Milestones after milestones, Amazon has grown from an online bookstore in Jeff Bezos’s garage to the world’s largest Internet company by revenue. It is also considered one of the most influential economic forces worldwide. What has pre-determined its success, and what steps to take to achieve the same heights?
Amazon has been adhering to the principles that have become a part of its strategy from the start. These include:
Despite the interface that may look outdated compared to modern web design trends, we should pay tribute to its user experience design. User-friendly and intuitive, it is aimed to simplify the processes of search and purchase.
For the sake of customers’ trust and convenience, Amazon centers its attention on providing complete and accurate information about products. The details include informative descriptions, high-quality product photographs (that also allow viewing the products from different angles), and reviews.
Amazon pursues the goal to match the needs of all the customers. For that reason, not only does it provide the audience with all sorts of products but also ensures clients can buy them using any convenient option. Amazon’s clients use numerous payment methods, including credit and debit cards such as Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and more. In addition, they can order gift cards to use for purchases.
Speed is an essential factor of an e-commerce platform’s success, and Amazon has managed to nail it. Technology plus human dexterity help with processing the orders immediately after they are placed. Thanks to the logistics algorithm and global supply chain, Amazon employees ship the packages incredibly quickly. What’s more, Amazon possesses numerous delivery means of transport and planes. Hence, it enables same-day and next-day shipping that are the indisputable advantages of the e-commerce business.
If you have the ambition to repeat and outclass Amazon’s success, you should start with an excellent business strategy. First, you have to build a minimum viable product. MVP is built to launch the platform quickly without a large budget and then enhance it bit by bit to implement new features and possibilities for the business and its customers. Continue reading to find out what basic steps you have to take to succeed.
The Discovery phase bridges 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 client, end-user, and stakeholders. More of the goals of discovery include:
Other important topics to cover would be defining requirements, establishing the essential features, and estimating the overall project’s scope, resources, and budget.
By the end of the discovery phase, you should be able to answer how to build an e-commerce platform and define your means to succeed.
Picking the right technology stack ensures the proper performance of your product. Having all the core features determined, the next step you have to take is to choose the technology stack to implement the necessary features. The tech stack mostly depends on the requirements and the budget.
Good design creates a positive experience for your user and, as a result, helps fulfill their needs.
Creating the UI/UX concept means determining how the future product will work and look with the convenience for customers in mind. Remember that the design concept does not showcase the final result of how your product will look and feel. The design concept pursues the goal to clarify if the chosen direction is suitable for all the stakeholders — client, team, and users.
Launching a minimum viable product means presenting to the world the product that supports minimal yet must-have features that correspond to its unique value proposition. Once the product is launched, continue maintaining it to ensure that everything is working as was thought out and carry on with the ongoing development and improvement of the product. There is no limit to perfection, right?
Following the success of a worldwide leading company like Amazon is not an easy task. Difficulties can arise even at the stage of recruiting personnel. For example, there are step-by-step tips to hire a software engineer. It is clear that hiring any specialist requires a certain approach if you want to surround yourself with quality staff.
We advise you to think of the possible risks ahead and be ready to face numerous challenges.
Amazon is a global marketplace that sells all kinds of products to everyone worldwide. Apart from Amazon, there are such giants as eBay, Walmart, or Alibaba that have a large and loyal audience. Entering this market implies competing with global corporations.
Logistics and supply chain are the core factors of Amazon’s success. When deciding to build an e-commerce platform, first of all, you should think of the logistics system and define how exactly the goods will be delivered to prevent possible delays.
Lowering the prices and motivating the customer to shop during sales periods is a part of a strategy of marketplaces to attract the audience. Although, then appears the dilemma of how to stay profitable when making the prices low. The answer to this question would be a dynamic pricing algorithm that is aimed to create an ideal price. The algorithm takes into consideration the competitors’ prices, supply, seasonality, and demand. Consequently, both the marketplace and the customers will benefit from lower prices despite the goods won’t always be cheaper than at competitor marketplaces.
Hopefully, you now have a comprehension of how to get started to build an e-commerce platform like Amazon. For more detailed information, proceed to the blog article on How Much It Costs To Build A Platform Like Amazon topic.
