The Kingdom of Calm Blog

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  It turns out that the only people who want to see reviews ordered by date are the author of the book and the people who wrote the reviews. It’s just not that valuable for customers.
• Gradual Changes
  Amazon has changed a lot of over time. But most people don’t notice because the redesign happens slowly over time. This is in stark contrast to, say, Facebook’s sudden redesign. People don’t like it when things change suddenly.
  
  • Show the new design to 5000 non-cookied visitors per day. That means switching on the new design for 45 seconds. These non-cookied visitors are the least risky; they haven’t visited Amazon before.
  • After three weeks of that, show the new design to 1 in 5 non-cookied customers.
  • After another three weeks, show 5000 cookied customers the new design.
  • Show 1 in 5 cookied visitors.
  • Show everyone.
    That’s twelve weeks to roll out one change.

• Finally, never forget the business. Jared will now share the secret of Amazon’s business.

  You can buy an iPod nano on Apple, Best Buy, etc. for about $149. Amazon sells it for $134. That’s probably cost price. It turns out that Amazon can sell almost everything at cost price and still make a product because of volume. It’s all down to the Negative Operating Cycle. Amazon turns over its inventory every 20 days whereas Best Buy takes 74 days. Standard retail term payments take 45 days. So Best Buy is in debt between day 45 and day 74. Amazon, on the other hand, are sitting on cash between day 20 and day 45. In that time, they can invest that money. That’s where their profit comes from.

  You have to start with a great business model to produce a great experience.

Read the Rest: Revealing Design Treasures from The Amazon