According to Expert Market Amazon’s sales rose 31% last year due to their incredible CRM strategy and system.

First off, their personalization of suggestions analyzes a customer’s past purchases to determine what they will like in the future and what could be helpful to them currently.

A Good CRM Strategy

In this picture from their site, you’ll see that Amazon has made other personalized suggestions based on a search made by the customer.

Does this system translate to sales? In short, yes.

VWO reports in a blog that, ”As per the company [Amazon], nearly 35% of its sales comes from such personalized recommendations^[4], even today! And, nearly 56% of them are likely to turn into repeat buyers as well. “

First of all, you’ll want to start by getting to know your customers and what they are looking for. A simple survey sent out via email can be a step in the right direction.

After you’ve compiled information gathered from these surveys, you can start to map out the customer’s journey. 

Note your customer’s activity on your website. Where do they spend the most time when they are new to your page? What pages are performing the best just before a sale is made? 

You can begin to track where customers start on your website and where they end before ultimately making a purchase. 

Second, Amazon has a simple payment process built into their CRM. The less time people have to spend putting in their payment information, the easier it is for them to make a payment. 

The first step that you can take with making payment easy goes back to personalizing the payment process. Do you know how your customers’ prefer to pay? 

Offer them that option, but also allow them to pay with multiple options. Customers prefer a payment option that does not redirect them to another website like Paypal so find a way to keep them on your website to process the payment. 

Additionally, Amazon doesn’t spam their customers with a lot of promotional emails. 

Do customers open your emails about sales or promotions? Or do they mostly just open delivery updates?

You’ll want to send more of whatever resonates best with your customers. 

Third, Amazon has made customer support easy and efficient.

They have live chat via email, phone, and text that is available 24/7. 

Take a look at how you are making yourself available to customers. 

Do you have more than one way that customers can reach you? Is it where they expect you to be?

We offer several customer service solutions for small businesses looking to delight their customers. Check out our Premium Customer Service Plan.

If not, have you considered how you can become more available to customers? Find out where your customers prefer to get in contact with you and meet them there. 

Finally, Amazon has built a community of reviewers  that has really helped them become a reliable shopping source. 

Building2Community found that 72% of consumers will only take action on buying a product if they have read a positive review first.

Keeping this in mind, you want to make sure that you have a place on your website where customers can review your product or services.

Innovative Self-Service Tools

According to a survey conducted by Business Wire, “nearly two-thirds of consumers frequently use self-checkout machines at the grocery store.” And 60% stated they would be willing to use self-checkout more if improvements to speed and convenience were made. 

Let’s start with Amazon Go, the Seattle-based-company’s self-service convenience stores now available in Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago, and New York.

A trip to the grocery store without having to wait in a single line. The store requires a scan of a QR code on their app to enter and then your phone can go back in your pocket as you shop the store, take what you want, and then walk out. 

Amazon Go’s website answers frequent questions about their service. They understand that many customers do not like waiting in lines and the less a customer has to wait; the more likely they are to return to the store so they have used technology to help them eliminate the wait.

Additionally, there is a simple, self-service return system in Amazon.

Recently, I had a return to make to Amazon. I started by going to my account.

And then, I clicked on “Your Orders”.

After clicking on “Your Orders”, you’ll see a list of all of the recent orders that qualify for a return. For the sake of this example, let’s take a look at a recent order I made.

If I wanted to return any of these items, I would click “return or replace products” on the right-hand side. 

I would then choose the products that I want to return and choose a response for my reason for returning the product. After choosing my response, I click continue and am prompted to answer another quick question.

I’ll choose the only option that I have for a refund and then press Continue.

You’ll notice that each of the stores listed for drop off does not require a box or a label which is an added convenience to making your return process smooth and customer-oriented.

Amazon has recently rolled out many self-service tools that are helpful for small and medium business owners.

According to the Amazon blog in August of 2019, the online global retailer was on track to invest more than $15 billion tools and services to help businesses grow their business online via their platform.

“New tools and services – from inventory trackers, pricing tools, sales reports, and product branding and marketing tools, to educational videos and webinars – help level the playing field for small and medium-sized businesses and lower barriers of entry for them to start selling in Amazon’s stores.”

You can take advantage of the services that Amazon offers and learn from their processes of putting the customer at the center of all of their operations.