Technology stack, the scalability wildcard for your organization

Judging by the beginning of the title, you'll think that we're about to talk about electric batteries or stacks of objects. We like the second one, so we'll give you the first preview: a technology stack is the software starter pack in companies that need ensure sustained growth with a future project in mind.

It's enough to select the correct objects in this technological stack to expand the commercial horizons of a company from the beginning with IT tools. That is why it's essential to know the scalability capacity.

The definition of a technological stack implies a previous work of strategic analysis because the choice of the software products that are going to shape, it's the tools that are going to work in a systemic way as the business grows with its customers. So this selection should by no means be taken into account in isolation.

Technology stack... what is it?

Stacks in the IT world refer to a collection of programs that work together to provide specific functionality. For example, a web development stack may include an operating system, a web server, a programming language, and a database.

Hand in hand with this, one of its greatest strengths implies ability to adapt to the requirement. If we're facing a project related to the marketing area, we've a MarTech stack. If we're in charge of a finance project, we've a FinTech stack. As each stack has a compendium of technologies, they all provide a standardized set of tools to implement whatever the application is, benefiting to reducing the amount of time and effort in development.

The stacks are commonly used by organizations to develop internal applications and to offer services. For example, a company may use a web development stack to create an e-commerce application. On the other hand, a hospital may use a mobile development stack to create a mobile application for patients.

A clear example we can provide from Lab9 regarding technology stacks is our work for Sharyco, a corporate application supported by at least four developers and a mobile development stack.

How to build a technology stack correctly

While there are no hard and fast rules about what may or may not guarantee your organization's technology success, these recommendations can guide you in how diagram your scalability stack. Next:

Plan for the future: it's true that technology solutions solve immediate problems, but each one must be in the focus of analysis along with the rest of your technology stack, opposite case, the realignment will be very costly.

For example, if you plan to add email to your MarTech stack, you should consider what other channels would be in the future. If you plan to add a chatbot or messaging via WhatsApp, you'd be better off jumping into a platform like Twilio early on.

Create a Minimum Viable Product (MVP): the MVP focuses on creating a product or service with basic but easily sellable features. This creation leads to the recommendation to test the project on a smaller scale before making an investment. This way can easily monitor the needs of the market.

Take advantage of open source technology: open source tools are free and freely available, which gives your company free access to use, copy, modify, share and build on existing code and applications.

For example, we can cite the popular MEAN technology stack, which includes MongoDB, Express.js, AngularJS and Nodejs, all of which are open source and free.

Create budgets: budgets and tech stacks are two essential topics when diagramming your tech stack. You'll always need the numerical state to start thinking about your future project. Questions such as "what revenue margins will my MVP have to reach to be profitable?" or "how will scale affect your expenses in the future?" should not be missing from your checklist.

Consider the team's experience: building certain types of technology stacks requires different levels of expertise. In fact, adopting new technologies can even slow down or stall progress if you don't have an experienced team. To avoid this, you should training collaborators or hiring a specialist.

The user as the protagonist: there's nothing better than knowing your customer's pain points to come up with an idea that meets each and every one of their needs. Research, analysis and establishment of parameters are essentials for a project to have a budget according to the scalability of the technological stack.

Soft skills + commercial team = an art that you must master

In the background of the City of Light with its typical boulevards and triangular blocks, Lily Collins plays the character of Emily in Paris. A series of Parisian luxury that shows how a young American girl achieves her dream of working for a successful marketing agency. Soft skills play a defining role in many situations that unfold in the story. Intelligent dialogues, teamwork, and empathy among peers and clients are just a few examples of the success of a good command of soft skills within your sales team.

What are soft skills?

Soft skills are nothing more than the inner toolbox in every person when interacting with the outside world. It's how the individual manages to weigh difficulties in making satisfying relationships by knowing how to use verbal and non-verbal communication.

