Loading summary
Transcript29 lines
- [00:01]
Peter V. S Vaughn
If you're planning on attending grocery shop this fall, make sure to arrive in Las Vegas mid afternoon on Sunday, September 28th. That way you'll be able to attend the Big Grocery Shop Kickoff Party being hosted by the CPG Guys in partnership with Rethink Retail. The party runs Sunday, September 28th from 6:30 to 8:30pm Our kickoff party is where all the industry luminaries customarily gather to celebrate the beginning of this annual event. In the coming weeks, we'll provide more details on how to register and how to sponsor. In the meantime, make sure your travel plans ensure your arrival in Las Vegas. To join us for the Kickoff Party.
- [00:42]
Jamil Ghani
I'm Jamil Ghani, Worldwide Vice President for Amazon prime, and you're listening to the CPG Guys Podcast.
- [00:51]
Peter V. S Vaughn
Welcome to the CPG Guys Podcast. Your host, Shree Rajagopalan and Peter V. S Vaughn explore how brands and retailers engage consumers in an increasingly digitally driven world. And now, here are the CPG Guys. Hello and welcome to a special episode of the CPG Guys Podcast. I'm your adorable co host, pvsb, who moonlights as head of Industry and Client Engagement at Flywheel, the commerce acceleration division of Omnicom. My partner in crime, sri, can't join us today. He's down in San Diego with his Thinking blue partners doing some strategery. He just returned from an island vacation with the entire Raj family media empire, including his two pop star daughters, Lara and Raya, and his podcasting wife Kavita. Links to their business endeavors can be found in the digital show notes of this episode. Make sure you are subscribing to our podcast on your preferred listening platform, where you can get not only our latest episodes as they're released, but even go back to consume some of the 500 plus episodes we've already published. Today's episode is special because it's Prime Day, Amazon's annual global shopping festival extending into 25 from two days to four days. We're fortunate to have as our guest in today's episode someone quite knowledgeable about Amazon Prime. Jamil Ghani is the worldwide leader of Amazon prime, so sit back and enjoy this timely conversation about how Amazon is positioning Prime Day in 2025. All right, before we get started with today's conversation, I want to give a huge shout out to all of my Flywheel colleagues who are on the front line of tirelessly helping their clients win the Buy box during the 2025Amazon Prime Day Festival. Whether you're in Baltimore, the headquarters Seattle, or anywhere in between, I know you guys are working your, your tookies off to help your clients. So just, just think it's only four days away from, from, from relief. But you got, you got it. And I got your back too. Anyhow, it seems only appropriate that for today's special Amazon Prime Day episode, we have as a guest someone intimately familiar with Prime, Amazon subscription loyalty platform. For the last seven and a half years, he's served as Vice President, worldwide leader of Amazon prime and he's joining us to talk about all things Amazon prime and the 2025 Prime Day Festival. Please join me in welcoming to the podcast Jamil Ghani. Jamil, greetings. Happy Prime Day.
- [03:33]
Jamil Ghani
Thank you. Happy Prime Day to you.
- [03:35]
Peter V. S Vaughn
It's early for you. You're out in Seattle as we record this. It's 9:00am in the east and 6:00am on the west. So it's really great to have you. Though I understand that your youngest child has already been up and about and must be pretty excited about Prime Day.
- [03:52]
Jamil Ghani
My kids love PR. 8, 4 and 1 year old daughter. The 1 year old was up most of the night, so she's ready to shop. I think mom and I need to do something about the credit cards, maybe hide them away because I'm worried here.
- [04:05]
Peter V. S Vaughn
I totally understand. All right, so let's. I will say this, I'm pretty excited to have you on the podcast. Two weeks ago we had some of your colleagues from the ADS division join us in Cannes, France for back to back episodes. So we're happy to have Amazon back with us during this big global shopping event. I've already made, as I mentioned to you before we started recording my first purchase of the festival, I got a beauty care item, some three M H vac air filters, and four cases of my favorite energy drink. So I'm already in the game. And I've got 12 more items in the basket that I dropped in this morning. So I am big fan. Big fan. So let's get to the questions I've prepared for today's conversation. Let's kick this off. I'd love for you to start by just for our audience, telling them how you define the core value proposition of prime itself. Beyond loyalty, what do you think makes prime truly unique among all the different offerings that are in the marketplace?
