A 20,000-word article reveals in depth the growth hacking strategy of Amazon’s 100 billion revenue

Amazon , an e-commerce company known as "the biggest store on earth", has more than 2 billion website visitors per month.

Based on Amazon's average sales growth rate over the past five years, its sales are expected to reach $303 billion by 2020.

In this 20,000-word article, Growth Officer Research Institute will reveal to you in depth Amazon’s eight growth hacker marketing strategies. You can selectively apply them in your own projects.

The eight growth hacking marketing strategies are:

Now, let us explain them to you one by one with pictures and texts. This article is a bit long, nearly 20,000 words, and was translated from Sumo by 1K, a member of the Growth Officer Research Institute. The original title is "How Amazon Generates $136 Billion In Sales".

Tip 1: Amazon’s PPC ( pay-per-click advertising ) on ​​Google strives to improve “ad relevance”

Amazon has run more than 5.8 million pay-per-click ads on Google AdWords, Bing, and Yahoo for more than 6 million keywords .

Such a large-scale keyword advertising corresponds to a huge workload. For this reason, Amazon uses "Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI)" technology to make the keywords you are searching for automatically appear in the title and description of the advertisement based on the preset advertising template.

For example, here are three completely unrelated products. After entering the keywords into Google, Amazon’s ads will show the following styles:

Keywords: Potential Massager

Keywords: Phillips screwdriver size 0

Keywords: open toe stockings

By using Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI), Amazon can improve the quality of ads and make them more closely match the keywords that users search for.

Amazon's ad quality score is determined by the following three factors:

1. Expected click-through rate (i.e. a measure of how likely people are to click on your ad versus another ad)

2. Ad relevance (i.e. how well the ad matches the keyword)

3. User experience of the landing page

To improve the above three factors, Amazon uses DKI to increase expected click-through rate and ad relevance, and then takes you to the product catalog page on the website sorted by "relevance".

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At the same time, Amazon has also developed a system to ensure that its millions of products always rank high on Google when users search using different keywords :

Amazon doesn’t rank first on average for every keyword, but it consistently outranks millions of other advertisers (including Walmart and Target) in average ad placement on search results pages.

Here’s a typical Amazon search result template:

Based on the above search result template, Amazon also uses the following copy variations:

#1. Insert dynamic keywords in title 1

• [Product Name] at Amazon®
• Shop [Product Name]
• [Product Name]

#2. Title 2

• Store [Product Category Name]
• Free 2-day delivery/free membership experience
• Amazon.com Official Website

#3. Display URL

• [Main categories]
• [Main Category]/[Sub Category]

#4. Seller Rating

• Only displayed if there are 150+ reviews and a rating of 3.5+ stars

#5. Insert dynamic keywords into the description sentence

• [Product Name] Super bargain. Free shipping on some orders.
• Great value for [product name]. Free 2-day delivery/free membership experience
• Find deals for [product name] in [category name] on Amazon

#6. Description Supplement

• Read ratings and reviews
• Save money by paying low prices
• The online store offers a huge selection
• Try Free Membership
• Live Video
• Explore Prime Music
• Browse Amazon Devices

#7. Site Link Extension

• Amazon Gift Cards
• Amazon Prime
• Prime Instant Video
• Prime Photo
• Amazon Prime - Student
• Shop by Category
• [Product Category]

Based on the variations between ad titles and descriptions that I studied, Amazon could be running as many as 297 sets of ad text tests for any given product, with variations in each set of ads.

The following screenshot shows how to set up a similar ad in your own Google AdWords account (note the use of dynamic keyword insertion in the title 1 and description):

Amazon's Secret URL is a URL generated based on the search keywords. Amazon captures the keywords that users search for in Google and dynamically adds them to the end of the URL, allowing users who come from a Google search to jump to a customized page.

The following is what the URL will look like. If you search for “open toe stockings” on Google and then click on Amazon’s ad on Google, you will see that Amazon has dynamically appended the search term to the end of the URL:

Amazon programmatically generates personalized landing pages using the AdWords API + the keywords you searched on Google.

Without a web developer, you probably won’t be able to accomplish something similar to what Amazon does; however, there is a simple alternative that can generate more relevant Google ads for your e-commerce site. This is the use of Google Adwords' ad groups feature.

The ad groups feature provides advertisers with a great opportunity to test different ad titles and texts. One advertisement can be added to one ad group, and the effectiveness of each keyword can be tested in the ad group.

• Step 1: Create a single keyword ad group (SKAG)
• Step 2: Place your product keywords in this ad group
• Step 3: Create an ad targeting your product keywords
• Step 4: Link all searches for the product keyword to the product page
• Step 5: Add negative keywords based on whether the traffic is qualified or not (negative keywords, a keyword list that can widely filter out non-target keywords.)

This may be one way you can beat Amazon - by more accurately directing traffic to the most suitable landing page through personalized keywords.

Tip 2: "Promote products at a loss" on the front end, and generate more than 4 times the return on investment from the back end

As of 2016, the Kindle Store has over 4.6 million best-selling titles, making it the world's largest e-book retailer and still growing.

As early as 2011, Amazon's fastest-growing products were the Kindle and related digital content, and by the following year it accounted for more than 10% of the company's profits. Today, Amazon dominates the international e-book market with its Kindle and the vast selection of e-books available in its ecosystem.

The Kindle Store attracts customers in two ways:

What is most interesting is that Amazon sells Kindles at a loss and then makes a profit from the digital content .

Amazon has seen that when users have a Kindle, they spend more money than those who only use the Kindle App.

So, they are willing to sell Kindles at a loss for the sake of future increased revenue, as these Kindle owners will then purchase and use digital content and generate profits for Amazon.

