What did you find important and interesting about the redesign discussion in the article? The article mentions how the redesigned Amazon site improved in three major areas: aesthetics, usability and merchandising. I found the comparison (before/after) helpful in understanding how the site was improved. The important lessons learned: clean is better than cluttered, highlight research, include a content slider, details make a difference, and merchandise serve as pointers for other retailers to consider when evaluating their own sites.

What article did you find that shed light on different things that Amazon does well?
In the article, “Amazon’s Performance Secrets,” author Bryan Eisenberg, talks about how Amazon was built on the four pillars of success:

• Customer Centricity
• Continuous Optimization
• Culture of Innovation
• Corporate Agility

From its earlier days in 1995, Amazon has always put the customer front and center. Even then, founder Jeff Bezos, “realized that the unique advantage of the Internet was the ability to programmatically learn more and more about your customer and personalize their experience.” As a result, Amazon is always trying to learn, measure, adapt and plan to optimize every aspect of their business.

http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/amazons-performance-secrets/

Provide the screen capture from the current Amazon site and explain some things you found. Is the site of today quite similar to the one that they had when our chat article was written? The current site is pretty much the same as it was when the article was written. How? And how different? The only big difference I found is that there is an area called “Related to Items You Viewed”