Amazon Looks to Foodies, DIY Fans and Fashionistas For Growth

Amazon continues to redefine what a brand in today’s omnichannel digital world can be. Over the last 15 years, Amazon returned more than 8,000% to investors, outpacing competitors and the overall stock market.

The online bookseller that opened its doors online in July 1995 has morphed into a universe that includes original programming, cloud services, voice-activated devices, The Washington Post, private label food and fashion brands such as Find, which Amazon is promoting with a UK ad campaign.

Appeal to time-pressed foodies, its ready-to-cook (and deliver) meal kits (tagline: “We do the prep. You be the chef”) connect the dots on an expanding retail presence that includes its new ownership of Whole Foods Market. Amazon has unprecedented ability, technically and financially, to pursue other strategic deals—including selling $16 billion in debt to finance the acquisition of Whole Foods for $13.7 billion.

As the New York Times noted, “Amazon is a $472 billion goliath—the fifth-largest American enterprise by market capitalization—that has store owners and technology companies quaking over its ambitions. Given the company’s cash pile, net debt will be even lower at less than $10 billion. That leaves the underleveraged Amazon with enough financial firepower to consider acquisitions that would make Whole Foods look like an appetizer.”

With the acquisition of Whole Foods, Amazon has secured a beachhead in groceries that spans the physical and digital worlds, and may look to Whole Foods’ footprint of 400-plus locations as distribution hubs for fresh food services including meal kits.

The company has proven its mettle at original programming, winning awards for its series like Transparent, Mozart in the Jungle and The Man in the High Castle, creating compelling exclusive content to add value to Amazon Prime subscriptions.

A home makeover show, Overhaul, features Rosanna Pansino (the YouTube cooking star behind the Nerdy Yummies baked goods brand now popping up in Michael’s stores) and will combine commerce and entertainment in a T-commerce model that will boost Amazon’s home decor sales.

The DIY makeover series features Pansino’s home makeover guided by Christiane Lemieux, founder of DwellStudio, who is also a co-producer. The e-commerce leviathan has teamed with online media company Kin Community (which produces DIY, foodie and home programming) to produce the shoppable version of the six-episode series.

Want to watch more of our videos? Check out our page on @Amazon & add us to your Prime Watchlist!  https://t.co/WpKcLYcjWF

— Kin Community (@kincommunity) August 23, 2017

Overhaul will live on a special hub on Amazon.com where the promise of T-commerce or interactive TV—click and buy products featured on a show—will promote furnishings and goods from Lemieux’s brands.

Going back to its roots, the company that virtually disrupted the book publishing industry twenty years ago has been quietly opening its own chain of bookstores called Amazon Books. Starting on-campus, the first of two Amazon Books stores opened in New York in May. Amazon’s store in the Time Warner Center occupies 4,000 square feet and displays books similarl to the Amazon website—covers facing out with staff recommendations recalling Kindle’s “you might also like” feature.

Amazon Books is price-free as cost depends on whether you’re a Prime member or not. There’s no cash exchanged and kiosks speed customers, using their smart phones, through check-out and out the door. Naturally, Amazon’s devices are on display, including Kindles and tablets, Echo devices, the suite of Alexa-compatible smart home gadgets and AmazonBasics items such as cellphone chargers and batteries.

Building out a brick-and-mortar retail presence gives the online giant a real-life focus group to observe customer behavior and parse data, which explains why its interest in physical stores with tech-driven tools and data, data, data.

Amazon’s Echo Show voice-controlled device that serves as a home intercom system and video-conferencing tool combines a touchscreen and video camera that CNET calls “a giant phone for your kitchen counter.” Mashable says it’s “Amazon’s most disruptive product…about to change everything—a quantum leap beyond any Alexa-infused product we’ve seen before.”

Amazon’s stock market capitalization rose above $500 billion in July, propelling Bezos into first place (briefly) in the stratosphere of the world’s richest.

“Its stature as one of the most successful companies in the history of the stock market is already assured,” the New York Times commented. “In fact, the numbers show that since 1997, when it became a publicly traded company, Amazon has evolved into one of the century’s greatest wealth-generating machines.”

The math: “If you had invested $1,000 in Amazon in July 2002 — and had held onto your shares — that money would be worth $83,000 today. For now, the mighty Amazon wealth-creation machine continues to roar. Whatever happens next, this is already one of the great tales in the history of capitalism.”

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