10 Things You Should Know About Amazon Mobile

Amazon… World’s gigantic marketplace where users find everything they want. From novels to apparels to home appliances to electronic gadgets. They just need to type in the keyword and instantly they get into the section.

During its initial stage, Amazon was solely into books selling. Slowly and gradually, it widen its horizon and became the #1 marketplace marking its presence worldwide.

Do you know how Amazon became the world’s #1 marketplace? Amazon and its people are into the business which focuses only on user acquisition. They have a knack to convert traffic into sales and influence users’ purchasing power through eCommerce key properties.

With the introduction to mobile technology, Mobile became another weapon to acquire users. The company planned and executed various strategies that brought Amazon Mobile at the top.

Here’s what you need to know about Amazon Mobile;

#1 User Experience:

Amazon’s former vice president of mobile shopping, Sam Hall believed that people should go from “wanting to buying in 30 seconds”. Meaning, the loading time of the screen should be reduced and users should be able to access the search asap.

Yes, loading time affects the user experience. If the app’s screen keeps on loading beyond 3 seconds, the possibility of users switching to competitive apps increases.

As said above, Amazon’s focus is only on one parameter, i.e User Acquisition. Hence, the search team focused on the quick way to get users from typing in what they want to the detail screen of what they actually want.

Optimizing the search and reducing the loading time is a tough task when your store is shelved with millions of brands and products. But Amazon succeeded in doing so.

Here is an example of fast user experience;

I clicked on amazon app to shop for western outfits. When I typed in ladi, the very first suggestion appeared was ladies tops. I only had to type the first four letters of what is probably a 10 letter word to instantly get into that section.

#2 Mobile Device:

Amazon launched Kindle Fire for acquiring users onto various Amazon properties and analyse user’s purchasing pattern in and out of Amazon website. Amazon has designed individual apps for different purposes;

• For shopping, Amazon App
• For Music, Amazon Music
• For Movies & Videos, Amazon Prime Video
• For Reading Novels, Amazon Kindle

Users can install these apps for free. They can listen to music, read novels, watch videos using a subscription plan. Amazon provides various offers to users analyzing their purchasing pattern. And, these amazing offers are only available when apps are accessed through Kindle Fire.

For instance; If a user uses Amazon Kindle, he is accessible to popular novels at lower prices or for free depending upon his interest. Another option is plan subscription. If a user subscribes to a plan he can pick specific novels from the shelf for free.

#3 Amazon AppStore for Android:

Amazon launched its own app store enabling users to access the apps and in-app purchase in less price compared to Google Play Store.

The App store includes “Free App of the day” feature wherein everyday either an interesting app or fun-filled game is offered.

App Developers or any publisher who owns Kindle Fire or is willing to launch his apps or games or movies or books on Amazon App Store can easily do that. You just need to go to the Amazon.com website and click on install Amazon App Store.

#4 App Publisher:

There are a good number of publishers who publish apps, books, movies or games on Amazon App store which users can later access through Amazon Kindle Fire or any Android device (only when Amazon Appstore is installed in their Android smartphones).

Therefore, not only the potential users, publishers also became the direct users to use Amazon resources.

#5 Content Consumption:

Amazon has a unique approach to represent the content.

A walk through to these properties glance users over the benefits they get after subscribing to Amazon Prime.

For instance; Subscribing to Amazon’s Prime premium membership users are eligible for free one or two day delivery on specific items along with unlimited streaming.

Note: Above offer is applicable for Prime Video users only.

#6 Ad Campaigns:

Amazon has placed a huge impact on global users doing strong social media marketing, paid campaigns, optimizing websites, product SEO, website SEO, etc.

In India, Amazon made a smart move designing campaigns using Indian Lingo from “Kya Pehnu” to “Aur Dikhao” to “Apni Dukan” to captivate the attention of potential users to install Amazon App.

Even Amazon sellers gain the benefit of ad campaigns by purchasing Amazon Sponsored Products. This boosts the product’s visibility when a user searches for the keyword, sellers have bid on.

#7 Amazon Underground:

It is an Android app provided by Amazon. It enables users to download in-app purchases for free which are expensive in Google app store. Amazon has tactfully used the catchy phrase “Actually Free” in the policy influencing users to install the app.

This app is offered to users with a couple of benefits;

a) Users can download all the apps which get published on Amazon Underground for free. Be it apps or games

b) Users are free to install in-app purchases which they get in payment from Google play store

#8 Amazon Coin:

It is a digital payment method created by Amazon.com in order to purchase software for Kindle, Kindle Fire or android devices from within an app or Amazon Appstore. The coins purchased by users do not expire but some promotional coins do over one year from the date they have obtained.

#9 Mobile Ads API:

Amazon Mobile Ads API is a new way to monetize mobile apps or games across platforms including Android, iOS or Kindle Fire.

There are a few advantages developers and publishers can gain out of it;It helps in getting advertisements search instead of clicks.

a) It helps in delivering emails to the app users at the right time

b) Offers consistently high user experience and optimize mobile play ads that come from Amazon or other companies.

c) Simple to integrate and interact with the mobile app

d) Developers or marketers can easily measure the success rates with reports i.e both actionable and easily in use.

#10 AWS:

Amazon Web Services offers a wide range of services helping developers build outstanding apps.

a) Serverless backend for Mobile Apps

b) Provides Mobile SDKs for developing- AWS Mobile Hub & AWS Mobile SDK

c) Ensures app quality by testing on cloud devices

d) Offers analytics tools to measure user behavior pattern

e) The last point is a glimpse of what AWS provides, the detailed information appears here;

Conclusion;

Crafting and executing winning strategies, Amazon became #1 and its journey still continues. Don’t know what innovation is going to surprise its users next. It’s amazing, I mean crafting such strategies is indeed a game of leaders. So, what are you trying to conclude? Is Amazon hiring leaders? Indeed…

Anyways, would like to know what did you learn from this blog? Do share your learning in the comment section below.

Inputs by Arup Dey

Originally published at www.openxcell.com on March 28, 2017.