The ability to innovate and learn, active listening, communication, critical thinking, and interpersonal communication skills are characteristics that make a person able to interact effectively in any social ecosystem.

Currently, diplomacy within work environments would be something like gold dust, not only because of the lack of training in general but also because knowing how to link from the mediated word and active listening implies a bonus to nurture trust between brands and their prospects. In other words, the management of soft skills in the corporate environment is a way of being one step ahead of what people are looking for and need.

Why train my sales team in soft skills? The seven reasons

A survey conducted in the United States of more than 650 companies reveals that soft skills are the most in-demand by employers. Unfortunately, emotional intelligence has been relegated to the background for many years. This issue has been biased in university curricula since its inception. This explains why 73% of the employers who participated in the sample affirm that it is difficult to find candidates with qualities and competencies related to soft skills.

We know that speaking in commercial terms implies a whole question of supply and demand, conquered prospects, and closed accounts. But for these things to happen successfully, building lasting relationships with customers goes beyond the technical skills of the person trying to sell a product or service.

Knowing how to detect the client's non-verbal messages from their body language - gaze, posture, tone of voice, silences, and more - implies exceptional handling of communication skills, clearly added to the intelligence to know how to speak at the right time and in the right way. All this little combo leads to your company's business strategies making a significant difference in the company-customer relationship. At the end of the day, commercial impact based on soft skills is guaranteed success.

Here are seven reasons why you should think about enhancing the soft skills of your human resources in the commercial area:

1. They improve decision making

CEOs are responsible for making crucial decisions that impact any organization. In this, the decisions they make are aligned with listening skills. However, these competencies are not only required at the senior level but should act as a cascade effect down to the middle levels, where feedback between manager and team strengthens relationships and encourages innovative ideas.

2. They drive positive change

Lack of communication can generate confusion and inefficiency, which translates into losses for the organization. Avoiding this requires the existence of an excellent communication channel, which should not only exist within the commercial team but also in the rest of the organizational chart in pursuit of the alignment of objectives.

Thanks to this, employees are aware of the challenges faced by the business and can provide brilliant solutions, bringing about positive changes without a doubt.

3. Creates a healthy work environment

Empathy fosters a positive and supportive work environment, eliminating any unnecessary competition. Here employees are more prepared to take risks and move up the ladder. There, employees feel more confident expressing their thoughts and providing honest feedback to the organization. This thing is the kind of valuable input for optimizing processes and discovering new talent.

As a colorful fact, within Lab9's internal team, we work based on agile methodologies, which is why video calls and messages via Slack have a high level of frequency. This tool allows communication between the different areas of the company to be fluid and transparent so that employees can respectfully express their contributions to the organization itself and commercial projects.

4. They help to solve problems more efficiently

Developing soft skills such as communication and active listening will make employees more proactive in recognizing problems and finding intelligent solutions in a more timely manner.

5. Soft skills improve customer service

With employees trained in soft skills, they will learn to identify problems effectively and establish solutions tailored to their customers' needs. Empathy will translate into compassion and patience in dealing with customers, especially in pre-sales and after-sales service.

6. Increases the number of sales

During the negotiation, soft skills match the company's interests with the prospect's needs. In this kind of commercial conversation, the sales team can persuade customers by increasing sales.

7. Improve employee retention

A company's retention rate increases when it begins to focus on boosting the interpersonal skills of its employees. Soft skills training involves personal and professional growth at the same time.

Case study: UX usability in the Zara app

Have you ever thought about the people who design the apps you use on your mobile and how they work to make it look and function correctly? Well, the term usability has a lot to say and teach. In a nutshell, usability refers to the speed and ease with which people accomplish their tasks through a product of interest. It can also state that usability implies focusing on users.

We can say that usability rests on two main pillars:

Direct contact with the user: to develop a product that is used by the target audience, behavior patterns must be analyzed and understood.
Knowledge of the usability context: a product is successful in terms of usability according to the number of steps it has to go through for a person to achieve their objectives. One of the steps prior to the development of an app, it's very convenient to know in advance which user tasks the new product automates, modifies, or enhances.

