Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon

by Colin Bryar

For instance, we decided that in each category, we wanted 95 percent of detail page views to display a product that was in stock and ready for immediate shipping. These new input metrics created a substantial change in the work and behavior of the category teams. Their focus shifted to reviewing other websites and retail stores and combing through Amazon search logs to determine what items people were searching for in each category but weren’t finding on Amazon. From this they could develop a “stack-ranked” or prioritized list of manufacturers to approach and items to acquire that mattered most to consumers. Rather than focusing on the sheer number of items added, they could instead add the items that would make the biggest impact on sales.