Michael Chen

Had such a great chat with Vivien Lin! She brought so much wisdom and vivid insights to the conversation: 1. We're trying to work with our users, when they make money we make money. We try not to stand on the opposite. 2. From the start we decided to exit China market. We never touched US users. It's all because we are quite self-disciplined and self-regulated. 3. We consider whether this product or whether a feature can truly solve the problem for the user. 4. From 2018, 2019 is always put our top priority to think about how we bring more new user to the crypto industry. It's not like competing the existing user with other exchange. 5. Ideally, the final product should be you don't need to worry about what functions sit in what page. You just go to the AI or the AI assistant to tell him what you want. 6. The difference in the roadmap between crypto and traditional finance is rooted in how the industry got originated. For traditional finance, banking and payment that's naturally where finance comes from than lending than trading. At crypto, the very first need where the industry originated is mining. 7. I think, we are still in a very precious time window especially for exchange it to become a sort of mega platform in near future. 8. My suggestion is always be open minded - open minded to the technology, business model and even all those new ideas. 9. My suggestion to everyone, even if you are a legal, you are a product manager or you are in the operation team, is to study programming, learn how to code. 10. The slides always tell the good stories but you need to get down to the details to understand what's happening. 11. Before all those regulations put into place there has to be someone familiar with how possible the regulation is going to be implemented in the future and we can get prepared beforehand. 12. Without one major hack exchange cannot be a mature exchange. 13. If I know what they are doing I can read their code, I can get a very direct sense about the quality of the project instead of really looking at the powerpoint. Watch the full session here: https://lnkd.in/dGhbXdwr BingX

10

Think of your Amazon catalog as a portfolio that needs smart allocation. This BCG matrix shows exactly how we group listings into four performance categories. 1. High Traffic + High Conversion (Amazon Cash Cows) These are your core performers and growth engines. Defend rank, maintain velocity, optimize ad efficiency. 2. High Traffic + Low Conversion (Leaky Funnels) High spend, low output. Audit copy, pricing, creative, and search terms before scaling spend. 3. Low Traffic + High Conversion (Hidden Gems) These can often become your next cash cows - push ads and boost discoverability. 4. Low Traffic + Low Conversion (The Long Tail) Not worth aggressive investment. Keep lean and margin-safe for the overall brand. Your returns depend on how strategically you allocate time, energy, A/B tests, initiatives, and spend across these four buckets. Amazon resources don't have to be divided equally across products. Let the matrix guide your investment decisions. #Amazon #SEO #EcommerceStrategy #BrandStrategy

7

TL:DR – Merchandising + Personalization aren't about conversion rate – instead, focus on incrementality. I want to talk about recommendations, and to do so I want to recount a story from my early days as an eCommerce leader at Lucky Brand Jeans. We installed a recommendation product and marveled at things like click through rate and conversion rate of the containers we were using. If someone were shopping for dark wash bootcut men’s jeans – we would recommend slightly darker and lighter washes of the same jeans and by golly people would click on it! With the benefit of hindsight – what stupid metrics. See, the problem with recommendations is that we are not focused on incrementality. That’s what really matters. In the above example, recommendations were functioning like a duplicate of the color swatches on the PDP. Say you’re shopping for a purse. You come in via the homepage via a branded search, click the top nav, go to ‘purses,’ and then click on a brown shoulder bag that costs $200. Most recommendation engines out there will say: I’VE GOT IT! LET’S SHOW A BUNCH OF BROWN PURSES THAT COST AROUND $200!! And if you're REALLY optimizing to conversion rate --- it might recommend lots of $140 brown purses. I think this in a vacuum is fundamentally flawed. See – you’ve already shown two massive intent signals: 1) You already know who the brand is (remember, you came in via a branded search) 2) You’ve already indicated interest in purses and a specific brown purse. … so, do you really need to recommend brown purses? My argument: Maybe? The best things you could offer this persona to drive incremental dollars are: a) Brown purses that are slightly more expensive in the same style that they haven’t seen in a PLP already. b) Adjacent products that are not in the brown purse category in hopes to expand the basket and drive true incremental dollars. This is why we (XGEN AI) are building in true challenger champion algorithms that allow us to constantly evaluate and learn which metric is best for our AI to optimize to. It might be conversion rate, UPT, AOV, margin, or countless others – but we need not always assume we’re right and truly focus on the north star of increasing revenue per visit. I would love for others to talk about their experience with driving true incrementality with recommendations – can’t wait to hear what you’ve done that has really worked.

