• If Proxis.be (a competitor for the new Amazon.fr) has a problem obtaining an item within the timeframe promised, they give a 2,5 Euro purchase coupon for a next purchase, valid for 2 weeks.

• If Amazon has a problem delivering thing within the timeframe promised, you now have to go to the site, confirming I still want the thing.

Over all my orders on Amazon.com until the beginning of 2000, if a book ever wasn't available in the delay promised, the rest of the order would be sent, and I would be warned about that, without any action required from my part. I was very happy with that kind of service. Amazon now changed it policy: "in order to make it easier to cancel a delayed book". (probably they were getting too many books returned to them?)

But now on each delay you are asked to *reconfirm* buying this book.
 

a) This is quite confusing since the message you get makes you wonder: "Does this mean the shipping of the rest of my order will be delayed until they can have this book?" (no it doesn't)
 

b) Also, such an automated process can be quite annoying, especially when you get 5 delays on the same book in a row and each time you need to reconfirm.
 

A result? Probably Amazon will sell less delayed books in the future!

Which of the following 2 companies would you place your next order with?

• If you don't order from bn.com for a certain time, you get a 10 USD purchase coupon from them.

• If you order for hundreds of dollars books from Amazon, you don't get much "thank you signs" in the form of coupons.

No need to answer … Coupons work!

A suggestion for Amazon's user interface design specialist:
The "delayed book problem" you have is an "exception handling problem". This means that *only* those users requiring exception handling should take action.
 

In other words: in stead it making mandatory to *re-confirm* a delayed order, turn it around! Give people the chance to change their order when a piece of it is delayed, without obliging them to do anything if it's OK to them.

A suggestion for Amazon's marketers

In stead of focusing to attract new customers with low prices, focus on getting your existing customers to do "repeat-purchases". Rise the prices on your books (eventually), but give the people coupons, customer cards, etc. All these are well known off-line ways to build consumer loyalty to your products. It's not the first order that's important, it's the customer coming back that counts! So reward the loyal customer in stead of trying to get a "new customer". Otherwise you create the paradox that existing customers would be better of presenting themselves as new customers. It's not because you provide quality information that the customer will buy from you. It's far too easy to compare prices etc, so once you've found what you are looking for on Amazon, what stops you from browsing for the same product on one or two competing web sites? Also, when taking into account delivery costs, discounts for being a loyal customer, coupons, etc price comparison is a lot harder, and you can create the impression of being less expensive without that the customer will do the math.