By Steve Windwalker
Editor, Kindle Nation Daily
Editor, Kindle Nation Daily
Thanks to Kindle Nation citizen Don O. for a smart message this morning that could be very important for Amazon’s Kindle holiday success in the next few weeks and for its position relative to competitors like the Google eBookstore over the long haul:
Steve,At first Amazon’s new gifting service for Kindle books [seemed like] a real convenience, but…. Yes, it’s quick and easy. Where it falls down is in the follow-up. A case in point. I gifted one of my favorite Kindle books to my daughter. I waited, but never heard back from her. I finally called and asked if she had received the email from Amazon. She said she hadn’t. I called Amazon and had it resent. Amazon was not able to send it to me so that I could forward it. they could not cc me on the email. I was at the mercy that the person receiving the gift letting me know that they received it. As it turned out, my daughter had most likely received the original email, but because she gets so many emails from Amazon and the gifting email didn’t stand out, she deleted it without reading. Amazon needs to take this valuable service to the next level and provide feedback to the gifter.Love your newsletter!Donald O.
Don, you’re right on the money about this. In fact I have already precisely the same experience with Kindle ebooks gifts to my daughters, but ironically it took your note for me to put on my Kindle Nation hat and think about it in systemic terms.
We’ve been pressing, wishing, and hoping for this Kindle gifting feature since early 2008, so we were very pleased and perhaps a bit uncritical when it was launched just three weeks ago. Indeed, a feature such as Kindle gifting could play a major role in extending Amazon’s advantage in the competitive ebook device and content markets, perhaps even a more significant role than the social networking compatibility features for the Kindle on which Amazon has been working so hard. But, as Don suggests, several very specific enhancements are needed immediately to make the holiday blessing rather than a holiday annoyance:
- Amazon must ensure that its Kindle gifting email stands out in a way that distinguishes it from all the other noise in people’s inboxes, especially during the holiday season. This could be achieved most easily if the gifting email showed the giver’s email address in the “From” field, which is how it is done, I believe, by digital greeting card companies.
- Customers who give Kindle ebook gifts should be cc’d by Amazon on the gifting email message, which would of course put them in a better position to follow up personally, to the recipients, with an email that actually includes the links the recipients need to receive these gifts.
- The Kindle gifting feature must be integrated seamlessly with other gift-related features on the Amazon website such as the Amazon Gift Organizer and Wish Lists. Currently the feature displayed unopened Kindle ebook gifts under “Open Orders” on the giver’s Manage Your Kindle page, but that’s not enough.
I’m sure there are a dozen things that could be added to this list, but I am trying to keep it simple. As I see it, this is a two-hour job for an Amazon wizard to make these changes and connect all the dots so that the Kindle gifting feature works the way it should. Add another two hours, I suppose, for Amazon customer service, legal, and executive folks to make sure that the entire process integrates with best practices.
But the stakes are very high. The choice for Amazon is between thousands of holiday conversations like this:
Thank you so much for that Kindle book! I’m already half way through it on my iPod Touch and I think it has convinced me to get a Kindle!
or thousands of holiday conversations like this:
Did you get my gift from Amazon? No? Oh dear, I was wondering why I hadn’t heard from you. No, that’s okay, I will look into it. I know they charged my credit card. It’s frustrating, I so wanted you to have a chance to read that book. I guess I’ve learned my lesson about sending gifts through the Whispernet or whatever they call it. I’ll get you something else, really.
Maybe I exaggerate, but maybe not. It seems like an easy choice.
