Recently, Kohl’s announced that it would start accepting returns from Amazon. As a mom and frequent Amazon Prime Shopper, I said “yes!” a little too loud as I read the articles about this. Game changing. I’ll admit: I often times drag my feet when it comes to shipping returns back to Amazon. I either don’t have a box to ship the items back in, or don’t want to drag the kids out to the UPS store to drop off the items.
The more that I thought about this recent announcement though, my business wheels started turning. Why would two companies that seemingly have some overlap in products partner on something like this?
At first glance, this may sound like a silly business move. Why is Amazon pushing their customers to shop at Kohl’s? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose? Actually, no. It’s a really smart move, in my opinion! Here’s why (plus some takeaways to use in your own business):
Leaning On Those That Are Smarter Than You: As the world is moving more and more away from retail stores and to online shopping. This is a great move on Kohl’s part. In a world where retail stores are failing one by one, Kohl’s is leaning on Amazon: a giant in the online shopping world.
Takeaway for your business: You NEED to find your tribe. Surround yourself with people who are “smarter” than you. That of course is a relative term. Those people may have another skill set, be ahead of you in terms of how they are running their business, etc. Whatever that may be: surround yourself with a great tribe that knows what it’s like to be a business owner and also can give you real & raw feedback.
Community > Competition. How true! I say this and 100% believe it. Apparently, Amazon & Kohl’s believe it as well. They are partnering together and saying: this makes more sense for us as a business move than doing this thing separately.
Takeaway for your business: While there are a ton of other OBM’s out there, I still truly believe in helping others that are starting their business or are trying to scale it. Even if they do the sameexactthing that I do. I don’t have to give away trade secrets or strategies, but I can offer a helping hand by answering questions or giving solid advice to those who are truly trying their best and working their hardest to grow their businesses. The same is true for you within your business: help others, and again: find your tribe!
You Can’t Be Everything to Everyone. I personally LOVE shopping at Kohl’s. It’s really one of the only stores that I go into frequently. I also shop online at Amazon pretty much everyday. That being said: they both have shortcomings when serving their customers. Kohl’s: their online shopping experience isn’t the greatest, honestly. Amazon: the return process is anything but easy for their customers. By combining the strengths that they both offer: Kohl’s storefront and the Amazon online shopping experience…they are both serving their customers better and realizing that they can’t be everything to everyone…at least not on their own.
Takeaway for your business: Lean on others. See a common theme in this post? I am a horrible graphic designer: so, I have a designer on my team that is amazing. I have clients that are amazing at what they do, but they aren’t so great at backend things such as newsletter management. So, what do we do? We lean on each other to help make our businesses better and serve our clients better.
They Listened To Their Customers. I know that I’m not the only one who has had pains with Amazon’s return process or Kohl’s online shopping process. It’s likely there are others who have expressed these issues to the companies. What did they do? They listened to their customers!
Takeaway for your business: This one is pretty obvious. Listen to your customers. This doesn’t always come in the form of actual verbal (or written feedback), though. Often your sales data will give you this feedback: what are people purchasing? What are the most popular pages on your site? Listening to your customers and collecting some of that data will help you to be strategic about your next moves.
