A few years ago, Amazon Prime was flawless.
Speedy delivery times (with plenty of same-day deliveries), low prices, and a suite of TV shows you could watch ad-free.
Fast forward to today, and almost none of that is true.
Yet I’m paying more for the service while receiving less.
It sounds like I’m dunking on Amazon a lot these days, but given their recent move to axe people downloading their ebooks via USB onto their computers, I just wonder if the e-commerce giant has forgotten some of its core customer-first pillars.
Times like this remind me that nothing is too big to fail — even the mighty Zon.
Even Jeff Bezos agrees:
"Amazon is not too big to fail. In fact, I predict one day Amazon will fail. Amazon will go bankrupt."
All that said, there is one service I’m happy to have seen a decline in, and that’s their delivery times. Yes, it sounds absurd considering I just moaned about it, and besides… why in the seven hells would I be happy about longer waiting times?
The reason is a little closer to home than you might believe.
You see, one of the biggest reasons I haven’t stocked paperback versions of my books is that the current Print On Demand (POD) service available to authors is notorious for slow deliveries, particularly in the US.
It’s not uncommon for some books not to reach customers for anywhere from 1-2 weeks.
And if you’re “down under” in Australia or New Zealand?
Forget about it.
So perhaps Amazon slipping a little on their delivery times might do us fledgling e-commerce store owners some good in cooling down buyer expectations. I know it’s forced me and Lady Laura to go for therapy twice.
And still, we fiend for those same-day deliveries every time we click that ghastly orange button.
The only time we don’t?
When we buy Kindle books.
Such is the beauty of digital products. They’re not only cheaper than their physical counterparts, but they have none of the fulfilment bottlenecks. It’s one of the main reasons I’ve been so focused on the digital side of things on D.J.J. Watson Store since its inception.
I will get to paperbacks, but the delivery times need to improve a little bit before I do.
Until then, I’m all in on stocking all digital formats — including audiobooks.
I’ll be talking more about this over the coming days, but for now, if you’re sick of waiting twice as long as you used to for Amazon to get your orders to you, I know just the therapist who can help.
I mean—why not see if there’s a digital equivalent?
It comes with none of the waiting times and, in some cases, will save you a few bucks in the process.
If it’s fiction tales you’re looking for, I’ve got you covered here:
DJJW
