5 things we learned in Amazon's letter to shareholders for 2018 – Adweek

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Last year, Bezos revealed for the first time the number of Prime members. And while there has not been a comparable bomb in 2018, this may be Bezos' very first letter to its shareholders as a single person.

Here are our five best takeaways:

1. Amazon and small businesses are two peas in a pod.

In its letter, Bezos said that Amazon's share of the gross physical sales of independent third-party sellers increased from 3% in 1999 to 58% in 2018. It stated that these third parties are mainly small and medium-sized enterprises, which registered sales with a compound annual growth rate of 52%, which is higher than Amazon's sales growth to 25%.

2. Amazon is better than eBay!

Bezos then openly tried eBay and its low sales growth rate, which he said was only 20%.

"Why did independent sellers sell so much better on Amazon than on eBay? And why have independent sellers been able to grow so much faster than Amazon's first highly organized sales organization? Asked Bezos. "We have helped independent sellers compete with our core business by investing in the best-selling tools and offering them the best-selling tools.."

This includes the achievement by Amazon and Prime.

"Together, these two programs have significantly improved the customer experience of buying from independent sellers," he added.

3. Amazon offers consumers products that they do not even know they want.

Prime is a good example of one of the innovative offerings offered by Amazon through its corporate culture, which, he says, encompasses experimentation.

"It's hard for most people today to fully appreciate just how radical these two offers were when we launched them," wrote Bezos about Prime and Fulfillment. "We invested in both programs with significant financial risk and after many internal debates … We could not predict with certainty what these programs might look like, let alone their success, but they were pushed intuition and heart, and fed with optimism. "

The Amazon Web Services (AWS) division, worth $ 30 billion, is another example.

"Nobody asked AWS. Nobody. In fact, the world was ready and eager for an offer like AWS, but he did not know it, "he added. "We had a presentiment, followed our curiosity, took the necessary financial risks and started to build – rework, experiment and reiterate countless times as we progress."

And, of course, his no-order retail experience, Amazon Go, his voice-activated Echo devices, and his voice assistant, Alexa, also prove that Amazon is a pioneer in its own right.

"No customer was asking for Echo … Market research is not helping us," said Bezos. "If you went to a customer in 2013 and said," Would you like a black cylinder still lit in your kitchen, the size of a box of Pringles to which you can talk and ask questions, that turns on also your lights and plays music? "I guarantee you that they would have looked at you strangely and said: & # 39; No thanks. & # 39; "

Amazon sometimes has failures of billions of dollars.

Bezos said that a company the size of Amazon requires experiments that could occasionally result in losses of billions of dollars. It's a part of being a good corporate citizen, he added.

5. Bezos challenges Amazon's competitors to raise the minimum wage.

He noted that Amazon had raised its minimum wage to $ 15 by the hour for more than 250,000 employees and 100,000 seasonal employees.

"We have always offered competitive salaries. But we decided that it was time to give the example, to offer more competitive wages, "he said. Bezos then invited its "main competitors in the retail sector (you know who you are!)" To match Amazon's minimum wage and benefits, or even "challenge us" by raising their minimum wage at $ 16.

In response, Walmart's business manager (and former George W. Bush spokesman), Dan Bartlett, did what we all do: use Twitter to launch haymakers against his competitor, tweeting:

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