Milestone after milestone, Amazon has grown from an online bookstore in Jeff Bezos’ garage to the world’s largest Internet company by revenue. It is also considered one of the most influential economic forces worldwide. What has predetermined your success and what steps to take to reach the same heights?
Reasons for Amazon’s success
Strategy
Amazon has adhered to the principles that have become part of its strategy from the very beginning. These include:
- Customers first; they put the customer experience at the center of everything they do, while the focus on competitors is secondary;
- Invest in technologies and improve innovations;
- The commitment to operational excellence means always looking for areas for improvement;
- Ability to think about the future.
user friendly design
Despite the fact that the interface may seem outdated compared to modern web design trends, we must pay tribute to its user experience design. Easy to use and intuitive, it aims to simplify the search and purchase processes.
In the interest of customers’ trust and convenience, Amazon focuses on providing complete and accurate product information. Details include informative descriptions, high-quality product photos (which also allow you to see products from different angles), and reviews.
convenient payments
Amazon pursues the goal of meeting the needs of all customers. For that reason, it not only provides the audience with all kinds of products, but also ensures that customers can purchase them using any convenient option. Amazon customers use numerous payment methods, including credit and debit cards such as Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and more. Plus, they can request gift cards to use toward purchases.
Fast delivery
Speed is an essential factor in the success of an ecommerce platform, and Amazon has managed to nail it. Technology plus human dexterity help process orders immediately after placing them. Thanks to the logistics algorithm and the global supply chain, Amazon employees ship packages incredibly fast. In addition, Amazon owns numerous means of transportation and delivery planes. Thus, it allows same-day and next-day shipping, which are the indisputable advantages of e-commerce.
How to make a platform like Amazon: key steps
If you have ambitions to repeat and surpass Amazon’s success, you need to start with a great business strategy. First, you have to build a minimum viable product. MVP is designed to launch the platform quickly without a large budget, and then gradually improve it to implement new features and capabilities for the company and its customers. Read on to find out what basic steps you need to take to be successful.
discovery phase
The discovery phase unites a theoretical concept of the product and its technical realization. This phase is supposed to help evaluate the product and determine the needs of the customer, end user, and interested parties. More of the discovery targets include:
- Market research
- Target Audience Research
- Definition of the unique value proposition
- Development of a product roadmap.
Other important topics to cover would be the definition of the requirements, the establishment of the essential characteristics and the estimation of the scope, the resources and the general budget of the project.
By the end of the discovery phase, you should be able to answer how to build an eCommerce platform and define your means to succeed.
Decide on the technology stack
Choosing the right technology stack ensures the proper performance of your product. Having determined all the major features, the next step you need to take is to choose the technology stack to implement the required features. The technology stack mainly depends on the requirements and budget.
Creation of the design concept
Good design creates a positive experience for your user and, as a result, helps meet their needs.
Creating the UI/UX concept means determining how the future product will work and look with convenience for customers in mind. Remember that the design concept does not show the end result of how your product will look and feel. The design concept pursues the goal of clarifying whether the chosen direction is suitable for all stakeholders: client, team, and users.
MVP Development
Launching a Minimum Viable Product means introducing the world to the product that supports the minimum but must-have features that correspond to your unique value proposition. Once the product is released, continue to maintain it to ensure that everything works as intended and continue with continuous development and improvement of the product. There is no limit to perfection, right?
Challenges of e-commerce platforms like Amazon
Following the success of a leading global company like Amazon is no easy task. Difficulties can arise even at the stage of recruiting staff. For example, there are step-by-step tips for hiring a software engineer. It is clear that hiring any specialist requires certain criteria if you want to surround yourself with quality personnel.
We recommend that you think about the possible risks that lie ahead and be prepared to face many challenges.
Highly competitive market
Amazon is a global marketplace that sells all kinds of products to the entire world. Apart from Amazon, there are giants like eBay, Walmart or Alibaba that have a large and loyal audience. Entering this market means competing with global corporations.
Logistics system
Logistics and supply chain are the central factors of Amazon’s success. When deciding to build an e-commerce platform, first of all, you need to think about the logistics system and define how exactly the products will be delivered to avoid possible delays.
Prices
Lowering prices and motivating customers to buy during sales periods is part of a marketplace strategy to attract an audience. Although, then comes the dilemma of how to stay profitable when prices go down. The answer to this question would be a dynamic pricing algorithm that aims to create an ideal price. The algorithm takes into account prices, supply, seasonality, and competitor demand. Consequently, both the market and customers will benefit from lower prices even though products will not always be cheaper than in competing markets.
Ending
Hopefully, you now understand how to start building an eCommerce platform like Amazon. For more detailed information, see the blog article on the topic How much does it cost to build a platform like Amazon.
Also Read: Top Reasons Why You Should Invest In Ecommerce
Categories: How to
Source: vtt.edu.vn