Use a one-time loss to sell a product, and design a simple and effective plan to encourage users to continue purchasing in the future, thereby earning more profits. Amazon lost an estimated $500 million+ on Kindle devices (the front end), but made over $2 billion in profits on e-books, music, movies /TV shows, advertising, and apps (the back end).

Selling the Kindle at a loss is an investment in customer loyalty. Once customers get their Kindles, they buy their digital content from Amazon. Therefore, Amazon emphasizes providing digital content that is highly relevant to its Kindle.

One example of this is their Kindle Unlimited e-book subscription service. Subscribers can access more than one million digital titles in the Kindle Store for $13.99 per month.

Amazon promotes Kindle Unlimited by using a pop-up on its Books page. When you use your Kindle to view a book, you will immediately see a pop-up window. Amazon uses “visibility rules” so the pop-up window will only appear on the product page if the book can be read on Kindle.

Takeaway: The pop-up uses the product image on the page to add personalization and increase conversions . This is Amazon’s strategy to increase profits on digital content, so they can convert their “loss-making” products into sustainable revenue in the future.

Amazon also uses Kindle to present their advertisements in front of customers and try to immerse customers in Amazon's product chain. Here is an example of an Amazon fireTV ad – “Special Offers on Kindle”.

Note: Back in 2011, when the third-generation Kindle was released with ads, it was $75 cheaper than the standard 3G version ($114 vs $189). This is a strategy Amazon uses to make the price of the Kindle more affordable while earning back the money from promoting other products.

Loser-price promotions like the Kindle are a marketing strategy for many businesses. Here are some examples:

1) Loss-making promotional products – cheap razors.

Why are companies selling these products at a loss? Because razor manufacturers plan to profit from the replacement razor blades that users will later purchase.

2) Loser promotion products – Black Friday deals with huge discounts.

Why are companies selling these products at a loss? Stores hope to profit from the extra customers who come into the store to see the big sales.

3) Loss-making promotional products – mobile phones.

Why are companies selling these products at a loss? Cell phone companies want to profit from the cell phone plans that customers must pay in order to use their new phones. (Fan Bing's note: China's Internet mobile phone ecosystem manufacturers obviously have a deeper understanding and practice of this)

4) Loss-making promotional products – milk and eggs.

Why are companies selling these products at a loss? Supermarkets want people to come into the store and make a profit on the other items they will eventually buy.

Selling loss-making promotional products on the front end isn’t ideal for every business or product.

There are two situations where this strategy is well suited:

Case 1: Your loss-making promotional product requires your customers to repurchase in the future in order to use it properly (such as using a razor requires purchasing razor blades or using a printer requires purchasing ink).

Situation 2: Your goal is to attract new customers to your store, and you believe these customers will make more purchases after experiencing your products (e.g., Black Friday sales attract many new buyers, milk and eggs draw people into the store, prompting them to purchase high-margin items on your platform or store).

Tip 3: Use charitable programs to give back and make a profit

Amazon established the Amazon Smile Foundation to allow customers to do charity while shopping. This is its page:

Nearly one million charities are Amazon Smile partners.

Amazon has donated more than $62 million to charities since October 2013. Considering how much money Amazon made from the program, the $62 million they donated is nothing. You’ll find that Amazon Smile is a program that is aligned with charities, which are often particularly active in participating in such activities due to lack of funds.

Like all classic affiliate programs, AmazonSmile lets their “partners” (in this case, charities) do the work of promoting Amazon for them. The additional profits Amazon earns from the program far exceed the donations to these charities.

Donations are calculated at 0.5% of sales, so for every $10,000 in sales Amazon makes through the AmazonSmile site, $50 will be donated to charity. Moreover, unlike other affiliate programs, such charity events have other benefits, such as:

In order to make the affiliate program run smoothly and effectively, Amazon knows that the key is to make it easy for partners to promote . Once you register as a charity, Amazon will provide you with all the “marketing tools ” you need to promote your AmazonSmile charity link.

This is what it looks like after registering as a charity on Amazon:

As you can see below, some of the marketing tools they offer are “personalized web banner ads” and “ social media messages on Facebook and Twitter,” as the Amazon Smile welcome email explains:

This is consistent with Shopify's successful membership program approach. Doing so will not only make it easy for partners to promote Amazon Smile, but also make promotions more effective. Here are some examples of how our partners (charities) are using these marketing tools:

• Banner advertisement at the bottom of the website (California Historical Radio and Television Association)
• Banner advertisement at the top of the website (Rowan Tree Foundation)
• Links in blog posts (Kids World)

• Amazon Prime Day Facebook Post (Hot Discussion Foundation)
• Facebook holiday banner ad (Delaware Valley Siberian Husky Rescue). Notice how Amazon uses tags in Facebook to track and promote their ad campaigns:

All of these charities (and nearly a million other partners) are promoting Amazon to users in Asia. This is exactly what you want – to have your partners motivate old customers to buy more from you while exposing your brand to new customer segments.

People see Amazon mentioned again and again on different websites and social media , which increases Amazon's brand awareness and makes people think of Amazon first when they need to make an online purchase.

If you can’t donate a percentage of your turnover to charity, or you sell products that don’t have broad market appeal, there are other ways you can tie charity into your business, such as:

• Create a one-day sale where a portion of the day's sales are donated to charity.
• Donate products to charities that can introduce your business to your audience.
• Host a live event with a local charity (like a charity marathon, charity bike ride, fundraising dinner, or comedy night).
• Partner with charities that use (or could use) your products.
• Sponsor a youth sports team that has the same fan base as you do.

