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By Chris McCabe · February 26, 2025 · Curated by George's Blog
Everyone saw the recent Amazon announcement which takes a play straight out of "Miracle on 34th Street".In the classic movie with Natalie Wood, their in-store store Santa greets children and gives overly honest shopping advice for where to buy the best toys. Kris Kringle sends shoppers to other stores whenever Macy's didn't have the best gift options, if you haven't seen it.After first resisting his "too honest" suggestions, it ended up being a savvy business move -- and the whole family became a nice group of loyal Macy's customers as a result. If a product isn’t available on Amazon, they’ll now link buyers out to third-party sites to help people find the item elsewhere. Maybe Amazon is hoping if they act like Santa here, they'll reap the same rewards that Macy's did. In the past that might've sounded unthinkable, but I'm not surprised. When Amazon first launched the marketplace, retail teams worried 3P sellers would steal their sales. Jeff Bezos reputedly solicited feedback from those teams, and others. Then, he went ahead with creating the 3rd party marketplace. It was a bold move, but it tracks with Amazon’s successful long-term strategy. When shoppers can’t find what they want at the price they want, won't they leave anyway? Amazon wants to remain the focal point, even if it means sending traffic off-platform for an individual sale. Will this have the intended (positive) effect and create the best buyer experience? Will it hurt Amazon's ecosystem for brands and sellers, short or long term?