Don't forget: it's the users who determine whether a product is easy to use or not. Designers and developers only do their job of interpretation and implementation.

ZARA app and its usability level

An expert in UX design and usability, Guillermo NG, had a wonderful idea: to carry out a necessary social experiment together with a group of Zara store assistants and the addition of samples of people classified as frequent customers of the Spanish brand. The main idea was to detect current failures within the visual and functional panel of the mobile application and then establish a series of graphic modifications that would reveal effective solutions to solve these issues.

Final number of testers for the experiment: seven.

The zero level of this work consisted of research and online data collection in order to create a buyer persona for the Zara app. Detailed data such as age, occupation and socioeconomic level made up the current identikit: professionals between 20 and 30 years old with a medium-high income level. Likewise, studying the environment in which these people move during their interaction with the app was another essential point. Whether the person wants to be constantly fashionable or simply wants to look for online items sold in physical stores, all kinds of arguments are valid to understand what their motivations and expected results are.

Testing and testing

Once the proto persona and their behavior was defined, the next step was to go back to those seven testers to do the field work. Here the attendees were to imagine certain contexts and act accordingly: "it's been cold lately and you are looking for a winter coat. what do you do?"; you see a coat you might like, can you explain to me how I would decide if this is a coat for you; "you have added the coat to your cart, but you realize that the size is wrong. How do you fix that?".

A review of the data obtained was conducted and then the affinity mapping technique was used to classify the weaknesses to be resolved into categories. Shopping cart, search and filter, "save for later," image carousel, unavailable items, and drop-down menu were the most "challenging" items for this researcher, setting up the most visible pain points.

Assuming that the app's most important goal is to increase mobile revenue, it was decided that editing cart items was an issue that called for urgent usability redesign urgency for both Zara and users.

Challenging to the eye

When trying to edit an item in the cart:

Only 1 in 7 did so without a problem
6 out of 7 users touched the item, which only shows an image
4 out of 7 users tried to swipe left on the item, which doesn't show the edit option
2 out of 7 users accidentally deleted their items

When it was time to bring creativity and intelligence to the table, Guillermo started the creation of design prototypes, performing a preliminary validation from sketches with some online shoppers. Thanks to this, the researcher obtained more information, managing to incorporate solutions to the final design.

As a colorful fact for our readers in relation to this first step, from Lab9, we worked for Innos -a mobile application ready to provide solutions in the health area- conducting a previous study focused on the stakeholders of the brand to know what their needs, preferences and behavior patterns were. Here we can differentiate the data to make the first manual sketches, which would be digitized as a final proposal.

One of the modifications had to do with the new "Edit" button, which replaces the "buy later" button. In this new feature, users can not only choose the garment they are going to buy, but also change their mind about color, size and quantity of items. Before the usability redesign, when users wanted to save an item for later, they could only do so when the item was already in the shopping cart. For this reason, Guillermo feels that it would be more appropriate to add the "save for later" feature to the product search flow so that users do not have to move an item to the cart before checking it out.

Another design change involved an interaction guide for users, so they could move the images in the carousel in a pattern similar to the other finger movements that must be made in the rest of the app. In this case, vertically and not horizontally as before.

In closing, validation is the last step of any mobile usability redesign. In this opportunity, the seven testers were asked to explain in their own words how they would edit the quantity and size of the items in the cart. Result? Absolutely everyone was able to explain these points successfully. Thus, the solution rate went from 33% to 100%.

To be and to do Agile in the field of Project Management

To be or not to be agile, that's the question.

What is more worthy of the action of the spirit,

suffer the misinformation of unjust fortune,

or oppose the arms to this torrent of calamities,

and end them with proactivity and innovation?

