U.S. Retail Industry Leaders Ask "What Would Bezos Do?" After Amazon Sales and Profit Jump, Crush Expectations, and Shock Analysts

Apparently Amazon.com gave customers 5.45 billion good reasons to open their wallets and let their credit cards breathe some fresh air this summer. While U.S. retail industry watchers were relentlessly scrutinizing every intention, sentiment, and minor mall movement of American consumers leading into the back-to-school season, Amazon kept itself busy processing payments and packaging purchases for a healthy fraction of its 98 million worldwide customers.

Last week was as big and wild for Amazon as the company's namesake South American waterway. In just two days Amazon gave retail industry "experts" 69% more self-doubt in their calculations with its greatly "unexpected" third quarter earnings report, it gave investors a 24% boost in their portfolios in a single day stock surge, and it gave members of the global retail industry more hope about economic recovery than could be quantified by a percentage sign.

Retail industry onlookers who oversimplify Amazon's counter-recessionary success as being nothing more than having the right products at the right price haven't been paying attention since 1994. Amazon is thriving not only because of the transactions that it is conducting today, but also because of the billions of transactions that it has conducted in its past, which positioned it as a trustworthy retailer that sincerely values its customer relationships. It may have taken the rest of us 15 years and a global recession to see the proof that these things really do matter, but Amazon knew it all along.

There are plenty of small and large retailers around the world who are already devoted followers of Amazon in general and CEO Jeff Bezos in particular. Undoubtedly the company's recent stellar success has created even more converts who, consciously or unconsciously, ask themselves, "What would Bezos do?" as they make decisions and lead their business every day.

Although I'm fairly certain that Bezos does not view himself as an omniscient retail messiah, it would be an interesting exercise to look at some of the U.S. retailers who have not been faring as well as Amazon recently and ask, "What Would Bezos Do?"

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