Why and How to Make Your Site More Like Amazon

Five specific, actionable takeaways to help you compete with the Beast

Hello from Minneapolis!

After spending a week at Voyageurs National Park and along the North Shore (of Lake Superior) in Northern Minnesota, I drove down to Minneapolis, where I’ve been biking around and exploring in shocking 85-degree weather the past few days. The pic above is from a hike I did along the North Shore this weekend. It was super foggy so the epic overlook views were pretty much blocked but the trails themselves were stunning. This afternoon, I’m taking the Amtrak train to Milwaukee to see my mom. I have boatloads of emails and articles to catch up on (in addition to mom care duties) before heading on an actual vacation next week! Expect more OOOs from me! Sorry, not sorry.

For a while, I’ve been wanting to send out an email about how to make your website more like Amazon so here it goes. I may do a follow-up in the future, but I wanted to get out these five tips ASAP so you can start thinking about implementing some of the suggestions.

Enjoy the rest of the week!

Cassandra

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How and Why to Make Your Website Like Amazon

I’m not going to lie, I really hate Amazon (and Wal-Mart!) because I believe they are destroying small businesses across the country, and the millions of boxes shipped around by gas-guzzling trucks every day are horrible for the environment. Personally, I cancelled my Prime membership a few years ago and I avoid ordering from Amazon at all costs.

Whenever possible, I link directly to a brand’s site in my articles instead of linking to Amazon or other third-party sites. If I do have to link to another site (say, if the brand doesn’t offer affiliate commission through its own site and I have to include an affiliate link), then I will try to find the product on REI (my favorite option, more on why below!), Backcountry, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Target, Nordstrom, or pretty much anywhere else. I link to Amazon as a last resort.

All that said, Amazon is smart AF, and there is a reason why so many commerce sections link to them. And as much as I hate linking to them, my editors sometimes prefer I link to them and they may specifically tell me to link to Amazon, partially because Amazon just makes their (and my!) lives easy. Even if you (or your client) are a small company, here are five specific ideas you should take from Amazon and apply to your business to help you compete.