EcomCrew - [Crew Review] Bezos’ replacement

Delays, Data, and Departure

Get ready for the Chop

In case you haven’t heard, Uncle Jeff will be stepping down as CEO of Amazon.

But don’t miss him yet. The change is scheduled for Q3.

Bezos will be sitting as the executive chair of the board, focusing his “energies and attention on new products and early initiatives.” We’ll still see him, of course, but not as frequently.

So who’s replacing him?

Meet Andy Jassy, the current chief of the company's AWS cloud services unit.

Source: Business Insider

Here’s what we know about him:

• He has been with Amazon since 1997.
• He’s smart. He graduated cum laude from Harvard and has an MBA from the same university.
• Apparently, he’s one of the least terrifying among the Amazon execs.
• He is married to a fashion designer for Eddie Bauer and has two children
• Rothschild is the surname of his favorite high school teacher.

Being the leader of the most profitable program of Amazon, Jassy is definitely not a bad choice for Bezos’ replacement.

While employees might not suffer through Jeff’s outbursts as often, his replacement is not that cool-headed either.

To give you an idea of what he’s like, the conference room where he makes most of his important decisions is called the Chop. It’s short for Charterhouse of Parma, an 1839 novel by Stendhal, but it could easily hint at something more intimidating.

Employees who have to present to him need to prepare weeks in advance. And just like Bezos, he doesn’t tolerate incompetence.

The 52-year-old started working with Amazon without fully knowing what his job was going to be. Years later, he continues to show his business prowess by heading the world’s biggest cloud provider.

We have yet to see what Jassy will be like as a CEO. In the meantime, let’s read more Amazon news.

That escalated quickly

With more aspects of our lives moving online, it isn’t very surprising that government demands for user data have soared.

However, what Amazon reported during the last half of 2020 was beyond what we could have imagined.

According to its transparency report, government demands for user data rose from 3,222 for the first six months of last year, to 27,664!

These include data from

• Shopping searches
• Amazon Echo
• Amazon Ring (which is famous for being rejected on Shark Tank)

Also noteworthy are the countries that sent most of these data requests. Historically, the United States had dominated the list. Now, however, it comes only in third place.

Germany is responsible for 42%, Spain for 18% and the US and Italy with 11% each.

So why the spike?

Unfortunately, Amazon has not answered this because when it comes to their transparency reports, the company turns into a man of few words. (Rather ironic, don’t you think?)

But whatever caused this spike, it signals one thing—governments around the world are paying more attention to user data.

Rallies, Resistance, and Rejection

Let’s be honest for a minute.

Not all of us like Jeff Bezos.

But when people form a human chain in the midst of a pandemic to stop Amazon from setting up a warehouse, that’s a different level of...er... hatred.

Activists gather in Fournes at the site of the soon-to-be Amazon warehouse. Source: Aljazeera

The human chain was a clever way of showing how big the planned warehouse in Fournes, France is going to be. FYI, it’s 38,000 square meters (or 400,000 square feet).

Hundreds of people joined the rallies, condemning Amazon as a company that refuses to pay taxes and creates many insecure jobs. It didn’t help that the warehouse is going to be constructed near Pont du Gard, a world heritage site.

Yikes, Jeff! Was there really no better place for the warehouse aside from the one near an ancient dam?

The Pont Du Gard is an aqueduct bridge built during Roman times.

Attention, PSP users!

No, we’re not talking about the handheld gaming device.

We’re looking at you, sellers who use payment service providers.

Amazon just announced that those who use PSPs to receive their Amazon store sales should be using one that is participating in the company’s Payment Service Provider program.

(Those who use bank accounts directly can rest easy. This news isn’t for you.)

Currently, the PSPs enrolled in the program include

• Worldfirst
• Payoneer
• PingPong
• LianLian Pay, and
• Amazon Currency Converter.

If you don’t find your PSP here, you can do any of the following:

1. Contact them and urge them to enroll 
2. Switch to a participating PSP, or
3. Use a bank account directly issued by a bank

But what if you’re just not feeling like it and choose to ignore this message/warning?

Well, starting May 31, 2021, you will be “subject to a longer disbursement reserve period of up to 21 days after the latest estimated delivery date.”

And by July 15, 2021, Amazon will stop disbursement to sellers using non-participating PSPs altogether.

So if you’re not using the enumerated PSPs, you got some work to do.

In with the new

Despite the hatred he gets, Uncle Jeff is being more generous to FBA users right now—but only if they qualify.

Amazon rolled out the FBA New Selection Program, which gives free monthly storage fees for 90 days, free returns processing, and other perks.

However, in order to enjoy these benefits, you need to be new to FBA and have an IPI score of 400 and above.

I don’t want to ramble on about this program. Just read Dave’s article here.

Thoughts?

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If you’re looking for more e-commerce content, head on over to the EcomCrew Blog. We have plenty of articles geared towards helping sellers grow their business.

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