The safety of workers, the purchasing behavior of people revolutionized by the long months of closures and isolation, the new elements that will be added to the Prime offer, which more than 200 million people all over the world adhere to. Yet: Amazon’s role for small and medium-sized businesses and solutions to reduce the environmental impact of the complex but very fast distribution chain. Announcing the next Prime Day, scheduled for June 21st and 22nd, Jamil Ghani, Amazon’s vice president and head of the e-commerce giant’s subscription program and marketing, plays across the board. And in the exclusive interview with Italian Tech he does not hold back on the most uncomfortable steps.
The conditions of Amazon workers
Prime Day, for example, puts a strain on workers in warehouses in the 20 countries in which it is scheduled, facilities that also come out of a year of record orders. Last March there was the first strike in the centers of the group in Italy: “We always put our employees first, offering them a safe, modern and inclusive work environment, with competitive wages, benefits and excellent opportunities for professional growth – explained Ghani, former head of strategy and innovation at Target. of Cuban-Pakistani origins – We encourage anyone to compare our salary, benefits and our work environment with that of the main operators in the sector and large companies in the communities in which we operate. We are constantly striving to ensure a positive work experience through direct contact with employees, working all together to provide the best possible customer service. In Italy, Amazon obtained the Top Employer Italia 2021 certification for the first time this year, an award given for the quality of the work environment, training opportunities and career plans offered to employees in Italy “.
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The change in buying habits
Last Prime Day, which posted a $ 3.5 billion turnover with a growth of 60% on 2019, was postponed from July to autumn 2020 precisely because of the pandemic. This year, on the other hand, is at a turning point, in which many countries are experiencing a clear improvement in the pandemic situation, even if in India and Canada it will still be postponed. In the meantime, many have discovered the convenience and in some cases the inevitability of e-commerce (and Prime) during lockdowns: “In this context, e-commerce has become an essential service, and we are proud to have helped customers to address this situation by delivering the products they had and need for them and their families, thanks to the extraordinary work done by all our warehouse employees and our partner couriers – added Ghani, MBA at Harvard and for a few years leading the marketing strategy for Disney parks – As we continue to serve our customers, the health of our people is our top priority, which is why we have implemented over 150 specific security protocols and invested over $ 4 billion in our supply chain. The pandemic has also generated changes in purchasing behavior, many of which I believe will persist even after the health situation has improved ”.
Which? Basically, familiarity and trust in the management of payment data: “Italians have changed their consumption habits and reduced their distrust of the online experience. Netcomm estimates speak of 29 million Italians who habitually buy online, 2 million more than in 2019. In this context we have also seen a strong involvement of Prime customers, who buy more frequently and in more categories, both before and after the pandemic. Given the increase in time spent at home, Prime customers have also used digital benefits such as Prime Video, Music and Gaming. “
The next pieces of Prime
Prime is now a universe of services, all at the same price (36 euros a year, or 3.99 per month after a trial month): in Italy, Prime Video will also broadcast the best Wednesday match of the Champions League. The impression is that the strategy does not change: well beyond free deliveries, Amazon’s plan is to continue to build an increasingly broad and in some ways uneven package, but in which to use all the services of the galaxy of Jeff Bezos (which is leaving the leadership of the group to Andy Jassy): “The increase in Prime memberships we have registered is certainly a strong sign that customers love this service and all its benefits – the vice president explained to us from Seattle – Recently we debuted the service of same day shopping for Bergamo Prime customers and we also continue to expand fast delivery options for Prime customers and add new content to entertainment perks such as Prime Video and Amazon Music. We continue to invest and innovate to ensure that Prime remains an incredible value for customers ”. And for now there are no increases in sight, after the remarkable jump of 3 years ago, there do not seem to be any.
Meanwhile, Prime Video, the service that along with many others from the entertainment industry kept us company during the long lockdown evenings, it turns 10: in the last year, over 175 million Prime customers have streamed movies and series and “the hours of streaming are increased by over 70% compared to last year. In Italy we are focusing a lot on local productions, which are certainly among the elements of greatest attraction for customers ”.
