How would you improve Amazon Prime?

Question

How would you improve Amazon Prime?

Asked at Amazon over a year ago

4.2k views

Product Improvement category

& 1 other company

Asked at

& 1 other company

4.2k views

How to answer Product Improvement questions

Interview Guide

Framework

Mission >> What is Prime Program
Benefits >> How Amazon benefits from Prime / and how Users benefot from Prime
Users >> Define Prime reach and user segments
User Journey >> Onboarding, payments, etc.
Pain Points >> What problems do users experience with Prime program?
Alternatives >> What are the problems that Amazon experiences with it?
Problem Prioritization >>
Possible Solutions >>
Metrics >>

The list above is pretty academic and with little variation is used for any Product Improvement question.

Skipping the classic steps, just wanted to share with the community one of the problems about Prime I personally would focus on if I got this question. Just as an idea.

Problem Statement

A lot of Prime members are not taking advantage of all the benefits of their Prime membership. The majority of them are not even aware of many of these benefits.
This has a negative impact on Prime membership retention, especially due to emerging alternatives like Walmart+.
If a new Prime member signs up for the membership due to their interest in Prime Video (usually to be able to watch an Amazon Original show like “The Man in the High Castle” or “The Expanse”), some of these new members drop off after they complete watching the show.
Even if the Prime members do not drop off, the fact they do not take advantage of all the key Prime benefits usually means lower customer satisfaction and engagement, which translates in lost opportunities for Amazon and reduced Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).

Root Cause

There are a lot of benefits of the Prime membership (there are 34 benefits) and - unless a Prime member spends some decent time on the research (which is not what most people will do) - it is pretty hard to wrap one’s head around everything the Prime program has to offer.
Amazon does not do enough of cross-promotion and customer education around the benefits of the Prime membership.

Project Goals

Improve Prime members’ customer satisfaction and engagement, as well as the value that Amazon customers are getting from their Amazon Prime membership.

Key Metrics

% of Prime Video customers that are not actively shopping on Amazon.com
% of Prime Video customers that cancel Prime after completing watching a show
% of Prime Video customers that are subscribed to Prime Video Channels
% of Amazon Prime shoppers that are not watching Prime Videos
% of Amazon Prime members that take advantage of Prime Wardrobe
% of Amazon Prime members regularly ordering groceries from Amazon Fresh or Whole Foods
% of Amazon Prime members with kids that use Amazon Kids+
% of Amazon Prime members that use Amazon Gaming

Cross-Pollination Options

Touch-Point Channels

What are the possible touch points or channels that Amazon could use to deliver benefit-related messages to the Prime members?

Website UI

Integrating cross-linking, product ads and benefit messages on various pages of Amazon.com and other web properties.

Mobile Apps

Adding cross-linking into Amazon, Prime VIdeo, Amazon Photos, Amazon Music and other mobile apps.

TV Prime Video

Adding shopping capability and cross-linking to the Prime Video TV apps. There are Prime members that interact with Prime Video mainly through TV and rarely open videos in a web interface.

Voice / Alexa

Cross-benefit messaging through Alexa.

Email

Adding promotional/commercial messaging to the transactional emails receipts that Amazon sends to the customers.

Messaging Media/Formats

What are the possible formats these messages can be delivered in?

Text

Text messages in UI or emails, for example, explaining product benefits or listing newly released movies.

Images

Product images, banners, etc.

Interactive widgets

A widget integrated into UI or a pop-up screen with a 1-2 question survey, mini game (game preview), etc.

Video

Videos explaining Prime benefits, product review videos, how-to videos, movie trailers, etc.

Pop-up Alerts

Prime membership news, Prime benefit, new service announcements, etc.

Red-flag Alert Indicators

Red bubble or red flag alert indicating there are unread messages or account updates.

Message Categories

What kind of visual cues and messages can be used to cross-promote the benefits of Amazon Prime membership?

Benefit information

Information about available (and/or not-taken-advantage-of by the Prime member) program benefits.

Product ads

Product tiles: hero/primary product image, potentially with price, star rating, user review qty, as well as Add-to-cart and/or Buy-Now button.

Video ads

Prime video tiles with the hero/cover video image, video star rating and Play button.