In order for charitable programs like Amazon Smile to work, Amazon needs to make their site visitors feel like they’re giving back when they buy anything on Amazon. Let's see how they do it:

If people don’t go directly to the Amazon Smile page or end up on the Amazon Smile page through a charity promotion, Amazon lets users know about the promotion through a pop-up on its product page:

Using small text descriptions below the call to action button (CTA) in the pop-up window can increase click-through rate. Amazon uses small print below its “Select a Charity” CTA button so you know the process of selecting a charity will be quick and you can return to continue your online shopping.

These pop-ups are seen by millions of site visitors every month, and Amazon really wants users to know that they are willing to donate to your favorite charity and be known as a company that gives back.

But even if you choose a charity, that doesn’t necessarily mean Amazon will donate. Donations are only made if you purchase through the Amazon Smile website - it's not automatic and isn't done for every purchase (unless you download a special web extension).

If you’re a forgetful impulse shopper or someone who buys on a mobile phone, there’s a good chance you’ll go straight to the normal Amazon page unless you see the pop-up prompt (which is triggered when you select a charity and then visit an Amazon product page).

Amazon did this intentionally. They could have given you an option in Amazon settings to donate to your favorite charity and tie it to your Amazon account, but they don’t. Also, Amazon Smile does not have a mobile app.

Amazon does this for several reasons:

• Charities, in an effort to get more donations, constantly promote Amazon on their websites and social media accounts.
• Amazon will not be forced to pay more in donations, protecting its own profit margins.

Here’s how to measure this (using 2016 as an example):

• Amazon's sales in 2016 were $136 billion ($124 billion in product sales and $12 billion in web services)
• Amazon's profit in 2016 was $2.4 billion

If Amazon required every purchase to be tied to a charity, Amazon would lose $600 million in profits ($124 billion x 0.5%). This is equivalent to 25% of the total profit for the year.

Obviously not everyone will join the program, especially people outside the US (not all Amazon transactions come from their online store), but even if 50% did, that would reduce profits by $300 million. So in order to maintain healthy net margins (Amazon's margin is 1.7%) and continue to expand (such as its $13.7 billion purchase of Whole Foods), Amazon only donates when purchases are made through the Amazon Smile page.

Speaking of charitable alliances, Amazon's real moneymaker is the Amazon Partner Program. The program is one of the oldest and largest affiliate programs in the world.

Here’s how it works:

This classic partner program has many things in common with the Amazon Smile program. They all:

• Let affiliates do the promotion work for them
• Give affiliates some rewards (up to 10% of sales)
• Provide their affiliates with pre-prepared marketing materials to help them promote Amazon easily and effectively

The three main differences between the two plans are:

• Almost anyone can become an affiliate of the Amazon Partner Program, but only charities can become affiliates of the Amazon Smile Program.
• Amazon's partner program requires you to go to the branch's official website to use it, but you can directly visit the Amazon Smile website and select a charity
• Amazon Smile partners receive a commission of 0.5% of sales, while partners in the Amazon Partner Program receive a commission of 1-10%.

And, because Amazon has such a broad audience, leveraging a more traditional partner program allows the brand to be exposed to as many people as possible.

To ensure that affiliates in the Partner Program are successful in their partnership, Amazon provides them with different types of marketing materials. For example, while the marketing materials for the Amazon Smile program also mention “Amazon Gives Back” and “Amazon Promotions,” the marketing materials they give to Partner Program members are more specific.

Below is just one example of a Shopping Ads module that Amazon provides to members of its Partner Program, showing Amazon’s related product recommendations on their website based on the content of their pages.

Ultimately, this helps Amazon’s partners personalize and promote Amazon products in a way they believe will best appeal to their audience. For example, a food blogger could use these ads to promote the cooking tools he mentions on his blog.

With this, Amazon increases the relevance of their products to their partners’ audiences, resulting in a win-win for all. Amazon only needs to invest in the one-time cost of producing marketing materials; then their partners will do the rest for them.

Key takeaway: Partner with affiliates whose audiences are highly relevant to the one you want to attract, and build a two-way collaboration: They promote you through pre-made marketing materials you provide; you promote them to customers on your website. (Amazon partners with charities and donates 0.5% of product sales to them. Charities promote products through pre-made website banners and social posts; Amazon promotes the charity program through pop-up dialog boxes on product pages. There is also a more traditional partner program, in which members can earn a 10% commission.

Tip 4: Use the five major conversion elements on the product page to effectively increase the order rate

On Amazon product pages, you’ll find five marketing strategies to increase purchase rates, including:

• Community Proof
• Perceived Value Pricing
• Scarcity and urgency
• Direct Buy Button
• Upsell and cross-sell

While this may seem like too many conversion elements on a single product page, the details on these pages are part of Amazon’s strategy to drive people to purchase and increase order rates.

If these pages weren’t designed just right, they probably wouldn’t be selling billions of their products every year.

Part of what makes Amazon’s product pages so effective is the 5 conversion elements they use to convert people from product browsers to product buyers. For example, here’s what the product page for a keychain on Amazon looks like above the fold:

Product Page Conversion Element #1: Community Proof

When a customer arrives at a product page, the first thing they’re likely to do is look at those yellow stars (ratings) — indicating how many people like (or don’t like) the product.

There’s a reason Amazon put this community testimonial front and center.

Before people even think much about price or need, they see what other people are thinking. If they see that other people have rated a product highly, they’re more likely to click and buy it.

You can do the same on your product pages by adding:

• Star-based reviews
• Text Comments
• Customer feedback and product testimonials

Here are 12 examples of proof of community you can use in your business:

https://sumo.com/stories/social-proof-examples

Product Page Conversion Element #2: Perceived Value Pricing

No matter what product you see on Amazon, it always seems to be on sale.

