September 12, 2023
August 5, 2022
Amazon CEO and founder, Jeff Bezos has taken hold of a popular growth strategy and fine-tuned it to perfection. This strategy is called the “flywheel.”
The idea is that a flywheel takes a lot of effort at the start, but once it gets spinning, it continues to quickly gain momentum and spin faster. This is similar to the snowball effect, where a snowball gets pushed down a hill as it progressively gets bigger and bigger until it is nearly impossible to stop before it reaches the bottom of the hill. The difference is that a flywheel never has to stop.
Amazon has been very intentional with feeding the specific areas of its business that it believes is essential to the flywheel strategy. Here is a picture that displays Amazon’s idea of the flywheel business model:
In the image above you can see the components that Bezos obsesses over to help his company grow. The idea is that if you feed any of these areas, the whole flywheel is impacted positively.
From the very beginning of Amazon, Bezos and his colleagues have been focused on customer experience and low prices — sometimes they would produce these things at their own loss. But that’s why a flywheel takes some effort to begin. Once it starts spinning and you have the lowest prices, you have happy customers. Happy customers come back and stay loyal if you treat them well. Amazon has mastered the art of customer retention, especially since the creation of the Amazon Prime membership.
Everything that Amazon does seems to be focused on the customer experience. Whether it’s tons of Prime perks, friendly refund and return policies, or incredibly fast deliveries — Amazon continues to produce things we want before we even know we want them.
“If there’s one reason we have done better than our peers in the Internet space over the last six years, it is because we have been focused like a laser on customer experience, and that really does matter, I think, in any business. It certainly matters online, where word-of-mouth is so very, very powerful.” – Jeff Bezos
Bezos makes it clear that even though Amazon is a trillion dollar company, he doesn’t plan to slack off on customer obsession.
In order to set up a successful flywheel, you must assure that each aspect of the wheel feeds another. For instance, Amazon has excellent prices that lead to website traffic. They offer free 2-day shipping if you have a prime membership, which means that most customers will purchase a membership. Once a membership is purchased, that customer will likely buy more from Amazon to utilize their membership they’re paying for. There are even many smaller components and additional subscriptions such as Amazon Music, Audible and Amazon Pantry that add to the flywheel’s momentum.
The flywheel strategy creates a cyclical business pattern of success:
Low prices > Prime membership > customer service > more sales > extra subscriptions.
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September 12, 2023
September 12, 2023
August 5, 2022
Emily…
James comes to Podean with a wealth of marketplace knowledge having worked at Amazon Corporate for 5+ years. He worked in many different roles and groups during his time there from Seller Support to Vendor Management. From recruiting and onboarding 3P sellers to new categories, handling highly escalated executive level contacts, and managing vendor relationships he brings an inside understanding of how Amazon works. James is passionate about online retail and brings a client and customer centered approach as the Head of US Retail Operations. Before his e-commerce focused life, James worked across industries that have always focused and delivered results in customer service, account management, and inventory management.
With more than 15 years of experience Alejandro has led some of the most edgy projects in the LATAM region and has built-up high-performance teams from both agency and brand sides. Working with Havas he put together a Consumer Engagement unit for Pepsi. He led a WPP digital solution for L’Oréal and while working with Mediacom he redesigned Coca-Cola’s media team. Most recently he was a fundamental part of Danone’s media transformation into a brand salience unit. He was born and raised in Mexico City, loves being outdoors, listening to music and spending time with his 7-year-old daughter.
Danielle leads media globally for Podean. She previously led the Amazon and e-commerce division at performance marketing agency, Merkle (part of Dentsu). Danielle has deep expertise across all facets of Amazon advertising – DSP, sponsored ads, audio, out of home and beyond. She has delivered significant growth for some of the world’s largest brands including Nestle, managing tens of millions of advertising spend on their behalf.
Before Podean, Travis Johnson was Founder and President of Dentsu’s Amazon-focused consultancy, Sellwin. Prior joining Dentsu he was Global CEO of Ansible Mobile in New York, and also held CEO positions in Australia for media agencies UM, Initiative and Cadreon. He was an Adweek Media Allstar in 2017 and has won over 50 International Awards across his career.
Maddie leads our client management team and also marketing for Podean. Maddie’s team operates as an extension of our client’s teams – anticipating their needs, thinking proactively, and always delivering on time. Maddie is also responsible for all aspects of Podean marketing, from blogs and email newsletters to PR, content, and advertising.
Lizzy manages the Podean media team across any, and every, media solution offered by Amazon and other marketplaces. Whether it’s search/sponsored ads, DSP display and video, Twitch, audio or activations we have the experts to deliver. Every client that her team has worked on has seen a step-change in media effectiveness and sales versus their previous operations.
Jonathan Hawkins leads Podean’s European operations, working with clients spanning all categories. His team assists brands with every aspect of setup and optimization across the region including supply chain advice, logistics, retail operations, analytics and media management. P Before joining Podean, Hawkins was Commercial Director of Square Up media, owners of media properties including Escapism, Foodism and Square Mile. During his decade at Square Up he led editorial, content and most recently commercialisation and sales with a focus on digital products and ecommerce growth.
We have hand-picked the best and brightest Amazon talent from around the USA and the world. Our delivery team of 6 New York based, and 17 Amazon and marketplace marketing specialists ensure our clients receive the best campaign performance. They are experts in retail management, performance media optimization, but also video, analytics, AMC, voice, creative and higher impact executions.
Ashley has covered all aspects of digital marketing in his career, having led digital media for Initiative Media Australia, then managed a team of cross-functional digital salespeople at Mi9 (MSN) and was most recently the Managing Director of ecommerce conversion optimization software company, Ve. Ashley’s leadership, collaboration skills and entrepreneurial spirit drive the Australian business.
Mark is a 20+ year digital leader and before Podean was EVP at Reprise where he successfully launched IPG’s Amazon Center Of Excellence. Prior to this, Mark led mobile and innovation agency Ansible. Earlier in his career he was the Founder and CEO of Concep, an email and performance marketing agency with offices in the UK, USA and Australia.