How Amazon Tried To Get Shoppers To Buy Less So It Could Catch Up

After weeks of encouraging shoppers to order less by slowing down promotions, coupons, ads and reviews, Amazon says delivery speeds are returning to normal. CNBC explores all the ways Amazon tweaked its online experience to encourage shoppers to buy less in recent weeks, and how that’s impacted sellers, customers and Amazon’s ability to catch up to a huge surge in demand.

Amazon has seen a huge surge in sales as people shopped from the safety of their homes during the coronavirus pandemic, but orders faced heavy delays as the e-commerce giant struggled to keep up. 

In order to catch up, Amazon tweaked its online shopping experience to accomplish something extremely unusual: get shoppers to order less.

For weeks, Amazon stopped coupons, product recommendations and promotional deals. Mother's Day items weren't displayed on the homepage and Prime Day has reportedly been postponed indefinitely. It slowed down advertising, reviews, and its affiliate marketing and Fulfilled by Amazon programs, while placing strict limits on incoming inventory.

"They didn't have a choice but to slow down traffic, to turn off a lot of the features that were driving additional revenue and sales so that they could do their best to to supply families in need right now with these essential goods. I think that the other choice that they had would be to shut down. But I mean, Amazon became sort of an essential service for the country during this time," said Jason Boyce, founder of Amazon seller consultant group Avenue7Media.

Now, Amazon has started to turn these features back on, and delivery speeds are returning to normal.

Watch the video to learn all the ways Amazon tweaked its online experience to encourage shoppers to buy less so it could return to one-day Prime shipping sooner.

» Subscribe to CNBC: https://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBC
» Subscribe to CNBC TV: https://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBCtelevision
» Subscribe to CNBC Classic: https://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBCclassic

About CNBC: From 'Wall Street' to 'Main Street' to award winning original documentaries and Reality TV series, CNBC has you covered. Experience special sneak peeks of your favorite shows, exclusive video and more.

Connect with CNBC News Online
Get the latest news: https://www.cnbc.com/
Follow CNBC on LinkedIn: https://cnb.cx/LinkedInCNBC
Follow CNBC News on Facebook: https://cnb.cx/LikeCNBC
Follow CNBC News on Twitter: https://cnb.cx/FollowCNBC
Follow CNBC News on Instagram: https://cnb.cx/InstagramCNBC

#CNBC

How Amazon Tried To Get Shoppers To Buy Less So It Could Catch Up

Видео How Amazon Tried To Get Shoppers To Buy Less So It Could Catch Up канала CNBC