The Exchanges

Q Because the idea was people would just, you know, work from home, shop from home. Um, the idea was that that was a little bit too much, uh, because people went back to old habits, but it would show up. As a benefit because the company would just get much better logistically with all of that investment. Is that, is that true? And is that playing out for you guys?

A Yeah. So the, I think the summary I would say is, uh, just tweaking a little bit what you said, we built as aggressively as we did in the pandemic in order to keep up with demand. We wanted to, um, ensure, uh, superlative customer experience. The first, uh, weeks, months of the pandemic were Unprecedented for us and everybody else, given the supply chain disruptions. And so we, we, you know, uh, prime became both on the delivery and shopping side and also on the entertainment side sort of be became indispensable, uh, for all of us around the world. Um, and so we built up our, um, warehouse, uh, capacity really, really rapidly. Um, like you said, of course, then, you know, there's a lot of businesses. There was a slowdown as the, You know, the, the world opened up and so on and so forth. The reality is while we've right-sized some parts of that supply chain footprint on the margin, we've largely grown our business into that capacity, right? And we've continued to invest in new capacity. We've continued to invest in robotics, um, uh, and, you know, keep on making our supply chain, um, more and more performant. The biggest change we've done is also flipping the supply chain to a regionalized supply chain, which has put More inventory closer to the customer. Um, and that has sped up our speeds and also reduced our cost to serve. And so we've seen a lot of goodness, um, in terms of …

AI assessment note: “we've seen a lot of goodness, um, in terms of the investments we've made”

Q they see that they're, they want to make their inventory last and they're less interested in discounted discounting, because if this holds, then they're going to need basically everything that they've brought in pre tariffs. Uh, are you gonna, and I think Prime Day is coming up in July, so there's still some time. Any concern about the robustness of Prime Day because of a trend like this from sellers?

A Yeah, the signals so far, Alex, are strong. Um, the, the kind of, uh, the work we've been doing with, uh, sellers and vendors to, uh, get ready for Prime Day is off to a great start, pacing exactly where we want it to pace. Um, I've seen the reporting As well. There's always going to be situations, and you know, it is an unprecedented moment, ah, that all of us are navigating here, but so far, the, ah, signals are that it's going to be a fantastic Prime Day, and we're looking forward to, you know, having, you know, record-setting deals, attracting, um, a record-setting number of Prime members to join Prime, like we have in, in previous times with Prime Day and Prime Big Deal Days in the fall.

AI assessment note: “the signals so far, Alex, are strong.”

Q I was at the event, as were you, in February, I think it was February 26th, and on stage we heard Panos talk about how this is coming out in, you know, next month, which would be March. And we're here at the end of April, and I know, uh, Alexa Plus has rolled out for some People, but not the masses yet. So what's going on with that product?

A Yeah, it's, it's, uh, we're, we're rolling it out. Um, uh, we're, we're being, um, really deliberate about that rollout. It's like we talked about then, and I can overview now. It's an incredibly significant, you know, rethink and re-architecture of a service enjoyed by, you know, 506 hundred million Devices around the world. Um, and so, uh, we want to do that really, really well. And we don't want to disrupt the experience that customers have come to rely on. Um, the, uh, the feedback has been positive. Uh, it, uh, we're finishing up the product and we're, uh, looking to scale that in the coming weeks to significantly more, uh, customers, but it's, it's underway. Um, but, um, we want to get it right. Uh, we want to have a superlative experience. Um, so, uh, it's going, going to plan.

AI assessment note: “we're finishing up the product and we're, uh, looking to scale that in the coming weeks”

Q Suleiman at Microsoft talking about co-pilot. And it seems like Amazon's version or vision for this assistant is to be assistive and help you get stuff done where Microsoft's vision is for it to be a personality. Do you see that both these, uh, both these types of visions diverging and some companies building this assistant style? Type of chatbot and others saying this is going to be a companion.

