The other day when visiting Amazon.com I got a surprise: a new home page! I guess Amazon is testing and therefore spreading the new home page in the wild with some customers.
The new home page shows the new direction of Amazon. In fact it is a long departure from the Amazon that we all know so well. You know, the company that sells physical goods, “Earth’s Biggest Retailer“ and has a well earned number one position.
Not so any more. Today Amazon reinvents themselves as a digital retailer. What a really bad idea. I wrote earlier about Amazon and their line extension move to digital. There were clear signs that Amazon might fall for the line extension trap.
Let take a look at the new home page:
Now take a close look at the categories:
- Instant video
- MP3 store
- Cloud Player
- Kindle
- Cloud Drive
- Appstore for Android
- Game & Software Downloads
- Audible Audiobooks
Hang on a minute? Where are:
- Books
- Film, Music, Games
- Electronics
- Computers & Office
- Home, Garden, Pets
- Toys, Children & Baby
- Clothes, Shoes & Watches
- Hobbies, Sports & Leisure
- Grocery, Health & Beauty
- DIY, Tools & Car
Clearly, in the “new” Amazon these are not as important anymore. It is now all about digital.
Let’s get somethings straight:
- Amazon is currently in traffic #5 in the USA and #15 globally (via Alexa.com Sep 25)
- Amazon is the undisputable #1 online retailer “Earth’s Biggest” both in numbers and in consumers mind
- Some of Amazon product categories are challenged by more focussed brands like Diapers.com, Drugstore.com, Bookrepository.com and many more, but Amazon has still competitive advantage over many of the challengers by offering Amazon Prime (‘free’ shipping for 79USD per year) across all the product ranges.
Now, Amazon wants to “expand” the business and moving into digital. In other words moving from a category in which it is number one to a category it will need to compete really hard against established brands like iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, Skydrive and many more…
The big question for me is: what are the guys at Amazon HQ’s thinking? Why dilute the meaning of the Amazon brand by entering in the digital space? You did it right with Kindle (you did not call it the Amazon reader) and MyHabit (you did not call it Amazon Fashion Goldbox) and you should have done exactly the same with digital.
Keep your brand where it is established, especially when it is number one in a category and create a new brand for digital, that is what Amazon should have done.