Member Article

Doing the double in December

Andrew Robson is CEO of Perfect Image. Here, he discusses how brands like Amazon are doing the double this Christmas time, with profits soaring through the intelligent use of IT.

There’s a certain buzz in the air at this time of year. John Lewis has just unveiled its newest Christmas advert and we’re all eagerly awaiting the familiar jingle of ‘Holidays are coming…’ from the Coca Cola truck. During this festive period, there are always some big hits and some big misses when it comes to the battle of the brands at Christmas time – even John Lewis’ ‘Man on the Moon’ concept has got its critics. But really, have you ever stopped to think about the companies that are ‘doing the double’ this December?

Amazon is one of the biggest e-tailers in the world. Last year alone, the company’s net revenue was 88.99 billion dollars – that’s an awful lot of money. There’s no getting away from it, when it comes to Christmas and buying your presents, Amazon is normally the first e-commerce port of call for most of us – what you can find on there is truly amazing! And so while Amazon enjoys a healthy revenue stream 365 days of the year, it’s at this time of year that profits really do peak.

At the end of this month it’ll be Black Friday on 27th November, followed by Cyber Monday on 30th November. If you’re unfamiliar with these phrases, let me explain. Black Friday is – for most people – the last payday before Christmas and so it’s when people have pennies in their bank account to do their Christmas shopping. Retailers (both high street and online) know this and so put on special offers to draw in the crowds away from the competition to help keep their tills ringing. Cyber Monday is much the same, except as the name suggests, it all takes place exclusively online. E-tailers and e-commerce stores slash their prices as stock flies off their virtual shelves as people scramble to complete their Christmas shopping in plenty of time for Santa’s arrival.

Of course, Amazon is one of the biggest players in both Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Last year on Black Friday, Amazon said it was its busiest day ever. More than 5.5 million items were ordered during the day, that’s an average of 64 items per second, and equally Cyber Monday was a huge success for the brand too.

But going back to my earlier question of whether you’ve ever thought about the brands doing the double this year, Amazon is certainly winning twice this Christmas…

That’s because Amazon, as well as being a leading retailer, is now also one of the world’s largest, most advanced and fastest growing IT providers, and it’s IT arm – Amazon Web Services (AWS) - powers not only its own operations but those of many other e-tailers and online companies.

With AWS, IT is a service rather than a commodity. To give an analogy, it’s winter and the temperature is dropping; with your central heating you can turn it up and down until the temperature of your home is just right and in doing so, you only pay for the power that you use – it’s Pay As You Go. The same can be said for true cloud computing with AWS. Because it’s a service, you turn up your computing capacity to meet demand as and when it’s need. When demand dies down, you simply dial down the capacity you’re not using until it reaches the appropriate level. All of this is done in a matter of moments so there’s no lag time, plus you’re only paying for the capacity you use. It means you get an exceptional return in your investment with AWS, unlike finding you’ve got capital locked in equipment that you don’t need.

This commercial and operational flexibility and the huge computing power AWS provides has led to its rapid adoption by companies of all types. So at Christmas, when many companies have an increased need for IT power, it will be Amazon, through AWS, that will be providing it for them, making them a double winner.

If you’d like to find out about how AWS could benefit you and your business, visit: http://www.perfect-image.co.uk/

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Perfect Image .