Entry Points

Integrated into UI entry point into Amazon Fresh, Amazon Wardrobe or Prime Video. These additional entry points need to be personalized based on user preferences and/or AI algorithms.

Dashboard

Personalized account dashboard that would indicate what Prime benefits are not being taken advantage of.

Messaging Center

Prime member’s inbox messaging widget with Prime news, new benefits, product release announcements, digital reward points, Audible Credits, etc.

Personalization

Q: What benefits should we expose/promote to what users, and through what channel or method?

Benefit cross-linking should be personalized for each user using ML/AI algorithms for the pattern analysis of user preferences and activity, based on:

Prime benefits usage patterns

If an avid Amazon.com customer already actively uses Prime Video, it would make more sense to promote Prime Fresh or Amazon Wardrobe.

User Location and Demographics

If a customer is located in a city, they are more likely to benefit from Amazon Day or Key by Amazon delivery options. If a customer buys kids’ products or watches kids’ videos, they are more likely to get interested in Amazon Kids+.

Based on click-through rate/activity of the customer

If a customer ignored certain communication methods or visual cues in the UI, the AI should switch to other communication channels and message types/formats.

Based on click-through activity of customers with similar preference/usage patterns

We can adjust Prime benefit cross-linking based on the activity of other customers with similar preference/usage preferences using ML/AI for big data analysis.

Appendix: Amazon Prime Benefits

d_m · Answer 2 · 2022-05-16T14:19:34+0000

Context:
- Amazon prime comes at various subscription plans and has various types of benefits from 1 day delivery, no delivery fee & other additional exclusive services such as prime videos, audible benefits using prime subscription etc
Business goal: I can think of 2-3 problems to solve. for example:
- Increase customer base (convert amazon users into amazon prime users)
- Increase retention of amazon prime users
- Increase engagement of amazon prime members (in net increase revenue from amazon prime users)
I would like to pick increasing customer base of amazon users
User goals:
- Get the best products/services at less cost
- Get the best products/services at less delivery time
- Convinience around payments, purchasing, search, add to cart etc.
Use cases through user journey (There’s a potential to increase awareness and create triggers during user journey of a regular user who is not on prime)
- While searching
  - not aware of sale
  - best deal items, and discounted items are not easily visible
  - forget some items to order unlike physical store where there are visual cues
  - not able to get touch and feel for some items
  - not aware of top brands to buy
  - checking video reviews/tutorials on youtube and coming back to amazon for purchase
- While adding to the cart
  - forget to add complimentary items
- While paying
  - looking for best discounts
  - missing out on sale since other users already got it
  - missing out on discounts for some products
- Post purchase and before receiving items
  - not aware of amount/benefit that’s lost due to not having amazon prime
- While/after receiving the items
  - not aware of amount/benefit that’s lost due to not having amazon prime
  - not being able to get additional discount/benefit by going through pain of adding a review for the product
  - not being able to get additional discount/benefit by getting one/few additional people to purchase the product
Many use cases mentioned above are for both prime/non prime users. In use case prioritization I will cover specific use cases for getting more customer base.

Use case prioritisation:

Pain point	Solution	Impact/effectiveness	Implementation complexity/cost	Side effects
Amazon already drives scarcity for best sales through countdown timer. It also advertises about sales hugely. While a lot of people get best discounts during sales, there are many people who might have missed sale period or might have missed because the product is no more available	Exclusive benefits during sales	High	Low	Users not on prime might not actively participate, would ensure comms are clear and non prime users are not demotivated
Not aware of amount/benefit that’s lost due to not having amazon prime (during purchase)	Nudging users to purchase	Medium	High
Not knowing what to buy/choose and spending a lot of time on high value items	Bot Assistant	Medium/low	Medium	not specific to prime users

Solution:

Exclusive benefits during sale. Following options are possible:
- better discounts. Con: User might expect better discounts during non sale periods too.
- extended period. Con: User wouldn’t have great urge in buying immediately.
- products visible only available to prime users.
  - If prime users are mostly high income and if we are able to figure out patterns of purchase. This might stand out by positioning as exclusive product for that user only.
- payment options based discounts are only available to prime users. Con: Not that a big advantage. Also makes the product complex.

Recommendation: Would go with top 3 solutions.