Amazon Growth Strategy: Where Its Next Wave of New Customers Comes From

You are a product manager at Amazon, asked how you would improve customer acquisition: bringing in people who are not Amazon customers today. Decide what should count as a newly acquired customer, choose where new customers should come from, propose and prioritize ideas, and explain how you would measure whether they work. ```hint Start with non-customers Before brainstorming, list the groups who are not Amazon customers today and the main reason each one stays away; the reason, more than the group, should shape the idea. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Which customer does the question mean: shoppers on the retail store, members of Prime, sellers, or customers of another Amazon business? - Which market should the plan target: the US, where Amazon is already widely used, or a market where it is still growing? - Does a customer count as acquired at sign-up, at a first purchase, or only once they come back within a set period? - Is there a ceiling on what Amazon will spend per acquired customer, or is long-term value the yardstick? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A clear definition of an acquired customer and the business reason acquisition matters for Amazon now - Segments of non-customers compared, with one chosen and the reason for the choice - The barriers that keep the chosen segment from becoming customers, ranked by severity - Ideas prioritized against explicit criteria, including cost per acquired customer and whether the customers are truly incremental - A primary metric with guardrails, plus the main risks and how the top idea would be tested ### Follow-up Questions - How would you tell whether a new customer was truly incremental rather than someone who would have joined anyway? - If your top idea brought in many new customers who never came back, what would you change? - How would your plan differ in a market where Amazon trails a strong local rival?