A Yeah, it's interesting you used a word there, personality. Um, I think either can have personality. We, Alexa has a personality, and Alexa Plus takes that to the next level, um, and it, it's, it's fun, it's whimsical, it's got a sense of humor, but it is very helpful. Very, very helpful. And so, yes, we are absolutely building an assistant that is assistive, that is helpful, that is there to make life easier from, You know, lots of wants, lots of needs, definitely into wants as well. We can talk about kind of how it makes entertainment better. Um, and others are choosing other paths as a, as a, as a user of other services as well. You know, from a, from my own research and learning standpoint, I, I, I recognize the split, but I think, uh, it would be incorrect to say that, um, Alexa being helpful means that she doesn't have a personality. She absolutely does have a personality. And one of the things I love most is the ability to, uh, prompt Alexa with memories, asking her to remember something. So for example, she remembers birthdays. She remembers that my eldest daughter prefers vegetarian food, but also does eat meat occasionally. And so when she makes recommendations for restaurants for us to go out to, uh, as a family or, or what have you, or recipes to make at home, she, you know, takes that into consideration. That is being very helpful, but she does it in a way that it d…

AI assessment note: “I recognize the split, but I think, uh, it would be incorrect to say”

Q the web, like you just brought up, like Amazon's a website and an app, and of course, a voice interface with Alexa. Um, if the next iteration of the web, there's a chance that it might be, is through these chatbots, Could you see a world where Amazon, let's say, partners with OpenAI to bring Amazon shopping into ChatGPT? Or does Alexa Plus prevent you from doing something like that?

A I can't comment on what we would or wouldn't do, but you look at some stuff that we actually have done, right? Like, buy with Prime. We're working with third-party direct-to-consumer sites to, to, uh, bring the same, you know, Prime delivery experience to third-party sites. Um, like, you could have rewound the clock five years ago and asked the question, like, would we ever do that? And I'd probably give you the same answer, which is I can't comment on anything we might do in the future, but you, you fast forward to today, And we want to, we want to make it easier for customers and members to shop wherever they want to shop. You know, in addition, we're now surfacing, you know, a product that's on third party sets, not listed on Amazon's marketplace. Uh, so that, you know, if you're searching on amazon.com or in the app for XYZ brand and we don't happen to carry it, uh, we can, uh, we can facilitate you, you know, finding that and, and going and shopping for it. So I think this will continue to evolve. Um, um, Um, going forward. Uh, we do think that, um, the combination of, uh, offerings we have, uh, we want to earn the business from customers directly. Um, you know, that's really important to us as it is to every company. Um, and, uh, we're, we're gonna continue to do that, but, you know, who we might work with in the future is like, we'll see.

AI assessment note: “I can't comment on what we would or wouldn't do, but you look at”

Q talk about tariffs more broadly. I'm just curious from your perspective. I mean, right now we're in this position where we have this 90 day pause before a lot of the global tariffs are going to go into place, but there is 145% tariff coming in from China. You're the head of Amazon Prime. What are tariffs doing right now to the Amazon marketplace and the Amazon first party sales?

A Yeah, I think the important thing is to ground in first principles. Our, our objective always has been, will continue to be serving customers, having an exceptional customer experience. Um, in order to do that over the last many years, we've, you know, been, been offering, uh, our services in the U S since the mid nineties, uh, we've been diversifying our supply chain. And so that is not related to the current situation. That's been, uh, uh, uh, Event kind of gradual process we've led through in order to work with sellers and vendors all around the world. Um, and that's just good business in order to ensure that that superb customer experience. The current situation is super dynamic to say the least. And so we're navigating it to make sure that we serve customers really well. We're working closely with our seller and vendors all around the world to ensure that there's as minimum disruption to the customer experience as possible. Um, you know, the economic situation, uh, Uh, is uncertain. Um, and so you see that in consumer, uh, spending behavior, but the good thing is that, uh, Amazon continues to be focused on the three key principles that have mattered to customers always, and we think will continue to matter to customers, which is, you know, largest selection possible at the most compelling prices delivered, uh, as fast as possible and as conveniently as possible. And, you k…

AI assessment note: “The current situation is super dynamic to say the least.”