However, it doesn’t matter whether they are actually on sale (or whether Amazon says they are on sale). As consumers, we simply can’t help but want to buy discounted products.

Take careful note of how Amazon does this (there may be more steps than you think):

• Step 1: They deleted the “original” price ($17.99)
• Step 2: They show the “discounted price” ($8.99)
• Step 3: They highlight free shipping on orders over $25
• Step 4: They remind the customer again how much they saved in dollars ($9.00) and percentage (50%)

Do the same thing on your product pages, use the perceived value of your product as your price, and follow Amazon’s four-step pricing approach.

Note: Be very careful when displaying raw prices. Amazon used to display the original list price. But after Amazon and other retailers faced a series of "fake discount lawsuits," Amazon began to stop using list prices altogether.

Now, if they use this perceived value pricing, their “original price” is what the item sells for on Amazon.

Something to remember is that Amazon is always testing and trying new things. So, they seem to be constantly changing prices and how they present prices in order to test what works best to get the most sales.

For example, the screenshot above was taken a few weeks ago. However, when I return to the same product page, I can see that they are now simply presenting the price as a number, without any additional promotion:

The current pricing presentation is not about the deal, but about making the offer for Prime membership (Amazon's sustainable revenue) stand out.

Amazon also has a complex dynamic pricing strategy , and its prices fluctuate frequently. This is done to ensure that customers see Amazon as the most affordable platform to buy from.

They achieve this by undercutting competitors like Walmart by heavily discounting the products you see the most (i.e. the most popular products and the most reviewed products).

They then adjust the prices of products that are not in high demand to normal or higher than their competitors.

All in all, this dynamic pricing strategy helps Amazon’s discounts be just enough to convince customers that Amazon is always the cheapest option without sacrificing its own profitability.

PS: If you’re still struggling to come up with the right price for your product, here are 9 psychological pricing strategies (you’ll find some of them are what Amazon is using)

Product Page Conversion Element #3: Scarcity and Urgency

One of the most direct and effective marketing strategies is to use scarcity to tell buyers that only a few items are left (“Only 12 left in stock – hurry”). Not only does scarcity compel buyers to order before stock sells out, it also leads consumers to believe that the product is popular or frequently purchased (thus further fueling social proof).

Amazon then uses a sense of urgency to tell buyers that if they want the item to arrive on a certain date, they must order it within a certain time frame (“3 hours and 19 minutes”). This increases the chances of people buying on Amazon rather than elsewhere because if they buy quickly, they can get the guarantee that it will arrive tomorrow.

By following the Amazon example above or by reading this article, you’ll learn 9 ways to leverage scarcity in marketing: https://sumo.com/stories/scarcity-marketing

Product Page Conversion Element #4: Buy Button

To prevent cart abandonment, Amazon has built a shopping system that allows people to make purchases with just one click (after entering and saving the checkout form, only one click is required to pay and fill in shipping information).

This makes buying things too easy and fast (just “one click”), so customers don’t have time to reconsider their purchases.

Amazon patented the technology in 1999, but now that the patent is off, anyone can use it to reduce cart abandonment.

There is no ready-made way to implement one-click purchase technology on your product pages, but if you have a lot of e-commerce transactions on your website, you may consider investing in software development resources to implement this requirement.

Product Page Conversion Element #5: Upsell and Cross-sell

Even if you don’t buy what’s on the product page you’re browsing, Amazon is truly the king at making sure you’ll buy something. They extend the length of the page with an impressive series of upsell and cross-sell modules.

When I search for “keychain” in “all” products on Amazon and then click on a product in the product list, this is what the top of the product page looks like:

Whenever you view products in the Automotive > Interior Accessories category, Amazon displays the Select Model filter via a visibility rule. Knowing that you’re looking at auto parts, Amazon offers you a filter bar that personalizes your search for more auto products.

When you come back to view more car accessories, Amazon will automatically save your car to "Your Garage" so that you can easily purchase more personalized car accessories:

If I scroll down, I end up selecting additional products in the Frequently Bought Together section:

Amazon showed me another related product that I could get a discount on if I bought both together.

If I continue to scroll, Amazon will suggest other products for me to choose from (including “Related Products” and “Users who bought this item also bought”):

The "Related Products" module is an advertisement for suppliers who sponsor Amazon. The usage scenario is that if you still need a keychain but are not interested in the keychain on the current page, this module can provide more options. The “Also Bought” section is the same, the only difference is that these are not sponsored by advertisers.

Just below those two sections, Amazon has a free product comparison chart for comparing the product you’re viewing to other related products:

Amazon doesn’t care if you buy the product you’re browsing, they just want you to buy something. Therefore, it is beneficial for them to make you feel that you are buying the best product for you. Displaying product comparison charts can make you think you are buying the right product without having to visit other websites.

The next section of the product page contains product information provided by the supplier, customer questions and answers, and reviews. The page then ends with more upsell and cross-sell recommendation sections (such as “Customers who viewed this item also viewed” and “Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations” sections).

To give you an idea of ​​how often Amazon upsells and cross-sells on a single product page, take a look at the entire product page below, with the red circled section:

I know that was a lot of coverage, so here’s a quick recap of what this transformation element says:

• Personalized search (let me search for other accessories based on my car model)
• Bundle deals and Frequently bought together
• 「Products related to this」
• "Customers who bought this also bought"
• Product Comparison Chart
• "Users who viewed this product also viewed"
• 「Your recently viewed products and recommended items」

Product Page Conversion Element #6: Smart Bar

Take a look at this screenshot again:

When I scroll down the page and get to the halfway point (50% of the way down the page), the bar pops up and stays at the top.

This smart bar is a clever way to nudge you into making a purchase using a “last chance” strategy. Depending on the product, Amazon drives scarcity by mentioning free shipping to attract customers or by mentioning its limited inventory.