- [05:10]
Jamil Ghani
Yeah, I think the first thing I'd say, Peter, with due respect, is I don't think of prime as a loyalty program, to be honest. I think of prime as a service where our members are deciding to spend a little bit more to get a whole bunch of value. And that value basically Boils down to convenience, savings and entertainment. All of our benefits can basically map to any one of those benefits, oftentimes multiple of those benefits. You take Prime Day. Prime Day is certainly about savings. You know, no doubt you're enjoying them, I'm enjoying them. You know, members around the world are enjoying them. But it's also about convenience in that, you know, our AI personalization tools make it easier to connect you, your needs and wants to, you know, real savings for some, it's also entertainment, I will admit, but you carry that through to our delivery speeds, you know, same day sub, same day speeds. You take that to prime video. It's really about those three core values under one simple membership. And I think that's what makes it different. It's that it's very hard to find another subscription program, another membership program or loyalty program that delivers as much value. You know, I'd say that we're not a loyalty program, we're a paid service that you pay a little bit more, you get a whole lot more value.
- [06:29]
Peter V. S Vaughn
I think that's an avid description and I will carry that forward as I talk about Amazon prime in future episodes. So thank you for helping clarify that in my mind, in the mind of our audience. So big news in 2025. Prime Day is expanding to actually Prime Days, four days. In fact. I'd love to understand what metrics you're going to be using to measure success this year, given that it's now four full days.
- [06:59]
Jamil Ghani
Well, putting aside, Peter, the obvious question of have we stretched the English language to a point that it, it's hard to wrap your head. We're still calling it Prime Day, you know, going back to our origins of a shorter event. But our members have told us they just, they want more time. We all have busy lives. We got a lot going on. And as much as we look forward to Prime Day, you know, you have other things to attend to. And so more time to find the deals that meet your household specific needs is much appreciated. I'd say that we are going to look at this Prime Day like we look at every Prime Day. How much value has it delivered to members? And that value comes through clearly in dollars saved. How many dollars have we saved? How many deals have been taken advantage of? How many members engage, how many new members joined because of Prime Day and the quality of and so value delivered as defined by members engaging getting what they want on high quality deals is the simple recipe. Whether the event is 24 hours, 36 hours, two days or four days, it really doesn't Change very much. Of course, we are eager to make sure that it remains fresh and new throughout the four day event. And so that's why we're dropping today's big deals. Every midnight you're going to have something new to be excited about. During certain periods of the event, every five minutes there'll be a new deal. And so that helps contribute to that very simple outcome we want, which is members saving a ton of money. You know, everybody wants to stretch the dollar as much as possible and Prime Day is a great way to do that.
- [08:41]
Peter V. S Vaughn
Well, I don't know how other people prepare for Prime Day. What I do is a couple weeks ahead, I start putting items into my basket that I'm hoping are going to have some deals. I then move them to the save for later component of my basket. And then when Prime Day comes this, I saw all of the items in my basket that were deals. I moved them into the basket and purchased them. And I will continue to monitor over the next couple of days. So I agree with you that for me the savings are very evident as I, as I start to consume the items that are made available to me through tremendous deals. So Prime Day now spans, I think at last count, over 25 countries. Would love to hear from you how you prioritize your market expansion for this big event.
- [09:32]
Jamil Ghani
Yeah, it's a great question. In fact, the latest update is 26 countries because just a couple weeks ago we launched prime for our Colombian customers. It's actually our first program where our Colombian shoppers shop on Amazon.com our US store and they get free international delivery nationwide in Colombia, plus access to Prime Video and Prime Gaming. Right. So it's a, it's a different program customized to the Colombian shopper and a cross border shopping kind of solution. Before that was Ireland, our 25th country. So in terms of expansion, we set a Prime Worthiness bar. Right. Amazon sets a very high standard for bringing our various services, whether it's our store or Prime Video or any of the other benefits. But then we look at the appropriate time for us to launch prime, which is our premium subscription program where members expect a higher level of service and we have to be able to consistently deliver that. So we set a Prime worthiness bar. We like to say that we want to launch prime as quickly as possible but as slow as necessary in order to ensure we hit that high bar. What's in that high bar? Selection, pricing speed, the catalog of Prime Video and the similar metrics for any other benefit that we're going to offer in that specific locale. And so we invest in the underlying benefits and then we assess it against this objective bar of are we there and can we do that consistently for our members, our future members, prospective members in this country? And when we're ready, we're, we're really eager to then get going and launch Prime.
- [11:18]
Peter V. S Vaughn
So in doing my research, I've come across some other statements that you've made in the industry. And you've previously described inventory placement and last mile enhancements as being key to faster delivery. When you think about now moving from two to four days, what are some of the biggest operational challenges you're facing to make sure that the Prime Day does deliver that speed, particularly and actually getting the items that were ordered through that last mile to the consumer's doorstep?