To be or not to be Agile. That's the question, isn't it? It is in this amusing adaptation of the world's most famous soliloquy - Hamlet's play - that we seek to reflect the more sensitive and poetic side of agility. Agility derives from simplicity as a philosophy of life. Having a thirst to create, being permeable to sudden change, constantly seeking to find value in the little things, and empowering people in their diversity are sentences that in some way give a definite shape to what constitutes the competence of agility.

If we dare to answer Hamlet's solitary question, but in our adapted version, there is only one option to select: to be Agile. In today's world, where dynamism is the currency, companies that maintain traditional management systems should even question themselves more about what they want for their companies and where they are aiming: are they where they always wanted to be? That's why all roads lead to agility.

A lot of Agile here, a lot of Agile there - what is it all about and why is it so useful for companies? To delve into this wonderful dimension of innovation, we should start by learning about one of its many areas, Project Management (PM).

Project Management + agile

Whether they are artistic, construction, technology, or sales projects, all about them are equally important and worthy of being carried out. At a business level, for example, these plans are essential because they generate business value, that is, a tangible benefit from the tangible and the intangible as well. By this, we mean the prestige of the brand and the set of values it inspires both for its customers and collaborators.

Increasingly, results need to be obtained in shorter and shorter periods of time. In addition, projects are developed in complex environments that undoubtedly affect management methods. We talk about technical, economic, social, environmental, and political aspects.

It is in this scenario that the figure of project management appears; the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to the activities of a project to meet the defined objective within a given period of time.

The objective of project management is to obtain an original and practical product that satisfies the needs of your company's customers.

But when does agility appear?

The first step comes from adopting an agile mindset -described at the beginning of this article- and secondly, it brings its methodological application, which is Agile Doing. Its usefulness in these circumstances lies in providing people with a shared point of view to be able to adopt a specific approach when developing products and services in a work environment.

Whatever the organization is, it is up to them to accompany the transformation towards agility, especially if we consider that it is not only a way of doing but also a way of being. Those companies that maintain their traditional schemes have surely wondered how it is possible to transition from an installed organizational culture to a totally different one.

Although that may inspire a bit of fear and uncertainty, we must not forget that everything that implies simplification of steps and reduction of time will benefit any company. It is all about going step by step, respecting the processes of each area, and trying to count on a team specialized in these new methodologies that execute mentoring and advisory actions.

That is why if we focus only on procedural aspects, it is likely that the new procedures that have been put into practice will end up returning to their origins - the traditional - if the organizational culture has never been worked on to shift towards flexibility.

On the contrary, if these beliefs are more agile than the processes themselves, they tend to become more agile. In other words, we talk about the collective vision of the teams working within the company that will determine the degree of difficulty that managers will face when making the transition.

Agile involves an iterative approach that focuses on delivering value during short work cycles to obtain rapid feedback from the client and then better adapt to the new requirements.

In terms of project management, there are four commandments that configure the management process as an agile project:

Prioritize the individual and his interactions so that he is happy with what he is doing and is aware of his usefulness to the project.
Focusing on developing a product or service that addresses the customer's needs, rather than focusing on obtaining documentation
Close collaboration with the customer to ensure smooth communications
Responding quickly and efficiently to circumstantial changes, rather than focusing on adhering to a pre-planned schedule

Liquid organizations. The era of the new servant leader.

Here's a riddle for you related to organizations: he usually wears black and white but is not a zebra, has a piercing gaze but is not a panther, is often quite heartless, and is not the college professor who gave you a three on the last midterm of your life. He's overbearing and more distant than the kingdom of Far, Far Away in the Shrek movie. Want the answer? Here it goes: b-o-s-s.

As if it were an absolute monarchy that - sadly - still constitutes a large part of organizations, the figure of the "boss" as an entity appointed by a supreme God is at the top of the ranking known as "the list of roles that should cease to exist in your company".