Key takeaways from this paragraph: Make sure your product page has the following six key elements to boost conversions: community proof, perceived value pricing, sense of urgency and scarcity, direct buy buttons, upsells and cross-sells, and smart bars.

Tip 5: Use a short 14-second product video ad to achieve viral marketing

Amazon has mastered the art of creating video ads with their “show, don’t tell” strategy for the Amazon Echo smart speaker with their #JustAsk campaign. At this event, the main goal was to show the audience what the Echo could do, rather than explaining it in words.

These videos have been viewed over 10,000,000 times on YouTube . Here are some classic examples:

http://socialbeta.com/t/amazon-made-more-hundred-10-second-ads-asking-echo-funniest-things

Small video ads like this are great because:

• They are short (most ads are 30 seconds or less).
• They are very interesting.
• They show real functionality (each ad shows a different feature and scenario).

Amazon has produced more than 100 of these short video ads, each showing a short story centered around asking Alexa, the Amazon Echo voice assistant, a fun question. The ads ran on television and YouTube. It’s these little stories that inspired Amazon to create these ads, and it’s these little stories that make the campaign so simple and effective.

According to Amazon, many of the stories in these videos are taken from actual product reviews of the Echo on Amazon's website.

This is a great example of using quotes from your users (a tried and true copywriting tactic).

If you’re stuck on what to say when you’re writing an email, composing website copy, or planning a video ad, take a moment to read what your customers (or potential customers) are saying. Research what people think about your product, and what people think (like or dislike) about your competitors’ products.

You can browse by:

• Amazon Reviews
• Other review sites in your industry (Yelp, G2 Crowd, etc.)
• Related forums or message boards
• Facebook Group
• Reddit subreddits

For example, if I were selling motorcycle jackets, here are three places I might want to look.

• Amazon's Best Selling Motorcycle Jackets Reviews:

• Thoughts on choosing the right motorcycle jacket on motorcycle forums:

• Discussion on Reddit about buying your first motorcycle jacket:

When you know your customers better than they know themselves, you can create content and ads that convert like crazy.

Key takeaway: Study what your customers are saying through comments, forums, and social media communications. Come up with a high-converting campaign (Amazon created over 100 video clips shorter than 30 seconds using real Echo reviews as part of their #JustAsk video ad campaign on TV and Youtube).

Tip 6: Lightweight “pop-up stores” sell products based on customer location

If your current business is entirely online, then this experience is obviously not comparable to putting your product in front of your customers.

Not only does this increase customer awareness of your products, it also gives them a chance to test them for themselves, an opportunity that an online store simply can’t provide.

for example:

• If you sell electronics or software products, customers will have the opportunity to ask questions and watch a demonstration when they see it in person.
• If you sell clothes, customers can see them in person and have the opportunity to try them on to see if they fit.
• If you sell food or drinks, customers can see it in person and have the opportunity to taste it before buying.

While Amazon has been considering opening traditional brick-and-mortar stores across the country, they are also trying out a better idea: pop-up stores.

The following is an introduction to their pop-up store on Amazon’s official website:

Amazon opened some pop-up stores as a pilot a few years ago. By the end of 2017, they had expanded to more than one hundred pop-up stores across the United States. These stores are a big reason why Amazon devices (Echo, Fire TV, Fire Tablets, etc.) have been so successful.

Just one Amazon product, the Echo smart speaker with Alexa voice assistant , can bring Amazon an estimated $10 billion in 2020. People can use Alexa to place orders, and developers use Amazon Web Services (AWS) to support applications on Alexa.

Pop-up stores can ① increase the awareness of new products for Amazon ② guide customers ③ increase product sales ④ support free product returns and exchange channels (a small number of customers will be dissatisfied with the product).

This is a place where customers can test Amazon products, ask experts for advice, and buy accessories.

For e-stores (or online personal sellers), this is an excellent channel for them to bring their products to customers everywhere. The following picture is an Amazon pop-up store located in the Kohl's B uc ktown mall in Chicago, Illinois :

Just recently, Amazon announced that they are setting up a pop-up store in its latest acquisition of Whole Foods supermarket.

Many reasons can explain why pop-up stores beat resident stores, and these are the reasons Amazon chose them. Compared with traditional physical stores, pop-up stores:

• Cheaper → You still have to pay store rent, create showcases and hire employees, but in the short term it is still cheaper than resident stores
• Lighter → You can place the store in your customer location, whether it is in a mall, a farmers' market, or a large downtown event or nightlife
• Safer → If a location has a bad market or produces low profits, you can move elsewhere (rather than being forced to stay in place)
• More flexible → You can reduce or expand your business scope as needed (typical storefronts are not easy to do)
• Low burden → You can only open or discounted on specific festivals, or you can open for a long time.

Remember that your pop-up store doesn't need to be big or renovated. The key is to put your product in front of the target customers. This can be done on a small scale, such as renting mall newsstands, making demonstrations at gatherings where target customers appear, or testing similar to Amazon truck sales (see the image below to see how it works).

Here are the demonstrations of how three companies (covering large and small) perform this lightweight pop-up store:

1) Small indoor flash display cabinet (Rivet & Sway Glasses Company’s flash display cabinet in high-end salon):

2) Large outdoor pop-up exhibition hall (Popular exhibition hall placed by Adidas at the Spring Festival in Barcelona):

3) Dining truck-style flash display cabinet with wheels (Penguin Publishing Group's display cabinet during Christmas in London):

As you can see, no matter your budget or product, you can always find many ways to build your pop-up store.

Core refinement of this paragraph: Try to apply a new sales channel to your e-commerce business to present your product to your target customers (Amazon does this through pop-up stores and other attempts such as Amazon truck sales.)