A calendar of all was released recently the local Originals titles expected until 2023: ranging from the first Italian film, Dog years, directed by Fabio Mollo, to teenage crime Bang Bang Baby, up to a series that seems to wink at the Paper House, Everybody loves diamonds, passing through the dark sauce mafia of The Bady Guy and the teen drama Prism.
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Competition and the role for small and medium-sized enterprises
“Online and Amazon are allies of small and medium-sized enterprises and their digitization must be a priority for all the players in the supply chain. Amazon has a long tradition of investing in services and tools to support them and today over half of all products sold on Amazon sites around the world they come from millions of small and medium-sized enterprises, ”Ghani told us. As evidenced by the experience of many Italian brands, those who know how to use Amazon well have in front of them an important international growth and also this year the platform puts 100 million dollars for the promotion of the products of 180 thousand realities during Prime Day and a series of other initiatives such as a 10 euro voucher for 2 days for each equivalent purchase made by an SME from 7 to 20 June.
On the other hand, it is undeniable that many other companies have seen it instead reduce the room for maneuver precisely because of the fierce competition from the colossus: those who fail to digitize and grow risk being swept away. “The data confirm that Amazon, and more generally a multichannel approach, represent an opportunity for all Italian SMEs. During the lockdown period, those companies that already had a multichannel presence managed to face the crisis and record positive results – explained the vice president of Amazon, then focusing attention on our country – in Italy, over 14 thousand small and medium-sized enterprises they decided to use our online store to increase business and have achieved the record figure of over 500 million euros in sales abroad in 2019. Also in 2019, thanks to the expansion of their business, Italian SMEs created an additional 25 thousand jobs “.
The numbers seem to prove Bezos’ creation right, all things considered: 16 billion euros in investments globally in small businesses, 85 million dollars in promotion, “overall the sales partners have sold more than a billion products worldwide, with a growth of 50% compared to the previous year. Looking to Italy, small and medium-sized enterprises present in our stores have sold more than 20 million products all over the world during the Christmas season ”. Impossible not to measure up to this reality, and perhaps the problem is above all this: the ability to modulate one’s presence on multiple channels without being completely crushed on Amazon. It is not easy, but according to Ghani the real challenge is to bring together all those able to push towards digitization: also in Italy we should “join the forces of institutions, academies, companies and intermediate bodies to make the digital channel even simpler and accessible and help small and medium-sized enterprises to grasp opportunity and grow theirs business. In this regard, last November in Italy we launched Accelera with Amazon, the free training program created in collaboration with Ice, Politecnico di Milano, Confapi and Netcomm to accelerate the growth and digitization of over 10 thousand Italian small-medium enterprises ” .
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The objectives to reduce the environmental impact
Couriers who in a few hours deliver to millions of people objects that we could find at home in a few minutes, long distances of trucks, air flights, soon also drones and robots. An infinite network of goods handling only for shipping from warehouses to our homes, without considering the entire network of supplies that each center hides in relations with suppliers and partners. All this has a huge impact on the environment: various researches, like the one made in Britain last year, estimated a significant peak in CO2 emissions precisely in correspondence with days such as Prime Day. Ghani, however, recalled how already in 2019 Amazon took “an important and new commitment to the planet, founding, together with Global Optimism, the Climate Pledge, to achieve net zero CO2 emissions by 2040, ten years before the Paris Agreement. To date, it has been signed by more than 100 companies around the world. “
For its part, the e-commerce giant (and cloud, and much more) has built a path marked by intermediate objectives: it intends “power all operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025: we are accelerating investments in this direction, with 206 solar and wind projects around the world, including two agro-photovoltaic parks in Sicily that will power our sites in Italy. We make millions of deliveries every year to customers around the world, and we are committed to achieving 50% net zero emissions shipments by 2030: we aim to put 100,000 electric delivery vehicles on the road by 2030, the largest Ever order of electric vehicles, and we are already using 1800 electric vans from Mercedes in Europe, and Ape Car and e-bike to make deliveries in the historic centers of some cities “.
And on packaging, sometimes really disproportionate than the objects they contain? “Since 2015 – concluded Ghani – we have reduced the weight of outgoing packaging by 33% and eliminated over one million tons of packaging material globally, the equivalent of over two billion shipping boxes, thanks to our Frustration-Free Packaging”.
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