Time Warp: What Did Jeff Bezos Think About Online Shopping Before The Millennium?

The success story of Jeff Bezos is one of the most inspiring tales worldwide, revolutionizing the world of e-commerce as we know it. What started off as an online bookstore in a garage turned into the world's largest e-commerce platform, valued at over $1.8 trillion in market capitalization. 

In the second quarter of 2024, which ended June 30, Amazon's net sales were $148 billion, underscoring its dominance in global e-commerce. 

Interestingly, Bezos had envisioned that "internet book selling is going to become a very large business" in 1997, just three years after establishing Amazon. He had expanded Amazon's inventory to 2.5 million books in just two years, which was 10 times larger than inventories carried by the largest physical book superstores back in the day. 

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Skepticism Surrounding The Internet

In November 1997, the internet was often called the “information superhighway.” However, according to the Money Programme Report by Nils Blythe, internet shopping accounted for less than 1% of total purchases in Britain in 1997. 

However, Bezos, who appeared in the 1997 programme sponsored by BBC, stated, "in the first 30 days of being opened, we shipped books to more than 45 different countries." Blythe predicted that internet shopping could succeed in niche markets like bookselling, but doubted it could penetrate traditional sectors like food delivery – highlighting underwhelming sales from a small bakery in the UK. 

A Gamble That Paid Off 

Bezos took a huge risk when he left his well-paying job on Wall Street as Vice President of D.E. Shaw, a quant-focused hedge fund, to open an online bookstore, especially at a time when the internet had many naysayers. Even his then-boss, David Shaw, was seemingly concerned about it, advising Bezos to think the plan through. 

However, Bezos, known for his remarkable work ethic, focused on capitalizing on the booming growth observed in the internet industry during the dot-com era. 

“I wanted to project myself forward to age 80 and say, ‘Okay, now I’m looking back on my life. I want to have minimized the number of regrets I have.’ I knew that when I was 80, I was not going to regret having tried this. I was not going to regret trying to participate in this thing called the internet, that I thought was going to be a really big deal. I knew that if I failed, I wouldn’t regret that. But I knew the one thing I might regret is not ever having tried. I knew that would haunt me every day. When I thought about it that way, it was an incredibly easy decision.”

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Bezos' vision has changed to incorporate the changing market dynamics over time. By 2001, just four years after his BBC interview, Amazon had made its first profit. 

After initial success with an online book-selling business, Bezos ventured to build an "everything store," thereby creating the Amazon that we know today. He didn't stop there – he focused on creating a cloud computing software – Amazon Web Services (AWS). Today, AWS controls over 50% of the cloud infrastructure market.

“Our vision is to be the world’s most consumer-centric company, where customers can come to find anything they want to buy online,” Bezos stated. 

Bezos' journey comes through sheer hard work and determination, as he pioneered the "Day 1" culture at Amazon – claiming it's always Day 1 at the company. 

The Dawn of a Digital Revolution

It is almost unimaginable to think that just 27 years ago, the concept of online shopping was a matter of debate. The skepticism of the ‘90s has long faded, replaced by a world where a significant portion of shopping is done with just a few clicks.

According to a report published by Statista, approximately 43% of U.S. consumers preferred to shop online rather than in-store in early 2023. 

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