Content

1. Amazon Flywheel
2. Amazon Logistics
3. Amazon Leadership Principles
4. Amazon Web Services
5. Ecommerce Metrics
6. Uber Surge Pricing Mechanism
7. Two-way marketplace (Uber) Metrics

AMAZON
CEO: Jeff Bezos
Founded: July 5, 1994
Formerly Known: Cadabra Inc.
Industry: Cloud Computing, E-commerce, Artificial Intelligence, Consumer Electronics,
Digital Distribution
Q. What is Amazon Flywheel?

Amazon
Flywheel
The Amazon Flywheel or Amazon Virtuous Cycle is a strategy that leverages on customer
experience to drive traffic to the platform and third-party sellers. That improves the selections
of goods, and Amazon further improves its cost structure so it can decrease prices which spins
the flywheel. The idea was first sketched by Jeff Bezos back in 2001 and would
become Amazon marketing strategy for years to come. That contributed to the Amazon
business model success. More than a tool this is a mindset, a way to seize opportunities within
industries, where inefficiencies are the rule. At the same time, it helps speed up growth by
investing as much as possible on customer experience.

Q. You must have heard Amazon has one of the best Logistics
systems, so what is so special about it?
Fulfillment Centre:
Amazon fulfillment centers are large facilities with hundreds of employees, sometimes thousands.
Employees are responsible for five basic tasks: unpacking and inspecting incoming goods; placing
goods in storage and recording their location; picking goods from their computer recorded locations
to make up an individual shipment; sorting and packing orders; and shipping. A computer that
records the location of goods and maps out routes for pickers plays a key role: employees carry
hand-held computers which communicate with the central computer and monitor their rate of
progress. A picker may walk 10 or more miles a day.

Amazon sellers have two primary selling options: Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) program
or Fulfillment by Merchant (FBM). FBA means Fulfilled by Amazon, you sell it and Amazon ships
it. The seller sends bulk products in Amazon’s fulfillment centers for Amazon to pick, pack, and ship
products once sold. FBM means Fulfilled by Merchant and the seller lists the products on Amazon
while handling storage and all aspects of order fulfillment. You sell it, you ship it.
 Q. The famous Amazon’s 14 leadership principles

The 14 Leadership Sample

SL. No. Principles Description Question
1 Customer Obsession Leaders start with the customer and work Walk us
backwards. They work vigorously to earn and through a time
keep customer trust. Although leaders pay when you
attention to competitors, they obsess over helped a
customers. customer
through a
difficult
process and
 what that
looked like.

2 Ownership Give me an
Leaders are owners. They think long term example of
and don’t sacrifice long-term value for short- when you took
term results. They act on behalf of the entire a risk and
company, beyond just their own team. They failed
never say “that’s not my job."
3 Invent and Simplify Tell me a time
Leaders expect and require innovation and when you
invention from their teams and always find created an
ways to simplify. They are externally aware, innovative
look for new ideas from everywhere, and are product.
not limited by “not invented here." As we do
new things, we accept that we may be
misunderstood for long periods of time.
4 Are Right, a lot Leaders are right a lot. They have strong Tell me about
judgment and good instincts. They seek a time when
diverse perspectives and work to disconfirm you observed
their beliefs. two business
opportunities
to improve
ROI, and how
did you
determine they
were
connected?
5 Learn and be curious How do you
find the time to
stay inspired,
Leaders are never done learning and always acquire new
seek to improve themselves. They are knowledge,
curious about new possibilities and act to and innovate
explore them. in your work?
6 Hire and develop the best Leaders raise the performance bar with every Tell me a time
hire and promotion. They recognize when you had
exceptional talent, and willingly move them to stay
throughout the organization. Leaders develop inspired,
leaders and take seriously their role in acquire new
coaching others. We work on behalf of our knowledge,
people to invent mechanisms for and innovate
development like Career Choice. in your work
 7 Insist on the highest Leaders have relentlessly high standards — Tell me a time
standards many people may think these standards are when you
unreasonably high. Leaders are continually could have
raising the bar and drive their teams to deliver stopped
high quality products, services, and working on
processes. Leaders ensure that defects do something but
not get sent down the line and that problems you persisted
are fixed so they stay fixed.

8 Think Big Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Tell me a time

Leaders create and communicate a bold when you
direction that inspires results. They think proposed a
differently and look around corners for ways new business
to serve customers.

9 Bias for Action Speed matters in business. Many decisions Describe how
and actions are reversible and do not need you would
extensive study. We value calculated risk handle a busy
taking. situation
where three
people are
waiting for
help from you.
10 Frugality Accomplish more with less. Constraints breed Tell me a time
resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, and when you
invention. There are no extra points for came up with
growing headcount, budget size, or fixed a clever way
expense. to save money
for the
company.
11 Earn Trust Leaders listen attentively, speak candidly, Tell me a time
and treat others respectfully. They are vocally when you
self-critical, even when doing so is awkward earned the
or embarrassing. Leaders do not believe their trust of a
or their team’s body odor smells of perfume. group.
They benchmark themselves and their teams
against the best.

