Amazon Growth Case: Turning Existing Customers Into a Referral Channel

You are a product manager at Amazon, asked to improve customer referrals: getting existing customers to bring new people to Amazon's products and services. Explain how you would define a successful referral, choose whose referrals to focus on, find out what holds referrals back today, propose and prioritize ideas, and measure success. ```hint Follow one referral end to end Picture a single referral from both sides: what would make the customer want to share, and what the invited person sees and has to do before they become a customer. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Should a referral bring in brand-new shoppers, new Prime members, or users for one of Amazon's newer services? - Which market is in scope, and how widely is Amazon already used there? - Can the plan use incentives such as credits, and do paid affiliates and creators count as referrers or stay out of scope? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A defined referral outcome and the bar a referred customer must clear to count - Referrer segments compared, with one chosen and justified, plus a view of the invited person's side - Barriers on both sides of a referral, drawn from a specific sharing journey - Referral ideas prioritized against stated criteria, with a first bet chosen and the reasons the others wait or are dropped - A success metric tied to the defined referral outcome, with guardrails suited to the chosen referral mechanics ### Follow-up Questions - How would you know whether referred customers would have joined anyway? - If your plan rewards referrers, how would you stop people from collecting those rewards through fake or self-referred accounts? - How would your plan change in a country where Amazon is still a newcomer?