Your Nonprofit Is Competing With Amazon
What a scary thought! But it’s true.
Consider … every month, more people visit Amazon to make a purchase, browse for products or research a product (85%) than visit their families (40%).
In fact, nearly 40% visit Amazon one to three times, and close to 30% visit Amazon more than seven times per month. 56% make a purchase on Amazon up to three times per month.
When consumers do visit Amazon, they enjoy superb customer service.
And that’s why Amazon is your competitor. They are constantly raising the customer service bar, reinforcing customer trust over and over with each experience.
Can you say that about each ‘customer experience’ your donors have with your nonprofit?
Not important?
As Roger points out in Why Donors Drop Out, improving the donor experience is the most important factor you can control in order to improve donor retention (more here). It’s what you must do if you’re serious about ‘donor centricity’. Need more convincing, read this post about rising customer expectations … those ingrates!
The data above is taken from this Power Reviews report, Compete with Amazon and Win.
Take a look at this fascinating analysis of Amazon and its winning ways. Do you have what it takes to be an Amazon of the nonprofit space?
Tom
P.S. From the discussion of the power of customer reviews, I come away thinking … use donor and beneficiary testimonials, and heaps of them!
6 responses to “Your Nonprofit Is Competing With Amazon”
Behavioral Science Q & A
Integrating an individual giving appeal with other communications from a charity can have both positive and negative effects, and the outcome largely depends on how it’s executed. Advantages of Integration Brand Consistency: Maintaining a consistent appearance and messaging across all communications can reinforce the org’s brand identity and strengthen brand recognition and trust among your […]
Read Full Answer
I’m not aware of any in-market tests specifically comparing recurring vs. gift frequency language. I suspect the answer might not be the same with all gift frequencies, nor with all people. It sounds like a great opportunity for you to test and find out what works for your audience. Based on the literature, here’s a couple […]
Read Full Answer
Based on what we know from existing data, those renewal notices can actually be pretty effective in getting people to donate. They tap into our psychology – creating a sense of urgency, reminding us of past support, and using personalization to make the message hit home. They’re playing on our natural tendencies to feel obligated […]
Read Full Answer
Interesting question. I had a quick look at the testing done on this topic. On the positive side, in all cases, over half of donors decide to cover the fee. In some cases, it goes as high as 65%. Not a negligible percentage at all. Here’s another test from iRaiser showing consistent results (see point […]
Read Full Answer
There’s just one thing to consider when designing a supporter journey: the supporter. More specifically, you need to take into account: Who the supporter is i.e. their identity, which is the reason they support this cause, and their personality, which describes the way they “see” and process the world. These will determine the kind of […]
Read Full Answer
I’m not an expert in this but a quick search surfaced this article on the effect of tax reforms on 2019’s charitable giving. The researchers didn’t find a reduction. Actually, they observed an “increase in charitable contributions in 2019, even with the lower tax rates and the dramatically smaller number of taxpayers who itemize their […]
Read Full Answer
It’s not just customer service that you’re competing with – it’s ease of form completion, relevant content serving, cart abandonment reminders, etc. As you point out, consumers get used to the customer experience with commercial entities and expect that to spill over into other sites. But non-profits almost always lag behind the commercial world. There are lessons to be learned from companies like amazon that non-profits would benefit from heeding.
Angela, you said it better than I … it’s the overall customer experience — ease, relevance, attentiveness — the whole ‘package’.
What can a nonprofit “deliver to a donor’s door” on time every time?
Actually, any nonprofit that participates in the Amazon Smile program is helping to fund the company, not compete with it. Amazon wants NPO’s to drive traffic to its site and encourage sales, with the promise of a pittance reward. However, for one day only on March 16, Amazon is raising its paltry kickback from 0.5% to 5%, which is what it should be to begin with. Amazon is slowly eroding the brick and mortar retail model while simultaneously contributing to landfill overflow with excessive packaging. Is that an example of success to aspire to?
“All things to all people.”
That’s what Amazon has become. Groceries delivered to your door. Clothing. Electronics. And, oh yes, they still sell books. I don’t know of a non-profit that can complete in that type of arena.
So do I want my clients to be the “Amazon of the non-profit world”. No.
Do I want them to look at Amazon’s customer service practices – great delivery, interest tracking and product rating service — and perhaps offer some of these great features to their donors. Absolutely!
Let’s see. How much does Amazon spend on its amazing customer service?
While our organizations can certainly do better, I’m having a hard time imagining how the hundreds of thousands of nonprofits whose total budgets are less than a fraction of what Amazon must be spending on technology can compete.