how Amazon.ca won over a country

Canadians are among the most ‘connected’ consumers on the planet and on line sales here outpace those of most countries. By 2001, Amazon.com had sold 400,000 books to Canadian consumers, but they knew there was an opportunity for even greater growth if it could successfully launch Amazon.ca. What follows is a summary of the Amazon.ca story.

Background
Amazon.com is among the leaders if not the leader in pure, on line retailing. Started in 1995 and based in Seattle, Washington, Amazon is the number one shopping site in the U.S. and a Fortune 500 company. With sales in 220 countries and over 29 million customers, Amazon has mastered the logistics of delivering one-to-one in the U.S. and through international sites in the U.K., Germany, Japan and France.

Situation
Amazon wanted to tap into the growth potential of the Canadian market without making a huge capital investment in proprietary warehousing and transportation. They also needed help through customs and in managing cultural obstacles. They needed door to door delivery, from coast to coast, and most important, an integrated, single source partner to manage the logistics from order processing to customer delivery. Finally, they needed speed – the Amazon.com launch plans were extremely aggressive. Assured Logistics along with Canada Post Corporation delivered the complete solution.

Assured Solutions
The Assured team designed a custom process to match the operating metrics as supplied by Amazon. It included over 20 unique information exchange points between order processing, inventory, vendors and transportation – and gave Amazon complete order and inventory visibility with the ability to track and trace orders. Specifics include:

Pick single or multiple orders simultaneously (includes per unit inspection)
Bar code applications
High velocity (hot) product management
Guaranteed ship within 24 hours – order to ship within ten hours
Optional gift wrapping and marketing inserts
7,000 Canada Post outlets for product returns
return processes linked to client systems via SAP
SAP platform with EDI connections to vendors

Assured Results
On day one, just four months after winning the contract, the Assured Logistics solution was operating and delivering from an inventory of 1.5 million titles. All suppliers (vendors) were brought on line, and based on direct response to date, customer satisfaction is extremely high. During the high velocity Christmas period in 2002, Amazon.ca achieved 99.5% delivery success on orders placed within the published parameters.

Assured Logistics managed all time zone, customs and cultural issues, and through its integratedpartnership with Canada Post, was able to complete the order-to-delivery solution on time, without ‘hiccups’.

Assured delivered a country of book readers to a retailer of books. As a result, Amazon.ca is ahead of schedule and should be profitable faster than any other Amazon country to date.

Details
Specific customer details are of a proprietary nature and will not be disclosed without prior agreement. For more information, contact: businessdevelopment@assuredlogistics.com