Tips 7: 3 successful strategies for increasing sustained revenue for Amazon Prime members

Amazon Prime is a popular service that provides subscribers with various privileges, such as free two-day delivery. It costs $99 per year or $10.99 per month.

It also provides Amazon users with unlimited access to streaming services (including videos and music), borrowing Kindle books, storing photos, and some other privileges.

Amazon Prime has become a profitable tool not only because it has a massive number of registered users, but also that Prime users can generate three times more spending per year than non-Prime users.

Amazon Prime's success can be attributed roughly to three factors:

• #1 Focus on a key selling point
• #2 Put the registration option in a prominent position
• #3 Use the valid "Free first, then pay" method

Let's analyze it carefully one by one.

Amazon Prime Success Strategy #1: Focus on a Key Selling Point

Back in 2005, Prime's first appearance only had two-day free shipping content (all other "privileged features" were added later).

No one likes to pay shipping or is forced to wait for express delivery, so Amazon found a stimulus for customers in an environment where customers paid more than 4-6 days of shipping fees themselves.

The decision was risky at first, and Amazon lost millions of dollars in shipping profits in the first year. But they did go the right path with free delivery.

Even today, Prime's free two-day shipping service is still a big selling point, and it is this service that allows nearly 80% of users to sign up for Prime.

Amazon realized very early on that free two-day shipping would be its main selling point, and the service is now developing faster shipping (such as same-day shipping or two-hour shipping in certain U.S. cities).

Free two-day shipping is also the most emphasized privilege Prime (because Amazon knows that people love this service the most and it is the most convenient for everyone to understand):

In other words, Amazon found a key selling point that stimulates customers and then focused on making it better (it was wise to focus on something you already know your customers care about. This practice inspired a viral marketing campaign, bringing 3.8 million organic searches to MailChimp, a mail subscription tool).

But when Amazon started to see the growth of member users, they started adding new privileged services to Prime, such as video streaming, photo storage, e-book borrowing and more.

Why is Amazon adding these free services to Prime? Because Amazon Prime members spend an average of $1,900 more than non-members:

Since Amazon acquired Whole Foods, they announced that Prime members will receive shopping discounts and other offers in-store soon.

For convenience, Amazon will also allow people to pick up or return items they purchased on Amazon from Whole Foods of their choice (like choosing a family to pick up couriers).

In other words, while Amazon Prime may have expanded its scope, they remain true to their main selling points.

Amazon Prime Success Strategy #2: Put the registration option in a prominent position

After Prime was launched, Amazon did not see the growth they expected until they began offering a 30-day free trial of Prime to buyers of new product Fire tablets.

Obviously, the decision to attach a 30-day free trial to the release of new products is a key point in Prime membership growing rapidly and getting users to register.

To help attract new Prime members and allow them to choose to pay to continue using it after the trial, Amazon does everything it can to make Prime more attractive. They launched two main benefits earlier that year (both can be easily used on users’ new Kindle): Prime Instant Video Member Instant Video and eBook Borrowing.

Ultimately, Amazon opened this free trial option to everyone.

Paying $99 immediately (the annual fee for Prime) can be a bit expensive for many prospects. But with the addition of free trials, there is no reason for customers not to try it (especially because they can start saving shipping costs right away).

And, with benefits like free two-day delivery, Amazon doesn’t need to do a lot to convince buyers. If someone is planning to buy something from Amazon but they haven't tried Prime yet, there's no reason they don't try it.

How did Amazon identify this advantage and let people try Prime on their product pages?

If I click the "Prime" button on the hyperlink, I will be taken to the main page of Amazon Prime where I can clearly understand the benefits of two-day delivery:

See how clear and direct the text on this page is. The title ("Fast, Free Shipping and More") gives you a quick idea of ​​what privileges Prime has. Then, the subtitle will tell you all the extra benefits of making the deal more friendly.

The small-word copy under the CTA (Call to Action Guide button) of "Try Prime" is also worth talking about.

First, instead of promoting a price of $99/year, they advertise a price of $10.99/month. This is a more acceptable price for people (even if you pay a month for one year, the price will be higher).

If anyone has other questions or concerns that they don't like Prime, they add the promise of "cancel anytime".

Amazon also launched Prime service on its homepage, with the location of the central carousel image as Prime promotion, and mentioned Prime several times on the page.

One thing to note is that you can get 100% of the benefits of paid members during the free trial. Even if they don’t choose to become paid members in the future, they can save money on buying things (free two-day shipping).

Amazon Prime Success Strategy #3: Using the Right Technique to Convert Free to Paid

Even though Amazon has gained a large number of users to sign up for a free Prime trial, the challenge is how to get these users to pay to continue using it when the free trial expires. The most impressive conversion from free to paid I've seen so far is Amazon's conversion.

In the United States, 73% of users who order a free 30-day Prime trial will convert to paid annual Prime members. It is estimated that 91% of members will be renewed after the first year. That number jumped to 96% two years later, and then Amazon had a lifelong loyal customer base.

So, how does Amazon make people convert to paid members? Let’s take a look at their four most effective technologies.

1. The added benefits of free

To get people to sign up for Amazon Prime first, Amazon is committed to attracting people's attention with free two-day delivery and a free trial.

But to get members attracted to them, make Prime more "climate" in their lives, and make them want to continue to be members, Amazon has added some other free bonuses, otherwise they would have to spend about the same amount of money to buy those things, such as:

• Video Streaming (Netflix = $7.99/month)
• Streaming Music (Spotify = $9.99/month)
• Photo storage (Dropbox = $9.99/month)
• Audiobooks (Speaker = USD 14.95/month)
• E-book (Kindle Unlimited = $9.99/month)

Once users realize that Prime is priced at $10.99/month, instead of buying subscriptions from other platforms separately for $50/month, it can be said to be very cost-effective and makes sticking with Prime meaning.

