comes to innovation, the co-founder of Working Backwards LLC - which trains business leaders - recalls the success story of Amazon Web Services. Starting out as an online bookshop, it eventually led to the birth of the cloud computing industry.

In this interview, the engineer reveals some of the secrets that have made Amazon the world leader in e-commerce and talks about the future of the industry.