Amazon's Debut in Africa: Shaping the First Home Page Without Market Data

Amazon has decided to launch in Africa, and you are the product manager asked to design the home page for that launch. Take the premise as given: Amazon has no African presence yet, and you have no data about the market, so state the assumptions you make as you work toward a design. ```hint Design for a first visit Nobody arriving at this page has shopped with Amazon before. Work out what a first-time visitor must see and believe before placing a first order, and which local conditions would change how the page has to work. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Does the first launch cover one country, a few large markets, or the whole continent at once? - Is this retail e-commerce only, or should the page also carry other Amazon services and recruit local sellers? - Which surfaces does "home page" mean here: the mobile app, the mobile website, the desktop site, or all of them? - What should the first year achieve: first-time buyers, repeat buyers, or seller supply? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A scoped launch (which markets, which surfaces, what goal) stated as explicit assumptions in place of data - A target shopper for the launch, chosen against alternatives, with the reason - The barriers that keep a first-time shopper in these markets from ordering, and how each one shapes the page - A home page layout with modules in a justified priority order, and how the page should change as the market matures - Success metrics with guardrails, and a plan to test the riskiest assumptions quickly ### Follow-up Questions - With no data at launch, how would you decide what goes in the top slot of the page, and how soon would you replace that decision with evidence? - How would the page change for a shopper on an entry-level phone with a slow, costly data connection? - How would you run one home page design across countries with different languages, currencies, payment habits and delivery coverage?