- [11:51]
Jamil Ghani
Yeah. So I think the first thing to say is we've been investing in our supply chain since the beginning, for 30 years. Right. And certainly the 20 years that we've been offering Prime. This is our 20th anniversary of offering prime in the United States. And that has allowed us to do a couple things, some of which you alluded to. By regionalizing our network, we have put inventory closer to the customer and the prime member. That means items typically travel fewer miles on the road. And so the operations in the building are exactly the same, high safety, same processes, etc. Inside the buildings, but they just spend less time on the road. And that's what allows next day speed, same day speeds, same day where you can order in the morning and have it by midday or midday and have it by dinner time. And so the other kind of intended consequence of that, it's also our lowest, some of our lowest cost to serve methods. And so that allows us to, you know, have perfectly aligned incentives. Our members can get faster and faster speeds and we can make our business more and more efficient. So we can do more of that from even wider selection, particularly this everyday, essential, low, low average selling price items, beauty categories, essential, things like that. So on the point of events, we ramp up obviously our capacity, we get inventory into the buildings anticipating, you know, the, the, the, the surge in demand and volume that comes with Prime Day and similar events throughout the year. But that, like I said, we've been practicing that for 30 years now. I will say that during events, we also give members the option to consolidate their packages. Many households are like your household. My house is the same way, where my wife will remember things we need, I will remember things we need. We'll be on the 11th hour of the event and be like, oh, you know, the girls Also need this for back to school, for example, which, you know, Prime Day is a great time for back to school. And we add that. And so we usually tend to pick consolidation options where items arrive in the same box or on the same day later and sometimes those promises are later in the week. And so it's not always about the fastest speeds for all customers, but we work really hard to make sure that Prime's fast, free and limited delivery continues to be present even when the focus shifts to exceptional savings.
- [14:21]
Peter V. S Vaughn
A follow up question to this, obviously you talked about inventory placement closer to where it's going to be delivered. That's great. When you're working through your own 1P inventory, what kind of efforts are you putting into ensuring that your three piece sellers are also able to deliver a commensurate service expectation from consumers that are buying through Amazon and are being fulfilled through your process, but obviously coming from the, the distribution point of your three piece sellers.
- [15:00]
Jamil Ghani
Yeah, so we hold a consistent standard for prime because we believe that prime members deserve certain speeds and selection and pricing irrespective of what's, what magic is going on in the background and who is fulfilling it. You know, we obviously have services like fulfillment by Amazon that is one way for sellers to reach those speeds and that reliability and what have you. And we monitor that closely. You know, we monitor that just like we do our own operations. And then we obviously also have partner sellers that fulfill on their own whether they're in prime or outside of Prime. You know, we hold, we hold high standards but to, to, to be included in prime program, to be included in Prime Day, you have to meet those standards. And, and our our deal quality standards and kind of speed standards for our own operations and also third parties has only been going up. And so the quality of the event has objectively, you know, we track the metrics have been getting better and better and you see that with the brands that are there, the discount levels, the inventory available, etc.
- [16:15]
Peter V. S Vaughn
How do you balance the sometimes competing objectives of speed of delivery with minimizing out of stock experiences, particularly during big events like Prime Day?
- [16:27]
Jamil Ghani
So we, a lot of the work goes in ahead of time of course with our forecasting models to make sure we have the appropriate inventory. But you know as well as I do that some items are, are you just can't get the inventory right, whether it's the vendor seller availability or the, you know, desire to discount, you know, in terms of the volumes that we could push. And so we, we work very closely to make sure that we first and foremost ensure a fantastic customer experience. So avoid sellouts, avoid disappointing customers. We use mechanisms like the Today's Big Deals or invite only program to really signal to customers like hey, this is a short duration item, right? Lightning deals are a long standing version of this which is hey, this is only until you get to 100% claim rate and then no more after that. The good thing is that with millions of deals across 35 categories, we have complements and substitutes and other alternatives available whether from the same brand and other colorways or from other brands as well that are equally good. We want to make sure that that customer experience is fantastic and then you know, when, when we do run out, we make it very, very clear that you know, that item is off the site and then you know, here are other things you might like.
- [17:52]
Peter V. S Vaughn
Chain Drug Review's focus is on reaching the key decision makers across all retail channels, delivering comprehensive coverage of the latest shopping trends and in depth category analysis on health, beauty, over the counter products and wellness. Whether it's the latest trends, emerging technologies or strategies for adapting to new consumer behaviors, Mass Market retailers deliver the critical information retailers need to navigate this dynamic environment. To subscribe to the newsletters of CDR and mmr, simply follow the hyperlinks in the digital liner notes of this episode. Chain Drug Review and Mass Market Retailers are published by Retail Media iq. Let me remind our audience that today I have the pleasure of speaking with Jamil Ghani. He's the VP and worldwide leader of Amazon prime at Amazon. Jamil, how's AI reshaping personalization in the shopping experience, particularly for recommendation engines and support chatbots like Rufus? What's going on with AI?
