We often think of Amazon as one of those invincible brands. A bulletproof business. A business that has transformed the retail sector thanks to a relentless dissatisfaction with the status quo.
But like a lot of tech companies they thrived during the pandemic and now they're finding life difficult.
Why?
1) General volatility. Like all retailers, Amazon is grappling with unprecedented cost inflation at a time when consumer demand remains sluggish. That's a dangerous combo for any business but in Amazon's case it's exacerbated by the fact that during the pandemic they over-hired and over-expanded to help cope with the huge surge in demand for online shopping and cloud computing.
2) Recalibration: return to IRL shopping. We've now had a year of relative normality. The world is far more hybrid than we could have ever imagined pre-2020 but the pandemic has taught us the value of stores in this digital era. Shoppers are abandoning e-commerce and returning to bricks & mortar. They're looking for value over convenience and delaying those discretionary buys. The pandemic has reaffirmed that the future of retail is NOT e-commerce – it's a blended mix of physical and digital commerce.
As a result, Amazon is looking unusually vulnerable. I believe that sometime within the next decade, Amazon will go from being the disruptor to the disrupted. Listen to the podcast to hear why.
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