12 Dive Deep Leaders operate at all levels, stay connected Tell me about
to the details, audit frequently, and are a time when
skeptical when metrics and anecdote differ. you had to
No task is beneath them. dive deep into
data and the
results you
achieved.
 13 Have Backbone, Disagree Leaders are obligated to respectfully Tell me about
and Commit challenge decisions when they disagree, the most
even when doing so is uncomfortable or difficult
exhausting. Leaders have conviction and are interaction you
tenacious. They do not compromise for the had
sake of social cohesion. Once a decision is at work.
determined, they commit wholly.

14 Deliver Results Leaders focus on the key inputs for their Tell me a time
business and deliver them with the right when you
quality and in a timely fashion. Despite overcame an
setbacks, they rise to the occasion and never obstacle and
settle. delivered the
results.

Q. What is Amazon Web Services?

Back in 2006-2007, companies were using their own private servers to create services like for
storage, computing, etc. But now with internet speeds becoming better, companies big or
small have started understanding the power of the cloud, therefore they are shifting their data
to the cloud for improved performance, so that they can focus on core-competency.
For example, Netflix is a popular video streaming service which the whole world uses today,
back in 2008 Netflix suffered a major database corruption, and for three days there operations
were halted. The problem was scaling, that is when they realized the need for a highly
reliable, horizontally scalable, distributed systems in the cloud. Came in AWS, and since then
their growth has been off the charts.
[GMV: Gross Merchandise Volume (alternatively Gross Merchandise Value or GMV) is a term
used in online retailing to indicate a total sales dollar value for merchandise sold through a
particular marketplace over a certain time frame. Site revenue comes from fees and is different
from the dollar value of items sold.]

Metrics for e-commerce

What are top metrics you would track for an e-commerce website?
Things to Consider
Examples of top e-commerce websites include:
 US: Amazon, Walmart, Apple
India: Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal.
China: Tmall, JD, Suning
Europe: Tesco, Zolando, Otto
Consider sales, marketing and website metrics
Use AARM Method™: Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Monetization
Answer
Acquisition
Daily sessions
Cost per acquisition (CPA)
Cost per click (CPC)
Cost per impression (CPM)
Top search engine terms leading to website
Mailing list click through rate
Mailing list open rate
Mailing list conversion rate
Mobile app downloads
Activation
New registered users
Mobile app opens
Number of searches on website or app
New cart started
User information given (address, credit card, etc.)
New customers with successful purchase
Retention
Conversion rate
Recommendation engine conversion rate
Shopping cart abandonment
Shopping cart size
Visits from activated users per month
Monetization
Revenue per customer
Lapsed customers
Purchases per year
Revenue per click
Cost of sale (ad spend / revenue)
Customer lifetime value (CLV)
Cost of shipping
Other
Average listing position on the Google search results page for the most important keywords
Cost of goods sold
Shipping time
Stockouts
Returns
Checkout errors
Number of reviews left by customers
Viral coefficient (Number of users that each customer refers)
Market share
Customer engagement on social media
Net or gross margin
Amazon in News
1. Amazon has opened its world’s largest office in the financial district of Hyderabad.
Located in 9.5 acres, it can house 15000 employees
2. Amazon & Flipkart generate 19000 crore INR revenue in festive season sales

UBER TECHNOLOGIES
CEO: Dara Khosrowshahi
Founder: Travis Kalanick, Garrett Camp
Subsidiaries: Uber Eats, Careem, Jump Bikes etc.

Q. What is Uber Surge Pricing?

The idea behind surge pricing is to adjust prices of rides to match driver supply to rider
demand at any given time. During periods of excessive demand when there are many more
riders than drivers, or when there aren't enough drivers on the road and customer wait times
are long, Uber increases its normal fares.
Marketplace Metrics, Buy Side
Acquisition
Mobile app downloads
Activation
Users with at least 1 search
Retention
Searches
Searches with 1+ Matches
CTR for search result
Percent satisfied transactions
Net promoter score
Monetization
Revenue
Avg. transaction size
Number of transactions
Marketplace Metrics, Sell Side
Acquisition
Sellers
Seller growth rate
Activation
Sellers with at least 1 listing
Retention
Listings per seller
Net promoter score
Monetization
Gross marketplace volume
Percent fraudulent transactions
Other
Seller concentration, that is percent of revenue generated by the top X percent of sellers
Marketplace as a percent of overall channel sales