An interesting article published in Retail Customer Experience challenges retailers to think like Amazon this Holiday season. Of course, Amazon is one brand that has spent many years redefining how retail works so most executives would love to think like them and Amazon had their best ever sales day last month on Cyber Monday, so what are the recommendations?

  • Watch your data and find unusual trends: it’s always important, but customer behaviour can change during the end of year sales. Are you looking for new and unusual trends that might help you to address the customer relationship differently at this time of year?
  • Focus on the holidays: ensure your messaging is focused on the various holidays falling between Black Friday and the end of the year. Customers will be shopping for gifts in addition to bargains so make sure they have options. Many customers also start holiday shopping in October, so are you communicating early enough with them?
  • Chase new prospects immediately: your online traffic will probably soar during December. Find your prospects and get back to them immediately – don’t just wait for the launch of a marketing campaign in 2018.
  • Focus on loyalty: why is all the marketing focus on attracting new customers? Launch some personalised events or offers focused on your most loyal customers. Show them that they are valued more than ever during this holiday season.
  • Think more about your direct mail: think closely about where customers have been browsing on your site. Don’t just email every contact a link to your homepage, customise your contact and use the data you have on the behaviour of each customer. Take them back to where they were browsing in the past with a special offer.

These points strike at the heart of what Amazon does well. It’s not just about offering the widest range of products or selling at the lowest possible price. Amazon thinks carefully about their relationship with customers and offers intelligent recommendations and personalised offers.

You can follow this advice and go further. The focus on loyalty is a great idea and can be combined with data analysis to see if you can find trends related to losing customers to rivals. Can you even start predicting which customers will be great for your business and which will be lost? Think carefully about how industry giants manage these customers and replicate what you can. You can achieve a lot just by taking an Amazon approach to handling customers. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment here, or get in touch on LinkedIn.