Charles H. Bell
Vice President, Information Technology Infrastructure
Amazon.com

Title:

Customer Experience in a Merchandising Platform.

Abstract:

Amazon.com is building a merchandising platform for people to find, discover, and buy anything they might want online.  Even in our current embryonic stage "anything" implies selection measured in the 10's of millions of unique items.  "Finding" and "Discovering" in a world of such breadth requires each page view to be a unique, relevant experience constructed for the specific viewer based on the best data immediately available.

Merchandising features improve experience at the cost of increased complexity and consumption of performance.  The best customers are the heaviest workloads.  They consume more features, have deeper data histories, and will have the most unique experience as a result. Also, customers demand fresh data.  They want to know when their products will ship and, now, when they can pick it up at the local store.  Sellers demand immediate update of their prices, availability, and  selection.  While the traditional internet is built on static page serving, Amazon.com's merchandising platform is a world of dynamic databases.

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