An Open Letter on Amazon From Windsor

From Ray Windsor of Leadership Systems Consulting–

For 35 years I have been either a brick and mortar installing specialty retailer or I have tried to be a champion of the brick and mortar installing specialty retailer.  I have been lucky to consider many readers as customers. I suspect I am respected and maybe liked by some, and that I am thought a fool and hated by others.  Indeed, more than once, I have been referred to as irrelevant.

Very recently, I publicly commented on the Amazon program which will offer consumers an opportunity to review and even purchase installation services from a local brick & mortar installing specialty retailer. I learned about Amazon’s intentions about one year ago. I have followed, on and off, the Amazon ideas about this program for about the last five months.  At first I was terrified.  Most of my constituency, the brick and mortar installing specialty retailers, are about to be gutted and discarded as irrelevant by consumers, thought I.

Then it occurred to me that there must be a reason for this activity. It has been said that Amazon would like to touch, if not generate, every retail transaction in the universe. I am certain they cannot actually achieve such a state of being. BUT they sure look like they are making a run at it.

To the point… I contend brick and mortar installing specialty retailers have exactly one asset: a long-term profitable relationship with the consumer.  All of the other stuff in the store exists to create, grow and defend that asset.

But for many of us, that asset, the consumer, isn’t walking through the front door as often as it used to.

Some consumers visit our stores and don’t buy. Other consumers never visit our store in the first place. Of course on numerous other occasions the consumer visits us first, has a great experience, buys from us and tells all of his friends that even bothering to consider some other place for a 12 volt purchase and installation is nuts! BRAVO!!!

The Amazon program will afford those brick and mortar installing specialty retailers that [are suffering from lower store traffic], a second shot at converting these consumers into long-term profitable relationships.

Yup, it might be frustrating that there is a cost for this second shot. Yup, it might be frustrating to get to engage such a consumer only after he has made and executed his purchase decision elsewhere. That said, if our frustrations were capable of changing these conditions, these conditions would have changed long ago.

I contend that the cost, frustration and embarrassment of this second chance condition, could very possibly be worth the opportunity. It will expose the consumer to our expertise, to our value-add proposition, and maybe compel him to tell his friends about us.

Of course there may be other ways… The local brick and mortar installing specialty retailer could invest enough energy into making most of the consumers in the market know and respect the retailer enough to visit him first. But that scenario doesn’t happen often enough, to be sure.

To close: The business conditions that have created the path for the Amazon service provider program and your decision to apply (no cost to sign up for now) or not to apply, might not make us feel warm and fuzzy like the “good ‘ol days”. It might not be what we would have hoped for. It may not be what we would have designed if we were in charge. It is however a reality we must not refuse to acknowledge and just hope somebody will make it go away.

I would be very happy and even honored to discuss my observations, the reader’s concerns, the Amazon program or any other related topic with any interested reader.

[email protected] or 949-228-2153

The letter was edited by CEoutlook