4 ms·

5 business lessons from Costco

18 points by dawie 19y ago

ivankirigin 19y ago
> 1. Take care of your employees. That is certainly a given. Luckily, lots of hackers I know just want to be given hard problems. The cave offices with aerons and dual 30-inch screens are just good tools :) Lots of the tasks done by employees at Costco and other such stores will become automated. Say, within 10 to 20 years -- which is actually light speed. But no need to elaborate on that SciFi. > 2. Keep prices low. For the web, this seems to translate to: "make it free". That makes lots of sense, I think. Too bad ads are too often the business model for content creators. > 3. Pay attention to the customer, not the competition. Too true. And for the latter, it shouldn't change your behavior, right? Young companies with lots of competition need to work as hard as possible to make what people want. Young companies with no competition should work as hard as possible to make what people want and fill the void. > 4. Focus on a few core options. Feature creep in software can make users cry. I recall that interesting survey the other day, where given a grab-bag of capabilities, a survey group were allowed to configure a cell phone in any way they wanted. Then, given cell phones that matched their wish list- they complained that it had more than they needed. But on second thought that could have easily been caused. poor design. > 5. Use surprise to create excitement. This is just a way for Costco to make customers happy, which is the main point, right? It would be interesting though if a web company tried this. For example, it would be cheap for Reddit to give a $100 lottery for that days highest karma gains. That rubs me as dangerous though. On a side note, Costco is doing a bit of emotional leverage here. People hate WalMart. It is very much in Costco's best interest to start saying, "wow, people love us". Not that there is anything wrong with that...
dcurtis 19y ago
Wow, that's really awesome. Although I think Costco can do a few things to bring their image up to speed (the logo is pretty hideous, the marketing materials are pretty ugly and cliche), this article really makes me respect the company and the CEO. Why can't all companies work like this?
- staunch 19y ago
  > Why can't all companies work like this? Because most people believe that in order for them to win someone else must lose.
snorkel 19y ago
Cosco's real secret is selling common household items less per unit but packaged in bulk thereby forcing the customer to actually buy more. A similar pricing structure in the online world is web hosting for only $7/month "WOW!! That's cheap!!!" ( your signup choices are $7/month for 36 months + $120 setup charge, $15/month for 24 months + no setup fee, or $20/month for 12 months + $40 setup fee) It's a strategy of getting the typical customer to spend more per sale.

18 points by dawie 19y ago

> 1. Take care of your employees. That is certainly a given. Luckily, lots of hackers I know just want to be given hard problems. The cave offices with aerons and dual 30-inch screens are just good tools :) Lots of the tasks done by employees at Costco and other such stores will become automated. Say, within 10 to 20 years -- which is actually light speed. But no need to elaborate on that SciFi. > 2. Keep prices low. For the web, this seems to translate to: "make it free". That makes lots of sense, I think. Too bad ads are too often the business model for content creators. > 3. Pay attention to the customer, not the competition. Too true. And for the latter, it shouldn't change your behavior, right? Young companies with lots of competition need to work as hard as possible to make what people want. Young companies with no competition should work as hard as possible to make what people want and fill the void. > 4. Focus on a few core options. Feature creep in software can make users cry. I recall that interesting survey the other day, where given a grab-bag of capabilities, a survey group were allowed to configure a cell phone in any way they wanted. Then, given cell phones that matched their wish list- they complained that it had more than they needed. But on second thought that could have easily been caused. poor design. > 5. Use surprise to create excitement. This is just a way for Costco to make customers happy, which is the main point, right? It would be interesting though if a web company tried this. For example, it would be cheap for Reddit to give a $100 lottery for that days highest karma gains. That rubs me as dangerous though. On a side note, Costco is doing a bit of emotional leverage here. People hate WalMart. It is very much in Costco's best interest to start saying, "wow, people love us". Not that there is anything wrong with that...

dcurtis 19y ago

Wow, that's really awesome. Although I think Costco can do a few things to bring their image up to speed (the logo is pretty hideous, the marketing materials are pretty ugly and cliche), this article really makes me respect the company and the CEO. Why can't all companies work like this?

staunch 19y ago
> Why can't all companies work like this? Because most people believe that in order for them to win someone else must lose.

snorkel 19y ago

Cosco's real secret is selling common household items less per unit but packaged in bulk thereby forcing the customer to actually buy more. A similar pricing structure in the online world is web hosting for only $7/month "WOW!! That's cheap!!!" ( your signup choices are $7/month for 36 months + $120 setup charge, $15/month for 24 months + no setup fee, or $20/month for 12 months + $40 setup fee) It's a strategy of getting the typical customer to spend more per sale.