Tag: grocery e-commerce

  • Amazon Prime VP Jamil Ghani: “Prime is Not A Loyalty Program”

    Jamil Ghani is the Worldwide Vice President of Amazon Prime, leading product, technology, marketing, decision science, operations, and finance teams that build and operate the membership program for over 200 million members across 26 countries.  

    He sits down with Natalie at the end of the Amazon Prime analyst event in Seattle to discuss the latest innovations and strategic direction of Prime. They explore:

    • The key pillars of Prime: convenience, savings, entertainment.
    • With new Prime markets like Colombia and Ireland, Jamil discusses why Amazon aims to launch Prime internationally “as quickly as possibly but as slow as necessary”.
    • What Prime is NOT: Jamil says it’s not a loyalty program, not a breakage model, and not a loss leader.
    • Is Prime nearing saturation? Learn where Jamil sees opportunities for further customer acquisition in the US.

    The first half of the episode focuses on Natalie’s takeaways from the Amazon Prime analyst event. If you’d like to skip straight to the interview with Jamil, this starts at 10 minutes.

    * Natalie will be releasing a Forbes article with more insights from the event later this week. *

    Jamil’s bio:

    Over his 7-year tenure, Jamil has accelerated Prime’s growth, tripling the membership and doubling per member spend. He has also broadened Prime’s offerings, expanding to 13 new countries and launching new benefits in multiple high-value categories, including health care, grocery, and restaurant food delivery. He works across Amazon’s consumer businesses to innovate on behalf of customers, build the Amazon and Prime businesses, and make customers’ life better every day. Before coming to Amazon in 2017, Jamil served as Senior Vice President, Enterprise Strategy, Digital & Innovation, for Target Corporation. Before that, he spent five years at The Walt Disney Company focused on identifying, developing, and launching travel and leisure growth initiatives. This included the MyMagic+ experience system, Shanghai Disneyland Park, and Aulani destination resort. Jamil holds a BA magna cum laude from Harvard College in economics and computer science and an MBA from the Harvard Business School, where he was selected as a Baker Scholar. Jamil lives with his wife and two (soon to be three) daughters in Bellevue, WA.

    Find out more about the Retail Disrupted Podcast by visiting retaildisrupted.com

  • Forbes: M&S Chairman: Online Grocery Is A ‘Desert Of Profit’

    In my latest article for Forbes, I explore Marks & Spencer Chairman Archie Norman’s session at the Retail Technology Show, where Norman declared that grocery e-commerce is a “desert of profit.”

    He explained that although retailers around the world feel compelled to move into e-commerce, “nobody is really making true profit from food online.”

    “There’s been more wealth destroyed in people trying to develop food online businesses than any other industry I can think of.”

    Read full article on Forbes

  • Why Did Amazon Fresh Fail in Germany?

    Boris Planer, Founder and Managing Director of Future Consulting, joins Natalie to discuss the news that Amazon is terminating its online grocery service in Germany. 

    They discuss:

    • What went wrong for Amazon Fresh in Germany, what does this tell us about Amazon’s global grocery strategy, and where next? (It’s all about the partnerships.)
    • Inherent challenges of grocery retailing in Germany. Did you know that 98% of German consumers live within 10 minutes of a discounter?!
    • The Amazon Effect – how competitors have raised their e-commerce game.
    • Implications for Amazon Fresh internationally. The news follows a similar move in the UK earlier this year when Amazon scrapped Fresh outside of London and Manchester.
    • Why you need to know more about Rohlik, the Czech grocery delivery start-up that has just announced a partnership with Amazon and is aiming to launch in 10 European cities over the next 6 years. 

    The news was first reported by The Information.

    Bio:

    Boris Planer is a retail thought leader, speaker and consultant based in Frankfurt, Germany. He is the founder and managing director of Future Consulting, a consultancy supporting international retailers, suppliers and tech businesses in their efforts to spot trends early on and take new market opportunities effectively. Boris has 25 years of experience in retail insight and consultancy, including at retail insight group Planet Retail/Edge by Ascential and WGSN, the world’s leading consumer trend forecasters. He is also a speaker at Zukunftsinstitut, the Institute for the Future based in Frankfurt and Vienna. 

    Connect with Boris on LinkedIn.

    Find out more about the Retail Disrupted Podcast by visiting retaildisrupted.com