Amazon is giving clients a brand new method to thank the drivers who ship their packages, simply in time for the vacations. Particularly, its “Alexa, thank my driver” program asks them to take action through its voice assistant Alexa.
Sadly for Amazon, the timing of this system’s launch yesterday is awkward in just a few methods. First, it follows information that Amazon is planning huge layoffs, with a deal with the groups engaged on Alexa and the units used to entry it. Second, it comes the identical week as a lawsuit alleging the corporate used misleading strategies to guide shoppers to consider that tip cash went on to drivers as further pay, when it actually was used to subsidize their base wages.
Alexa is a part of an Amazon division that has posted main losses in recent times. The unit can also be the point of interest of enormous job cuts deliberate at Amazon, as reported by the New York Instances final month. That raises questions on whether or not the “thank my driver” program is partly an effort to spice up a disappointing a part of Amazon’s enterprise.
An Amazon spokesperson, requested simply that by Fortune, replied:
“No. Collectively, tens of tens of millions of consumers around the globe work together with Alexa billions of occasions every week, and Alexa interactions elevated by greater than 30% within the final 12 months alone. This program is devoted to offering clients with the chance to point out drivers their appreciation.”
Below this system, in line with Amazon, “any time a buyer says ‘Alexa, thank my driver,’ the driving force who delivered their most up-to-date bundle might be notified of the shopper’s appreciation.” And “with every thank-you acquired from clients, drivers may even obtain an extra $5, without charge to the shopper. We’ll be doing this for the primary 1 million thank-you’s acquired.” It added, “the 5 drivers who obtain essentially the most buyer ‘thank-you’s’ throughout the promotional interval may even be rewarded with $10,000 and an extra $10,000 to their charity of alternative.”
The spokesperson famous that clients can thank drivers “by means of an Alexa-enabled machine, the Alexa app and the Amazon cell buying app.” With the latter, the method can also be completed by means of Alexa: Prospects begin by clicking the Alexa emblem discovered on the backside proper nook of the buying app.
As for why the thank-you messages go particularly by means of Alexa, the spokesperson replied, “It’s a handy method to share their thanks and in addition permits Amazon to effectively get the thanks over to the driving force.”
Amazon launched Alexa in 2014, and it sells tens of millions of units by means of which clients can entry the voice assistant, reminiscent of its line of Echo good audio system. Promoting the usually low margin units has all the time been secondary, although, to the larger aim: Getting clients to make use of Alexa to purchase extra issues on Amazon.
That aim has proved elusive.
In accordance with Insider, the “Worldwide Digital” unit at Amazon—which incorporates Alexa, Echo audio system, and the Prime video streaming service—had an working lack of over $3 billion within the first quarter, by far the most important amongst all enterprise models, and was on tempo for a $10 billion loss this 12 months. And the New York Instances reported final month that Echo and Alexa misplaced about $5 billion in 2018.
That unit isn’t the one one beneath scrutiny at Amazon, after all, given widespread predictions of recession within the U.S. CEO Andy Jassy, talking on the New York Instances DealBook summit final week, mentioned he and his management group had been reviewing 50 or 60 of models and was seeing comparable tendencies the place the financial system was unsure.
“We simply felt like we would have liked to streamline our prices,” Jassy mentioned of the layoffs.
Extra broadly, the tech sector has seen numerous layoffs in latest months forward of the anticipated financial downturn. Final month, as an illustration, HP mentioned it’s going to let go of 4,000 to six,000 staff over the following three years, and Fb mum or dad Meta mentioned it will minimize 11,000 staff.
If the timing of the “Alexa, thank my driver” announcement falling so near the Alexa-heavy layoffs is a matter of coincidence, it may not be the one one.
Yesterday, D.C. Legal professional Normal Karl A. Racine introduced a shopper safety lawsuit towards Amazon. The go well with alleges the corporate used misleading strategies to guide shoppers to consider that tip cash went on to drivers, when it actually was used to subsidize wages.
“This go well with is about offering employees the ideas they’re owed and telling shoppers the reality,” Racine mentioned in a press release. “Amazon, one of many world’s wealthiest corporations, definitely doesn’t must take ideas that belong to employees. Amazon can and will do higher.”
The Amazon spokesperson responded to Fortune: “This lawsuit entails a follow we modified three years in the past and is with out advantage—the entire buyer ideas at concern have been already paid to drivers as a part of a settlement final 12 months with the FTC.”
In November final 12 months, the Federal Commerce Fee mentioned it despatched Amazon Flex drivers “nearly $60 million in checks and PayPal funds to eligible drivers who had their ideas illegally taken by Amazon.”
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