The intrepid advance of a technology that does not ask permission to grow, paradigm changing became notorious, especially in the organizational world. Companies and institutions are looking for exponential growth are currently in changing towards liquid management models, or in other words, models with a horizontal organization chart.

Goodbye, bosses. Hello servant leaders.

What are liquid organizations?

Rooted in the term "liquid modernity" by Zygmunt Bauman, a Polish sociologist who died in 2017, this conceptualization refers to those corporate structures that evolve and transform in a diluted environment with the particularity of being flexible. That is where the words "adaptation" and "transformation" stand as the north of every mechanism of action and thought.

In this type of organization, working is structured is much faster, more transparent, and more concrete. With a blurred vertical hierarchy, the arrangement of work roles depends of the emergence of multidisciplinary teams that cooperate fluidly on a project basis.

Another characteristic of liquid organizations is that their focus is on human capital, i.e., the person is the center of the company, and every effort is to recognize and retain, not only for the position held but also for the skills and aptitudes -especially digital ones- that only enrich the organizational structure.

Companies and liquid collaborators accept changes and the speed of transformation as something natural, becoming versatile entities and individuals who know how to handle unexpected scenarios, working on innovative ideas that minimize risks.

The new leader in the liquid organizations

With this, the exercise of leadership as such has also evolved. The image of the glass office with a closed door that no one dares to touch has disappeared. Now we are in front of a liquid leader with no walls to separate or doors to terror. He's the one who observes, inspires, and motivates the team of talents to foster relationships.

The quality standards that invite creativity and eliminate any trace of superiority or miscommunication that may perpetuate the poorly executed figure of the boss.

Thus, one of the main challenges of a flexible organization is to achieve true self-discipline since each person's primary task is to develop an awareness of the leading role in the project and how one must act to produce multiplying results as needs arise.

For this reason, the constitution of a liquid person takes into account not only the expected technical requirements but also soft skills such as the development of analytical thinking, active learning, social leadership, the use and control of technology, resilience, service orientation, emotional intelligence and the power to provide original solutions to the organizations.

Agility in liquid organizations

One of the cornerstones of this cutting-edge management is nothing more and nothing less than the philosophy of agile methodologies: be agile, and do agile.

Born at the dawn of the century that has us as protagonists, the concept of agility came to this world as a solution to a series of questions that many technology specialists began to ask: unproductive actions, projects that were canceled due to customer dissatisfaction, unnecessary bureaucracy and paperwork, very long working times … and more.

In this sense, the importance of the agile contribution in this area is the culture. That is, generating a space for organizational evolution and growth that involves not only the structure itself but also the employees.

What is the plus of the agile philosophy?

Structure: it simplifies and eliminates levels, roles, and responsibilities inside organizations. It streamlines and decentralizes decision-making.
Processes: frees time to focus on actions that generate value, manage and enhance planning and performance.
Technology: favors the creation of tools and systems that support the implementation and start-up of rapid and dynamic changes.
People: prepares managers to be servant leaders, manages talent through recognition and fosters organic communication networks.

Process design: an intelligent way to manage organizations

Process design, a crucial business methodology, has significantly influenced how we experience everyday life. Our lives are a blend of emotions, driven by adrenaline and habituation, keeping us alive amidst life's fast pace.

Technological revolutions have transformed consumption patterns and management strategies in organizations. To convert resources into results efficiently, process design offers an invaluable approach.

Embracing process design is no longer optional, but necessary in this digital age. By integrating cutting-edge innovations, organizations unlock their true potential, staying ahead of the competition.

Process design extends beyond businesses, guiding individuals to improve daily routines and achieve work-life balance.

Process design, what’s about it?

Process design establishes functions and determines the process used to produce a product or service. Much of the decision-making in the process is made in the long term and can't be reversed in a simple way, especially when there is a capital investment. For this reason, it's essential that it is designed in alignment with the general strategies of the organization, being functionally satisfactory to the requirements demanded.

