Brian McBride talks to Elen Lewis about killer apps, the importance of staying relevant and no regrets
How will Web 3.0 impact your business?
I think Web 3 is a bit of a buzz term. Rather than focus on Web 1, 2, 3, Amazon continues to evolve its site and its offerings. With greater bandwidth and web-based applications I think we can look forward to even more compelling content and a great customer experience. We have now introduced video reviews from customers, we are streaming more music and video content from suppliers, there are a number of widgets around that alert people to deals on Amazon, and we have more associate sites giving people links to Amazon to enable them to check out or buy products related to the context that they have just been browsing within on another site.
How do you ensure Amazon remains relevant to its customers?
Great selection, price and availability are the foundations of our business. As well as the capabilities referred to above. I think we move into new categories like jewellery, shoes, sports goods as we sense that customer demand for buying these on-line has arrived. We are constantly evolving the look and feel, the shopping experience, the security of the payments system.
How do you stay a step ahead of other pure-play and multi-channel competitors?
I keep answering this question with the prior one! By expanding content, bringing even more selection via third parties, by becoming a significant enough player to ensure we can negotiate good prices with the global vendors of our products and passing these straight through to the customer. We also continue to enhance delivery options.
What's the best decision you ever made?
Sounds a bit cheesy, but proposing to my wife Linda. We are still together 27 years on.
And the worst?
I honestly have no regrets. I have made the odd bad hiring decision, but I get about 95% right.
What's the most valuable marketing lesson you picked up in your career?
See the data and the insights. Start with the customer and work backwards. And throwing money at it doesn't fix a brand problem always.
What's the biggest challenge facing retailers today?
Staying relevant while deciding what they want to be - are they a value player like Primark, mainstream but great service and quality, M&S or John Lewis, or iconic like Harrods? Anyone who stays stuck in the middle trying to compete on price only will get hit by the supermarket juggernauts or get squeezed by on-line.
Amazon has been a pioneer in so many ways - its book reviews and recommendations are changing consumer behaviour. What would you pinpoint as Amazon's killer application? And what consumer trends do you think are likely to have the biggest impact on retail?
We have no killer app, we just have an approach to the customer, to service, to value that everyone seems to love. The biggest consumer trend to impact retail will continue to be the increasing share of on-line of the overall retail market. It will get from 10% to 20% in the next few years I am sure, and who knows after that. The multi-channel guys have figured it out, but a lot of my suppliers, especially established big names still don't really get it. If they don't get it quickly, they will wither on the vine.
Brian McBride, managing director of Amazon UK, will be joining a stellar line-up of speakers at this year's Retail Forum, 'Relevance, Reinvention and Responsibility' on 20 May. For a full transcript of this interview see the Read section of the website.