25

5 Comments

Proud to share a big step forward for convenient access to healthcare in the Bay Area: Amazon Pharmacy now delivers prescriptions the same day across San Francisco and the surrounding communities. ⚡💊 At a time when local pharmacy options have declined, we're making it faster and easier for customers to get the medications they need...with delivery in hours, clear pricing, automatic discounts, 24/7 pharmacist support, and simple caregiver tools for families. Huge thanks to our teams who built our new pharmacy-enabled Same-Day sites in Brisbane and Richmond. This is just the start! Excited to keep expanding Same-Day pharmacy access to more cities nationwide. 🚚✨

168

6 Comments

🚨 Blind Spot #1: The Hidden Costs of Selling on Amazon Most brands jump onto Amazon themselves thinking, “More sales, easy margin!” But they’re blindsided by hidden costs that quietly erode profits: ✅ Long-Term Storage Fees Slow-moving inventory racks up expensive storage fees after 12 months. Many brands don’t realize this until fees start piling up and killing margins. ✅ Freight & Dunnage Costs Inbound freight isn’t cheap—depending on the size of the product can get as high as $1–$3 per SKU—and Amazon often splits shipments across multiple warehouses, multiplying costs. Add in dunnage weight rounding (Amazon rounds up package weights, charging extra for packing materials and void fill) and suddenly your margins shrink further. ✅ Labor & Compliance Overhead Selling on Amazon isn’t plug-and-play. Products need specific prep, labeling, and packaging. Miss a step? Amazon charges unplanned service fees per unit. Even doing it in-house strains your ops team with added labor, materials, and workflow complexity. ✅ Returns & Refunds Amazon’s customer-first return policies mean 20–30% return rates in categories like apparel and electronics. Each return costs you the original shipping + fulfillment fee + possible return processing fees. Worse yet, many returns come back damaged or unsellable, compounding losses. 💡 Bottom line: Selling on Amazon isn’t “free money.” Without planning for these hidden costs, brands quickly realize their so-called profitable channel is barely breakeven—or worse.

10

5 Comments

I just heard about the layoffs at Amazon. It seems that many of my former colleagues at PXT will be affected. This is obviously a difficult time if you are laid off, but you'll get through it. First steps, without even wasting time, take care of your finances. Cut your discretionary spending (cancel subscriptions, sell your car, don't order takeout or go to restaurants) and tap your emergency fund if needed to ensure you don't find yourself in a worse situation in six months. If you find a job in a couple of months, that's great, but the market is tough right now. Plan for a 6 to 12-month journey. Second, take charge of your professional life. Take a week or two to rest and reset. Go for long walks, meditate, meet with friends, call family, or read a book. Then, focus on learning skills you didn't have time to because you were so busy at work. Goes without saying that learning how to master AI is critical for any future corporate job. Lastly, think about what's next. Job searching requires working your network. It's not enough to apply for jobs online. Find the hiring manager for the position you are seeking and see who you know who can refer you. If you are a software engineer, start a new project to exercise new brain “muscles.” If you are considering founding a startup, thinking about a career pivot, or looking for networking opportunities in Seattle, *send me a message* and I'll help you with what I know. If you prefer, we can schedule a call to chat. You've got this!