- [18:56]
Jamil Ghani
Yeah, so Amazon and Prime have been investing in AI for years, right? This is certainly accelerated in the recent years with the advances in the underlying technology, but we've been using AI in various forms to make recommendations and improve those recommendations over time. What I'm really excited about for 2025 Prime Day specifically is the culmination of a couple really friendly, really easy to use capabilities. You mentioned one Rufus. So Rufus is getting smarter and smarter by the day. Rufus is an expert on Prime Day. Rufus is an expert on deals that are available. Rufus also really good at going out and searching for the things that match your interest. So if you put in as I have like show me photography related deals less than $100, Rufus will bring those things specifically back. In similar fashion, you have an evergreen capability called Interests. If you go to your ME tab, the little person at the bottom of the mobile app you can type in a natural language. Now I'm really looking forward to remodeling my living room. My spouse and I are into mid century modern furniture. Can you just surface up items that might that are on deal on Prime Day and it will just proactively offer those to you? You mentioned in your own shopping habits some of the things that have only gotten better with time, which is wish lists and save for later and those things that you have in your cart or shop for before, we're using all of those signals better and better to match them against the millions of deals we've offered. And then the last thing is millions of our members now have access to Alexa and Alexa is your friendly, conversational, more intelligent than ever shopping assistant as well. So you can, if you find yourself with access, you can use Alexa as well. Last thing I'd mention when you're making higher ticket price purchases. Because as much as Prime Day has now become about everyday essentials and beauty and apparel and all these things, it's also still a great time to buy electronics and TVs and things like that. And I don't know about you, but I'm not in the market for TVs that often. And so when I'm researching something like a TV or a laptop, which, you know, quiet. My 8 year old's birthday is coming up and the one thing she's asked for is can I get a laptop so I can code? We're doing some research on laptops. I don't buy laptops very often. And so shopping guides for laptops or TVs or other things are exceptionally helpful. Those are being built by AI as well.
- [21:35]
Peter V. S Vaughn
I was blown away this morning. I saw a 40 inch flat screen 4K TV on Amazon for $130. And I think about what I paid for my first big flat screen, which was 36 inches in 2007, I think I paid $3,500. So yes, prices are getting substantially better. And my daughter loves Alexa plus at six and a half years old she is, she's a fierce shopper. So danger, danger, Will Robinson. All right, going back to some other things I've heard you reference in prior conversations. What are the six pillars that prime uses to foster an innovative mindset? Because I think innovation is critically important to delivering better and better customer experiences and staying ahead of the curve rather than playing catch up.
- [22:28]
Jamil Ghani
Yeah. The number one thing that I think underpins everything we do at Amazon, including Prime, is our leadership principles. I have had the pleasure of working at a variety of top tier global companies. And I will say that at Amazon, we live the leadership principles day to day in a way that I haven't seen at most other companies. And I think at the core of the core, if that's sort of the beating heart, is customer obsession. We really work really hard to understand customer needs and then work backwards from those customer needs, which is, you know, our term for start with the solution you want to provide, the delight you want to provide to customers, and then work backwards on all the things that need to happen in order to make that possible, across, you know, invention and financials and operations and so on and so forth. So I think that the most critical foundation is that customer perception and the overall set of leadership principles. I then add to it. You know, Prime's central premise is very simple. I said it before. It's one single membership through which members pay a little more, and then they get disproportionate value across convenience, savings and entertainment. And we just go back to that over and over and over and that recipe just works. And it works because busy households like yours or mine or your listeners just face common challenges. None of us have enough time, none of us have enough dollars to stretch across all the things we want to do for our families and our friends and ourselves. None of us want to face friction, none of us want complexity in our lives. We'd rather focus on other things that we value more. And so those three value proposals, principles of convenience, savings and entertainment really work. And they, they're really fungible, they're really extensible across categories like groceries or everyday essentials, which is increasingly important part of our business growing incredibly fast, whether it's healthcare or the partners that we work with, you know, beyond Amazon's own services. So, like, you take Grubhub, you can order on Grubhub during Prime Day, you can get 50% off an order, right? That's another deal. You can get, you know, buy videos or rent videos at a discount on Prime Video in addition to all the content included with your membership. And so it's just, it's, I think that, you know, on the leadership principles, then it's just staying true to this convenience, savings and entertainment recipe behind one simple membership.
