My most recent Amazon Prime package had been delivered Tuesday evening. On Thursday morning I delivered myself to the person at the top globally of delivering that popcorn maker for me and the picture book for my grandchildren.
Jamil Ghani, ex of Harvard U and Business School, operates at an obviously different level and clip than almost all of us in terms of on-the-spot energy and clarity. In a matter of moments you apprehend a distinct, affable, galloping focus.
“Every day at 5:30, I unplug,” he assures me. But as the worldwide leader of Amazon Prime, there is a wide world to lead, so once he and his wife have put the seven- and three-year-old daughters to bed, there is Asia and its countries within the 15 he has to manage.
Canada has had Prime for 10 years now, and its growth as a delivery platform coupled with an e-retail platform is staggering to watch – or, depending on your perspective as a brick-and-mortar outfit, staggering to withstand. There now are 20 million items available to more than 4,500 Canadian cities and towns with free shipping once you’ve joined for $99 annually, millions of them one-day or even same-day delivery.
Want to talk growth in the pandemic as we all stayed home and didn’t fully come back to offices? Consider that 205 million units have been delivered in the last year at those speeds, seven times what were in 2019. It is fitting that its swish new Vancouver hub is in the city’s former Post Office, because what else is Prime if not the 21st century Pony Express?
I had asked earlier for the Canadian favourites as purchases. Turns out they’re Apple AirTags, Hillroy notebooks and basics like coffee, detergent, paper towels and Lysol. But Canada “is a really sophisticated country in such as retail and shopping. It also has a rich cultural history on the entertainment side.”
In that Prime, of course, isn’t just about product – it’s about production of programs, 25 Amazon Originals in Canada and counting (urged on by government and streaming legislation) and, lately, delivery of take-out through its connection to DashPass, the all-you-can-take-in DoorDash perk.
Only this month it ventured in the U.S. into primary health care for members at $9 a month as a result of its 2022 acquisition for $3.9 billion of One Medical. For the time being it’s virtual-health. I ask if this means doctors will one day be delivered like its parcels to our doors, like they were a generation or so ago as house calls, and Ghani smiles and, fair is fair, won’t go there. But something’s up, I can surmise, when all the gregarious executive can say is, “I have nothing to share at this time.”
The intoxicating charm of Prime is that it means we really never have to enter a store again. “The way I think about it,” he says, “it isn’t about staying at home or getting out of the house. It’s giving our members time back. Right? The thing none of us have more of is time.”
No question, there are critics (me at times) who cite it as a (no pun intended) prime suspect in the ruination of retail districts, who see the entire e-commerce arrival as the demise of the local shop without the scale to sell competitively. Ghani still sees competition, not curtailment, in consumer choice – that there are vendors and delivery services in the mix as rivals.
Can Prime be even faster? “If there’s a limit, there’s … laws of physics.”
“Our members remind us that what is really magical today is commonplace tomorrow,” he says. “They have high expectations. We like to say that it’s great that our customers have many, many choices, because they do have many choices where to shop, and many choices where they stream. They have many choices with subscriptions, which have really increased in terms of options in the last couple of years. And so being demanding, I think, is a good thing. It keeps us on our toes and keeps us innovating.”
Updated Dec. 5, 2023, to clarify the spelling of Jamil Ghani's name and to clarify the monthly price point of One Medical.
