Today’s digital age has revolutionised online shopping. Thanks to great minds like Jeff Bezos, CEO and founder of Amazon, we have found a way to buy just about anything we can think of online. With humble beginnings as an online bookshop business, Amazon quickly grew to become the world’s largest online retailer and prominent cloud services provider.
Today, Amazon is one of the 100 largest companies in America. Safe to say, Jeff Bezos has reshaped the entire industry, upping the game of how consumers connect with businesses and vice versa. Entrepreneurs can learn several things from Amazon’s success and Jeff’s career. Here are some of them!
There’s no business without your customers
Putting your customers first sounds proverbial but holds so much truth no matter your industry. “It’s the only reason that Amazon.com exists today in any form,” Bezos once said. “We’ve always put customers first. When given the choice between obsessing over competitors and obsessing over customers, we always obsess over customers.” And if you think about it, he’s right. As a business owner, you can only earn customers’ trust when you set a high standard for customer service and constantly improve the overall customer experience.
Study trends before plunging
Jeff Bezos graduated from Princeton University with a computer science and electrical engineering degree. He worked for a start-up, quickly climbing the ranks to become Senior Vice President at a Wall Street Investment Bankers Trust. Early in his career, he discovered that the fledgling World Wide Web was growing by 2,300% a year. This led him to study the top mail-order businesses, forwardly thinking that the web will soon replace mail orders. What does this teach us? To be truly successful, you need to see what is around the corner and grab opportunities that will allow you to test new things and stay ahead of the curve.
Innovation is key
Innovation is key to sustainability. Amazon started as an e-book seller, but even with the steady success it has gained, it continues to innovate and expand ever since its inception. By innovating and focusing on its product line expansion strategies, Amazon has found success in the eCommerce industry. Today, Amazon now sells just about everything. And not just that, the online retailer continues to innovate by meeting the needs of its customers. Because Amazon customers needed a way to read and consume e-books, Amazon designed and released the first-generation Kindle in 2007. The Kindle sold out within 6 hours, and to this day, it remains the top e-reader in the market.
Exceed customers’ expectations
Amazon started without a marketing budget. The only way Amazon made its rounds to people’s households was through word-of-mouth marketing. When you deliver a one-of-a-kind experience, you don’t really have to do much after. Your customers will market your business for you and tell others what is so good about your company. “If you build a great experience,” Bezos said, “customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful.”
Apply the best lessons from industry leaders and join Bartercard today
Even when your business isn’t racking up billions, there are plenty of ways to live a successful life. Just like Jeff Bezos, you too can claim business success by being an innovative risk-taker, pro-customer, and visionary that people and other entrepreneurs can look up to.
Expand your network and potential when you join Bartercard. We are New Zealand’s leading trading currency that provides your business with an opportunity to connect with people and thousands of businesses to trade with. Contact us today!