- [25:04]
Peter V. S Vaughn
You used a word that I think personifies what makes what stands Amazon prime apart from other subscription programs I see in the industry, and that's disproportionate value I can absolutely attest to. I am just never, never completely surprised when I see yet another value that I get out of my Amazon prime subscription so thank you for that. You talked about the daily deal drops, right? Prime Day is now doing daily deal drops every five minutes or so. How do you ensure, though, that members aren't overwhelmed with, with all of the offers and deals that are coming at them, how do you make it very relevant and something they can digest?
- [25:58]
Jamil Ghani
Yeah, we, we love to have a wide breadth of deals, millions of deals across 35 categories, but we recognize that only the hundred deals or a thousand deals that are tailored to you really matter to you, Peter. Matter to my household. And those should be really tailored and hence personalization. You asked the question before, but just to recap, right. We're. We're using AI and recommendation systems and personalization across the board, whether it's based on what's in your cart, to how you engage with Rufus, to interest, to shopping guides, to Alexa. All of that comes together behind a customer experience and a visual design that makes it easier for members to get that needs and wants list. Whether it's kept on the palm of their hand or on a note or on their phone or in their car, like you did, it doesn't matter. We want to make it as simple as possible for our members to get what they need and want with Prime Day. More time certainly helps, but being more personalized and tailored in our marketing and our merchandising.
- [27:01]
Peter V. S Vaughn
So my last question to you is, as you're rolling out these new features, these new capabilities, obviously being able to understand whether that resonates with your members is critically important. So how do you measure and iterate on prime member satisfaction, particularly during these high intensity periods like Prime Day?
- [27:21]
Jamil Ghani
Yeah, there's a couple things that we do. Certainly the engagement from members is the best signal of whether something is working or not working. So we're monitoring that extremely closely. There's teams that have been working for literally months since last Prime Day to prepare and then are now sort of on call to make sure that everything from the customer facing experience all the way through to foundational technologies and supply chain are ready. And so, you know, the data tells us if something is resonating or not resonating. And we adjust. The other thing that we love about our prime members is that they will tell us in their feedback. And so we hear through customer service, through Rufus, through other means, if something is working, not working, and we try to be really responsive to that, ultimately we want them to have a positive experience where they get the value and the savings that they want to get out of Prime Day. And then, you know, post event, last thing I'D say is we do retros on everything and then we figure out, okay, how will this affect prime big deal days? How will this affect Q4? You know, black Friday, Cyber Monday, and then certainly how will this affect Prime Day 2026? It's almost a joke internally that, like, the first day of Prime Day 2026 is the last day of Prime Day 2025. It's just like daisy chain from one to the other, but we love it. It really is a celebration of members and the membership and the value that it delivers to so many people. You know, 200 million members plus many more than 200 million members in 26 countries. Like, it's what gets me out of bed. It's just, it's everyday value for everyday people.
- [29:07]
Peter V. S Vaughn
Outstanding. Well, what a terrific conversation, Jamil. Thank you. Thanks for taking time very early in day one of Prime Day 2025 to share your thoughts with the CPG Guys. We're really appreciative. Thank you for joining us.
- [29:22]
Jamil Ghani
Thank you for the opportunity. I appreciate it. Enjoyed it.
- [29:24]
Peter V. S Vaughn
What a terrific conversation with Jamil Ghani from Amazon Prime. I certainly learned a lot. I hope you all did too. Shree, I'm sorry you couldn't join us for this conversation, but I know you're busy down in Southern California getting some other things done. And to our audience, we hope you're following us again on your favorite podcast platform. And if you're on Apple or Spotify and you're so inclined, leave us a rating because that's what helps make our podcast more findable by industry contemporaries of yours. And leave us a review as well so we can get your feedback on what you like, what you want us to change. We want to be responsive to your needs. It's been a real pleasure and we look forward to speaking with you on the next episode of the CPG Guys Podcast. Goodbye. The content in this podcast episode is provided for general informational purposes only. By listening to our episode, you understand that no information contained in this episode should be construed as advice from CPGuys, LLC or the individual author, hosts, or guests, nor is it intended to be a substitute for research on any subject matter. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by CPGuys, LLC. The views expressed by guests are their own, and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. The views expressed by CPTGuys LLC do not represent the views of their employers or the entity they represent. CPTGuys LLC expressly disclaims any and all liability or responsibility for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or other damages arising out of any individual's use of, reference to, or inability to use this podcast or the information we present in this podcast.