70

3 Comments

🚨 Major Shift at Amazon The company plans to cut up to 30,000 corporate positions — roughly 10% of its office workforce — beginning this week. Reuters+1 This move reflects two critical forces at play: 🔹 Cost pressure & over-hiring correction Amazon grew fast during the pandemic and now is scaling back to recalibrate its workforce. GeekWire+1 🔹 AI & automation acceleration CEO Andy Jassy has said the rollout of generative AI and internal agents will “change the way our work is done” — and reduce headcount in certain roles. For tech evangelists, community builders, and startup leaders (like me), there are important takeaways: Building future-proof skills matters. Roles tied to repeatable tasks are increasingly vulnerable to automation. Human-centric capabilities (strategy, creativity, relationships) will rise in value. When large companies pivot this quickly, the ecosystem shifts: contractors, service providers, and partner ecosystems feel the ripple. For startups: talent and opportunity may become available faster than expected. For corporates: managing change and talent transition becomes a key leadership challenge. Questions for reflection: How is your organisation preparing for talent shifts driven by AI and automation? In your network: what skills do you see becoming less relevant — and what are emerging? What role will community, developer-relations and evangelism play in an era of smaller teams but larger ecosystems? 👉 If you’re working at the intersection of voice AI, telephony, automation (my area), or you’re building a GTM engine around change-drivers: this kind of macro change is your cue. Time to lean into the disruption. Would love to hear your thoughts on how you’re navigating this moment. https://lnkd.in/gQxZVqkw Agentics Foundation

9

3 Comments

When I joined Amazon in 1999, we did not build good operating plans. By the time I left in 2015, our plans were world-class. Here are the components of a great plan so you can skip the 15 years of work that it took us to figure it out: 1) Introduction The Introduction is very short and factual. Many readers may not be familiar with your organization's size, scope, impact, and charter. Describe the business or function, the team, and their responsibilities and scope. If the team has established or wishes to propose any tenets, include them here. This should fill about one quarter of the page. 2) Metrics This is a table of the most important metrics (> 5, < 20) for measuring and understanding the business. Of course, the list should include standard output metrics like revenue and gross profit. But more importantly, the majority of the metrics listed are what you deem to be the key controllable input metrics for your business unit and your proposed numerical targets for each. I would argue that this is the most important part of your plan. If you invest the time to define and select the right controllable input metrics and goals for each, then you establish a set of north stars that will guide your team's actions throughout the year. 3) Review of Prior Year and Market Trends We looked for a candid assessment of what worked and what didn’t. A strong plan explains how the past year’s results shape the coming year’s priorities. It also shows awareness of changes in customer behavior, competitive dynamics, or regulatory shifts. 4) Problems and Opportunities To drive meaningful improvement each year, you must first honestly reflect on what worked and did not, and what external trends like technology, competitor progress, and customer expectations are noteworthy. This section convinces you (the writer) and the reader that your plan is grounded in real data that matters. It will help you decide where to double down on what’s working and where to change. 5) Initiatives Initiatives are where you explain what you plan to do. Initiatives include new business, product, or feature launches, projects to reduce costs or gain speed, plans to implement a new process, and more. Good plans differentiated between one-way door and two-way door initiatives. They also highlighted how each initiative is connected to the defined input metrics. 6) Resourcing Plan Headcount and budget must align with the scope of work. Include hiring plans and changes in fixed and variable expenses. The allocation of these resources should be described in the prior initiatives section. A clear accounting of resources by project or type of work makes it possible to evaluate whether you have too many or too few resources to accomplish the projects outlined in the plan. (cont. in comments)

346

12 Comments

While the world argues about what “the future of retail” will look like… Michael Burke has been quietly helping build it for two decades. From his early days at Google leading partnerships for Google Checkout, to his year in the trenches at a VC-backed startup, to now serving as Managing Director, Commerce at Google, Michael has done one thing consistently, sit right at the intersection of consumers, brands, and the next wave of technology. Today, he and his team work with some of the world’s most loved brands helping them. Navigate privacy changes and signal loss Adopt AI in ways that actually move the P&L Rethink measurement, media, and merchandising for an always-on world What stands out isn’t just the logos on his deck. It’s the pattern: Operator inside Google through multiple platform shifts Builder at a growth-stage SaaS startup in the messy middle Strategic partner to founders as an Advisory Board Member at CapitalG Board member at AutoCruitment, where digital media is being used to transform clinical trial recruitment Every part of that journey compounds into a single vantage point, how to use technology, data, and storytelling to drive profitable growth not just impressions or hype. In a moment where AI and commerce can feel like buzzwords, leaders like Michael remind you what real impact looks like, clarity in the noise, curiosity over ego, and a deep bias for partnership with the brands he serves. If you’re building in retail, media, or consumer tech today, it’s worth paying attention not just to what Google is shipping but to how people like Michael Burke are quietly shaping the playbook behind the scenes.

18

1 Comment