Amazon ensures new users with free trials know all the potential benefits:

Note how Amazon lists 13 specific benefits you will get in your email. This is a marketing strategy called "Donation Overlay". In the picture scenario, you have actually bought a membership, and Amazon is just reminding you of the value of each bonus. But this strategy can be used on your sales page to get more sales.

If you are currently a Prime member, Amazon may display this page when you purchase:

Amazon purposefully lets Prime members understand the benefits of products they haven’t used, thus becoming the first choice for all their online shopping and entertainment needs and ultimately becoming a lifetime customer.

2. Appeal to interests on the cancel page and use price reduction to finally retain it

If I go to Amazon's website and try to cancel my membership, here is my last step page:

This short page is carefully designed to allow you to rethink the cancellation decision.

Let's watch one by one.

1) The title sounds like a private question (including the customer's name), which makes readers pause and think

2) Remind people that Prime has three most popular benefits, first of all, the promise of “free two-day delivery” and a statement showing how huge digital support each service is (“thousands of movies”, “over 2 million songs”).

3) CTA reminds you that you will miss more benefits

4) 3 clever CTAs

• Remind me later: The purpose of the CTA is to let you postpone the cancellation decision and let you notify yourself before you get charged (so that you can continue to enjoy all the benefits of free trials)
• Ending My Privileges: Negative CTAs Show that you are losing more than just "end membership"
• Keep My Privileges: A positive CTA makes customers feel like they have made the right choice

Even if I click "End My Privileges", it won't end there. Amazon will try to retain sales like the following figure:

This is the last try that Amazon has allowed me to stay. They sold me a smaller and cheaper product at a low price, hoping I could change my mind.

3. Limited time discount for members only

Amazon Prime users can enjoy considerable discounts, such as:

This gives people another reason to stick to Prime, otherwise they will not be able to get these discounts.

These types of discounts also come in the form of a festival created by Amazon: Prime Day. Prime Day is a 1-2-day annual sales event that allows Prime users to enjoy some big price cuts on all products sold on Amazon.

Most merchants do Black Friday/ Double Eleven promotions, but why not create a sales day event for your own and promote it to customers who have purchased your products and are likely to buy more products?

4. Establish a minimum consumption level for free transportation for ordinary customers

This last technique may be seen as a little mean and obviously annoys some people (so be careful with this trick on your customers), but Amazon is trying to get people to sign up for Prime (or stay as paid users ) through aggressive attempts because it is a really good deal.

Although Prime members have always had free shipping, Amazon raised the minimum requirement for free shipping for non-members to $49 (or at least $25 for books) in 2016.

As you can imagine, this makes many customers angry. But the goal behind this move is clear: to drive more users to become paid members by making it harder for non-Prime members to enjoy free shipping.

Amazon did not deliberately hide their intentions. Just after an announcement about the change was made on Amazon, they released Prime's sales ad:

As you can see, the week after Amazon announced the change, interest in the search term “Free Amazon Delivery” increased:

The increase in the number of users searching for "Free Amazon Delivery" is an excellent time for Amazon to operate some paid-click ads that link directly to Prime's homepage. This can be done with a title that appeals to interests and shows people what they really want (e.g., “Let Amazon arrive for free for 2 days – try Prime”).

Earlier this year, Amazon lowered its lowest price to $35 and currently at $25, a response to similar free shipping offers from other big retailers like Walmart.

Core refinement of this paragraph: If you want to make your e-commerce revenue more predictable, create a sustainable income product that combines the benefits of all your other products together. Start promoting by focusing on a key selling point that runs through all your products (Amazon Prime membership includes free use of multiple services, otherwise people will pay 10 times more per month. For marketing, they focus on free two-day delivery, which is a key selling point for them.)

Tips 8: 5 types of emails that further increase sales after customer purchase behavior occurs

If you've ever bought something on Amazon, you've probably noticed that they'll send a lot of emails. All of these emails have brought nearly 100 million website visits to Amazon (4.13% of total monthly visits).

So, if you use e-commerce (or any business that sells anything), you'll want to make sure you send emails that work just as well as Amazon mail.

Here we have a quick look at the Amazon email we are going to discuss:

• Congratulations on the first purchase of email
• Order confirmation email
• Order delivery email
• Evaluate purchase email
• Email for sales activities

Email #1: Congratulations on the first purchase of email

The screenshots are as follows:

Received: the day after the first purchase.

Note: All three golden CTAs offer you a logical next step after your first order.

The goal of this email is to build your trust, eliminate some of the doubts you will have after purchasing, and start contacting you.

How to do it: Email people after their first purchase, welcome them and let them know what else can be done next. You can also use this email to encourage users to make repeated purchases, such as providing special discounts for their next purchase.

Email #2: Order Confirmation Email

The screenshots are as follows:

Received time: a few minutes after purchase.

Note:

• The name of the purchased product is in the title bar
• Greeting users with personalized names
• "Recommended affordable items" is added to the bottom of the email
• Arrival date is represented by another color

The purpose of this email is: at first glance, the goal of this email seems to be to let users confirm purchase information. But when you look closely, you will find that this is a disguised marketing email, with the purpose of bringing users back to Amazon's website again through the "View or Manage Orders" CTA.

