1 hr 1 min
How Amazon Built its Merchant Selling Platform | John Rossman Invent like an Owner with Dave Schappell
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- Careers
Today, in the Invent Like An Owner Podcast, Dave speaks with John Rossman. They talk about how the Merchants@ program was built from scratch, why working directly with third party sellers prompted the principle of seller obsession, launching the Apparel and Sporting Goods categories, developing smaller teams within the retail organization, and essentially, how Amazon’s Leadership Principles led the way to writing his book, “The Amazon Way”.
John Rossman is the former Director of Merchant Integration and Enterprise Services at Amazon. He spearheaded the launch of the Merchants@ program, one of the largest B2B networks with thousands of sellers, offering products in new categories such as apparel, sporting goods, consumer electronics, health and beauty, and home.
Episode Resources:
John Rossman’s LinkedIn and TwitterThe Amazon Way BookThe Amazon Way WebsiteFind Dave on LinkedIn and Twitter
What to Listen For:
00:00 Intro02:39 What is the Merchants@ Program?04:41 Prior to Amazon, John was in a startup technology company09:04 While there was Customer Obsession, they needed to create Seller Obsession12:43 Inventory and catalog refreshes from daily to hourly14:06 Account management team within the retail organization15:51 Engineering and design work for customer and seller experience17:43 Gently enforcing the parity clauses of the seller agreements19:03 Building a three-option integration path for sellers22:36 Working directly with third party sellers24:30 The big launch for the Apparel category, followed by Sporting Goods27:31 The evolution of Item Matching30:59 Knowing when to have and not to have patience on something31:49 A big no to “handshake’ credit card deals to maintain customer trust34:15 Self service registration, so that seller’s could register without talking to anyone35:50 Product promotions and processing refunds38:26 Merchant.com was essentially a business outsourcing arrangement41:44 Classification is one of the tricky parts in creating a great customer experience44:17 M.com business wasn’t winning 45:41 How "The Amazon Way" book came to be47:41 Being good has never been the bar at Amazon49:36 Truly understand the nature of experimentation in the business51:42 Getting clarity in your thinking and getting senior leaders to sit down and listen54:36 Startups should focus on instrumentation and metrics56:36 You don't want to scale when you don't understand your unit cost basis
Today, in the Invent Like An Owner Podcast, Dave speaks with John Rossman. They talk about how the Merchants@ program was built from scratch, why working directly with third party sellers prompted the principle of seller obsession, launching the Apparel and Sporting Goods categories, developing smaller teams within the retail organization, and essentially, how Amazon’s Leadership Principles led the way to writing his book, “The Amazon Way”.
John Rossman is the former Director of Merchant Integration and Enterprise Services at Amazon. He spearheaded the launch of the Merchants@ program, one of the largest B2B networks with thousands of sellers, offering products in new categories such as apparel, sporting goods, consumer electronics, health and beauty, and home.
Episode Resources:
John Rossman’s LinkedIn and TwitterThe Amazon Way BookThe Amazon Way WebsiteFind Dave on LinkedIn and Twitter
What to Listen For:
00:00 Intro02:39 What is the Merchants@ Program?04:41 Prior to Amazon, John was in a startup technology company09:04 While there was Customer Obsession, they needed to create Seller Obsession12:43 Inventory and catalog refreshes from daily to hourly14:06 Account management team within the retail organization15:51 Engineering and design work for customer and seller experience17:43 Gently enforcing the parity clauses of the seller agreements19:03 Building a three-option integration path for sellers22:36 Working directly with third party sellers24:30 The big launch for the Apparel category, followed by Sporting Goods27:31 The evolution of Item Matching30:59 Knowing when to have and not to have patience on something31:49 A big no to “handshake’ credit card deals to maintain customer trust34:15 Self service registration, so that seller’s could register without talking to anyone35:50 Product promotions and processing refunds38:26 Merchant.com was essentially a business outsourcing arrangement41:44 Classification is one of the tricky parts in creating a great customer experience44:17 M.com business wasn’t winning 45:41 How "The Amazon Way" book came to be47:41 Being good has never been the bar at Amazon49:36 Truly understand the nature of experimentation in the business51:42 Getting clarity in your thinking and getting senior leaders to sit down and listen54:36 Startups should focus on instrumentation and metrics56:36 You don't want to scale when you don't understand your unit cost basis
1 hr 1 min