When Jeff Bezos announced two years ago that he was becoming chairman of Amazon, analysts thought it would be an easy transition for incoming CEO Andy Jassy. Two years later, Jassy is facing challenges:
Jassy has to be the Anti-Bezos as he has had to lessen unprofitable business units and seek new profit engines. He has had to cut funding to pet projects which have not become profitable or market leaders.
Amazon’s stock price which formed a large part of compensation has lost tremendous value, leading to many Amazonians leaving for startups or competitors.
Jassy has had to right-size Amazon after years of hiring and investment into long-term bets such as Alexa, advertising, and more.
Unionization is a reality now for Amazon, which will impact Jassy’s opportunity to generate revenues from current operations. This was previously only a European issue but is now also happening in US fulfillment centers.
How can Jassy turn Amazon around? New businesses such as Buy with Prime, price increases, or legacy businesses such as Advertising becoming market leaders. It does feel like the media is slowly beginning to wonder when Bezos returns…
To improve retail profitability, does Amazon need to become more seller focussed?
Maybe in terms of functional capability, to solve other problems that sellers (SMEs that create products) need to solve.
Import and inbound logistics (manufacturer to sellers warehouse/Amazon FBA)
PLM/ERP (develop some, find good partners to recommend and operate in AWS for a sensible price). Including capturing sustainability information
Export (ecommerce and wholesale–S&OP)
Ability for seller to rent guaranteed space in an Amazon warehouse for single pick, bulk pick, and crossdock. Make this compatible with FBA API, but no risk of induct constraint or request to exit the space.
Amazon Global Logistics: Per the headline scope, the only destination is Amazon fulfilment centres; a lot of businesses would also like the option to have their own fulfilment as a destination. Also, it needs to be comparable in terms of service/functionality to other freight forwarding/import solutions, I’m not clear at the moment if it is fully comparable to services and solutions available via various shipping lines and freight forwarders
Amazon W&D: early days as you say, they need to refine and sell it.
PLM/ERP/S&OP/Retail store allocations & reordering: The next areas?
Let me tell you something, folks. Jeff Bezos is out here making so much money, he’s practically got his own zip code. But now he’s passing the torch to this guy Jassy. And let me just say, Jassy, you better watch out. You might have the same job title as Bezos, but you ain’t Bezos. You’re more like Bezos Lite. You’re the diet version. The Bezos Zero. No offense, Jassy, but you better start lifting some weights, because you’ve got some big shoes to fill, and you don’t want to be known as the guy who couldn’t handle the pressure.