Once you are brought back to Amazon’s website to view your “order details”, you will be taken to an information page, with the head of the page being the order information and the tail of the Amazon product promotion module:

As we mentioned in Amazon’s product page analysis (Tip 4), whenever possible, Amazon will use upsells and cross-selling to do marketing. For example, in this order details page, they complete it by displaying the following modules:

• "The customer who bought X also bought it"
• "Your recent review of products and special recommendations"
• Your product browsing history

How to do this: Send an order confirmation email to shoppers with information about their purchase. Then, give them a "View or Manage Order" CTA and return them to the order details page, where you can promote your other products (after displaying order details).

Email #3: Order Shipping Email

Received time: After your order starts shipping

Note:

• Email reminds consumers of order details (including the name of the purchased product, shipping address and total number)
• Amazon puts "tracking parcel" CTA on top of an email (can bring customers back to their website)
• The subject line and name personalization are the same as the previous email

The goal of this email is to: exactly the same as the previous ones - to bring customers back to Amazon's website and promote repeated purchases. If I click on the "Track package" CTA, I'll be taken to a page, just like the order details page, which will give customers the information they want, and will also showcase a lot of additional product recommendations:

How to do this: Send consumers an email that the order is being shipped, which contains the main information of the product in shipment, the shipping address, and the total number of shipments. Then, give them a CTA "tracking package" and bring them back to a page that tracks packages, where you can promote your other products (after displaying tracking information).

Email #4: Evaluation of purchases email

The screenshots are as follows:

Received: a few weeks after you purchased the product (make sure the customer has used the product).

Note:

• Amazon will not ask customers to write complete comments immediately. Instead, they just start by having you click on a star rating.
• The customer's name is the first word in the main title

The goal of this email is: Get comments, you should have guessed that there are also websites that bring shoppers back to Amazon. If I click on a star in the email, I'm taken to this page where I can write a text review (and comment on my other purchases):

Amazon takes advantage of the concept of "bearing obligation preference" and in the first step, you only require you to take a low investment - select a star evaluation in the email, and after you complete a small investment, you will be asked for another text comment on their website. This strategy can increase the number of reviews a product receives.

Amazon uses their comment login page as another opportunity to cross-sell other products (like all the pages Amazon sends traffic to via email). After you browse your products, at the bottom of the comment landing page, you will see a "Products You May Need" section and "You Viewed" section:

How to do this: The first step is to let your customers leave a "easy one-click" comment by clicking on a star rating. Once they start the first step, ask for another text comment. Don't forget to show the product recommendation module on the page for more cross-selling opportunities.

Email #5: Sales Event Email

What do they look like? This email will vary depending on the type of sales activity. For example, below is an email from Amazon's "Big Sale Monday".

Getting: Put one of your most popular sales deals directly under the "Call of Action" button in the email to attract people to click and buy.

Received: Amazon is pretty unblocked when promoting their limited-time sales campaign. So, your inbox might lead to a grand sales event like this:

Claiming to be the "last chance" can nearly double the revenue from the initial advertising. Amazon will advertise a sales event in the morning and then post a "last chance" notification a few hours before the end of the day. You can also use email notifications to increase revenue in product releases and discount activities.

Note:

• Each email subject line begins with the customer's name (if there is this information)
• They tested copywriting variants of many subject lines and information (e.g., "Big Sale Monday!" and "Big Sale Monday, Sale and More")
• How often do Amazon send these emails (even twice a day)

How to do it: Whenever you launch a new product or conduct sales activities such as discounts, try to do limited-time activities with clear deadlines. Send a "Sales Announcement" email at the beginning of the day and a "Last Chance" email a few hours before the deadline.

If you are not sure if it works for your business, you can use ABtest to send “Sales Activities” announcement emails and “Last Chance” emails in the first month and stop sending “Last Chance” emails in the next month to see how it affects your revenue.

Core summary of this paragraph: adopts 5 email types from Amazon to optimize the consumption power conversion of users after shopping and promote more sales. Make sure you include your own unique content in each email to match your brand (Amazon will email you when you make the first purchase, confirm orders, order delivery, review purchased products and sales activities).

Finally, let’s summarize eight key growth hacking strategies that Amazon has successfully earned $100 billion in revenue:

1. Even if you have thousands of products, you can still run personalized PPC ads easily. Amazon automatically creates ads with unique selling points by using templates and dynamic keyword insertion technology and jumps to product list pages with high matching levels.

2. See if there is a way to market you on lost promotional products, which can help you make greater profits in the future. Just make sure you design other products as products that will be purchased later. Amazon sells their Kindle at a loss because they know that when people buy digital media content, they make more money.

3. Work with companies that have audiences that overlap with the customers you want to attract. Then, build mutually beneficial relationships, you promote them on your website, and they promote you with templates of marketing materials you provide. Amazon does this by working with charities and giving them a 0.5% return.

4. Use 5 conversion elements from Amazon’s product page to drive visitors to buy now. Amazon uses social proof, discounts, urgency and scarcity, one-click purchase button, upsell and cross-selling, and a smart bar on the page.

5. Study what your customers say to you via email, comments, and social media, and then use that information as the basis for your next marketing campaign. Amazon took inspiration from Echo product reviews to create a 14-second short video for their marketing campaign.

6. Put your products directly in front of your customers. Amazon has done this with their pop-up store strategy.

7. Increase sustained revenue to your e-commerce business by creating a product that adds more value to your customer’s purchases. Amazon does this with their Prime membership program, where you can complete your shopping faster, and get more benefits through video streaming, music streaming, file storage, and more, with only a lower monthly fee.

8. Use Amazon’s 5 post-purchase-triggered email types to increase consumer repurchase, including first-time purchase congratulations emails, order confirmation emails, shipping emails, comments on products you purchased, and promotional emails.

Author: Growth Official Research Institute, authorized by Qinggua Media to release.

Source: Growth Office Research Institute (ID: z engzhanggaun)