Jeff Bezos – The King of Conversion

September 11, 2013 By Leave a Comment
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I’m currently reading One Click – Jeff Bezos and the Rise of Amazon.com. Well worth a read!

From just the first chapter you can see how Jeff Bezos was obsessed with conversion rate optimisation. Even if the concept of CRO had not been born then!

Jeff Bezos - Crazy about Conversion Rate Optimisation

Jeff Bezos – Crazy about Conversion Rate Optimisation

I’m only on the 1st chapter already but a few quotes from the book stand out, remember this is 1994, nearly 20 years ago:

“We need something to make the ordering system frictionless. We need to make it so that the customer can order products with the least amount of effort. They should be able to click on one thing, and it’s done”

From the above quote came the famous Amazon 1 click checkout process.

“Jeff Bezos will do anything he can think of to make the process of using Amazon.com easier”

This is at the centre of conversion rate optimisation, reducing friction and making websites and applications super easy to use.

“The focus should be on the customer, not on the website. It’s pretty obvious that a simple website is easier to use than one with a bunch of fancy gadgets. He was adamant about that.”

This was against the grain at the time as many other websites were going for ‘posh’ flash intros and pop ups etc…

“To be nine times bigger than your nearest competitor,” Jeff explained to The Washington Post in 1998, “you actually only have to be 10% better.”

A great quote!

“When one elderly woman sent an email to the company saying she loved ordering books from the site but had to wait for her nephew to come over and tear into the difficult-to-open packaging, Bezos had the packaging redesigned to make it easier to open.”

Great example of listening to feedback and making all parts of the order process easier to use.

“Another feature, feature in October 2001, is “Look Inside the Book”.

Jeff Bezos never stopped adding features to the website. Trying to emulate an actual visit to a physical bookstore many customers will flick through a couple of pages before buying the book and now they do that online!

Filed Under: Reading
About Darrell Freeman

A fan of all things conversion related! Been working in SEO since 2005 and over time become more interested in the conversion side of online marketing. Away from the screen, I'm a big sports fan, with a mild interest in Tranmere Rovers and a love of traveling!

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