In a conference room at Amazon’s Seattle headquarters, Dave Nadel, Director of Core Selling Partner Experience, sat down for an exclusive interview to discuss Amazon’s relentless focus on supporting the independent sellers that power its store.
Nadel started the discussion by looking at Amazon’s 16 Leadership Principles, the core of Amazon’s culture, that guide the company’s decision-making. Nadel called these principles “core to Amazon’s culture of innovation.” While many have heard of Amazon’s commitment to ‘Customer Obsession,’ Nadel said his teams are leaning into two principles that may not get as much publicity: ‘Invent and Simplify’ and Think Big.’
“The principles of ‘Invent and Simplify’ and ‘Think Big’ are fundamental to the work our teams are doing for sellers,” said Nadel. “We succeed when the millions of entrepreneurs and small businesses that sell in our store succeed, so listening to customer feedback and using it to drive innovation is at the heart of what we do.”
Nadel described how ‘Invent and Simplify’ pushes Amazon teams to continuously explore new solutions, always finding ways to simplify in order to create the best possible experience for customers, or in his team’s case, sellers. While ‘Think Big’ is about “anticipating the future needs of sellers, creating a bold vision, and continuously challenging the status quo to find new ways to delight sellers,” he said. Together, Nadel said, the leadership principles fuel Amazon’s relentless drive to gather feedback, experiment, and iterate based on what is learned.
Nadel pointed to the recent redesign of the Amazon Seller mobile app as a prime example of this seller-centric approach. “Many sellers told us they wanted more from the Seller Mobile app - the ability to quickly and easily manage their business on the go, and keep a close eye on their business’ key metrics, even when they weren’t at their desks,” he said.
“We partnered closely with sellers, observing how they navigated the app and soliciting direct feedback,” said Nadel. Adding, this new experience was developed through an iterative process, with hundreds of sellers providing input along the way. “The result was a redesigned, ‘thumb-friendly’ interface that put the most important features just a tap away, and a new homepage with an expanded set of business metrics and insights.”
Staying true to the company’s ‘Think Big’ principle, Nadel said Amazon is also exploring a ‘Next-Generation Selling Experience.’ Rather than focus on incremental updates, the Amazon team took a step back and reimagined the experience from the ground up. “We pushed ourselves to envision what Seller Central would look like if we built it today, knowing what we know about how sellers work and the tools they find most valuable,” he said.
The result is a modernized, simplified interface that gives sellers an “at-a-glance” view of their business across key facets such as product listings, inventory, orders, and more. There’s also an “Action Center” that ensures sellers are always focused on the most important tasks. Importantly, Nadel noted, this new experience was developed through an iterative process, with hundreds of sellers providing feedback along the way.
It was also seller feedback that helped hone Generative AI tools, said Nadel. Research had shown, creating high-quality product listings was a significant pain point for many sellers. Nadel’s team got to work, reimagining what is possible with Generative AI to simplify the seller experience.
The initiative started by allowing sellers to provide just a few keywords about their product, which Generative AI systems would then use to automatically generate detailed titles, descriptions, and other listing content. This was later expanded to include the ability for sellers to upload product images, which the tool would leverage to further enhance the listings. And now sellers can create listings by using content they already have on their own website, which is automatically structured and enriched by Amazon.
The results have been promising, he said. Over 100,000 Amazon sellers have already tapped into these Generative AI tools, with the majority of the AI-generated content being accepted by sellers with minimal edits. Compared to non-AI content, the Generative AI listings are clearer, more accurate and have greater discoverability.
“Seller feedback so far shows that we are on the right track,” said Nadel. “And we won’t stop here. We’ll continue to iterate, based on their input, to make sure our plans reflect the seller’s ever-evolving needs.”
This commitment to continuous improvement, powered by a relentless curiosity and willingness to experiment, is a hallmark of Amazon’s culture, Nadel explained. “As we work to empower the millions of independent sellers that choose to sell in our store, you can be sure that the principles of ‘Invent and Simplify’ and ‘Think Big’ will remain at the core of our approach.”