What key projects have you and your team been working on over the last few years?

Though Covid was not a project, it had a significant impact on the team’s priorities. We could never have anticipated anything like this, so we quickly had to adapt to the times we were living in. For example, because of the nature of Amazon’s business, at the onset of the pandemic, we experienced a surge in orders. We faced challenges like constraints on the supply of products, such as essentials like face masks. We had to find a balance of serving customers, by making sure their items were received on time, and serving vendors by not placing undue pressure on them for not being able to supply.

I have been a manager for 15 years now, and I had never faced a situation like Covid. I manage a large team, and this experience was significantly different. My priorities were a combination of ensuring employees were safe, and not just limited to physical health concerns but also mental health. For example, there are staff on my team that live alone, and these were issues that I had never really had to pay attention to until the pandemic. I had to inform myself how best I could support my team. I fostered a culture that went beyond only work-related conversations to enquiring about their welfare and making sure they were okay and prioritising work life balance.

What are the biggest risks facing the ecommerce industry and how are you preparing your company and team to face those risks?

Generally speaking, people in Latin America and Mexico do not seem to be completely sure of what ecommerce is, and so the perception that it is not a safe channel to buy from, still lingers. The older generation may be very hesitant to put their credit card details on an ecommerce site to purchase things, for example. And while these perceptions are not completely unfounded, formal retailers have developed robust security to combat theft and these perceptions. There are other concerns from the public about customer service, returns and quality of products when people purchase online. These are some of the general challenges that the industry continues to experience. With the emergence of Covid, people were naturally pushed to experiment more with buying everyday products, appliances and such from ecommerce retailers.

Another challenge for ecommerce retailers is within Mexico the credit card penetration is still extremely low, as compared to other parts of the world. Amazon has expanded its payment options to increase accessibility for all customers. With Covid, the heavy distinction between brick-and-mortar retailers and ecommerce has reduced, because many brick-and-mortar retailers also sell through ecommerce channels. For instance, trying on a product in-store and then opting to buy it online later is an example of how much the lines have blurred. It is seen less as a different sector and more of a channel to access the same set of customers. The challenges we face apply across the entire retail sector and not just specifically to e-commerce retailers.

How has Amazon adapted to an unprecedented surge in orders and deliveries? And what have been the main legal implications of that?

We onboarded more people to help us with delivery, because we understood we were in precarious times and did not want to further the spread of Covid by maintaining the size of teams. With more people onboard, it was easier for the workload to still be attended to if staff contracted Covid and could not report to work. We also organised Covid testing for staff to be able to ensure that we were not spreading the virus and supplied face masks.

Due to our first access to facemasks at the onset of the pandemic, we were able to donate some of the Mexican government, for first line workers. There were also cash donations made to help the community that we belong to.

In terms of management style, we started to listen more. Instead of following a traditional top-down policy, we are now asking pertinent questions about what employees need, what we are trying to accomplish and how our goals can be accomplished in diverse ways.

Therefore, every director can define what works best for their team, as we do not believe that a companywide policy concerning this will be the most effective. This solution helped the team a lot, as we are also super-efficient from home.