This type of work management must have a solid structure that guarantees its effectiveness and efficiency since it allows for the repetition of established tasks. Otherwise, workers will resort to routine actions based on their experience, leading to inconsistency and inefficiency.

Process optimization? Yes.

This type of procedural organization encompasses a wide range of execution modes. From the entirely manual task to automation as a simplification of functions. In this sense, the nature of process design is transformation. Thus, process design must take into account methods and economic considerations.

The structure of a process design

The process has two major components:

Decision in process design: decisions are those strategies arranged by creativity and strategy for the benefit of the company or institution.
Process structure: it comprises specifications and requirements to comply during the cycle. On this, lies the importance of a good design. This way of developing workflows is an input for development. It must establish the functions needed and their consequences by the company's policies. It's precisely here where the proposal of functional alternatives also comes into play according to the cost analysis since the beginning.

In terms of typology, we can recognize three types of design processes:

Intermittent or project-based process (customized, flexible, and highly innovative. Each requirement is worked on independently)
Repetitive process (the work team and the arrangement of resources are functional. It's come up as sales are developed)
Continuous process (there's a high esteem for a specific product or service, so there are standard models. Product variety and innovation are low)

When is the ideal time to introduce process design in my company?

Introduction of a new product or service to the market
Redesign of a product or service
The desire for change in competing priorities within the company
Increased demand for services
Existence of inadequate business performance

It's about new organizations that engage in business process design when they begin to think about the forms and methodologies they will adopt when implementing something entirely innovative or at least thinking about redesigning it. Likewise, effective business processes must be scalable and replicable.

Trial and error

The important thing is to test and verify the new process before it's implemented within the company. A simple and quick way to do this is to execute actions of the cycle and expand. Likewise, another strategy is using specific procedural sabotage, so that the appearance of some defective event occurs. There, the identification, analysis, and subsequent resolution of the problem should be carried out, so that it is eliminated and avoids future situations that slow down the created process.

What is inbound marketing on your website?

Today's marketing bets on strategies for business growth with a more human interaction between the company and customers.
In this way, it attracts more prospects and transforms them into new customers: Interact with them on sites, platforms, and social networks, when they want, where they can.

This is the inbound marketing philosophy.

Inbound marketing is the best way to market your products or services, and it is also the best way to help your current and potential customers.

The most stable contact between your customers and your business is your website, and because of that is essential to have inbound marketing in your web design.

Inbound marketing on your website

Your website is nowadays the visible face of your brand, everything that includes and communicates your business.

It is essential to have a good web design thought about user experiences, where users can get an idea of the company based on a professional image and communication.

An optimal site offers the best aesthetics with the necessary content to position itself to your target audience.

Websites are dynamic and updated according to the needs of your customers and prospects, but…
How is the process of designing a website more efficient?

Through a fast and agile process: the Growth-Driven Design.

What is Growth-Driven Design?

Growth-Driven Design is an approach to website design and maintenance that minimizes the risks of traditional web design.
This systematic approach shortens the time to launch by using data, learning, and continuous improvement.

Instead of making an isolated investment in your website every few years, Growth-Driven Design (G.D.-D.) proposes an efficient construction of the site to which improvements are implemented, through a cyclical process of planning, testing, implementation, and dissemination.

The three pillars of Growth-Driven Design are:

Avoid or minimize the risks associated with traditional design.
Continuous learning and improvement.
As learning takes place, it is reported to marketing and sales managers.

The benefits of applying Growth-Driven Design

Instead of planning to do everything, GDD focuses on iterations or "sprints" for shorter timeframes (less risky and less expensive).

It consists of design tests on your users' existing data and implementing or discarding changes according to the results obtained.

Adapt your site according to the needs of your audience.

With an intuitive knowledge of the habits of users within a website and you get to refine the site to achieve a simple and enjoyable user experience based on actual results.

Create a positive user experience.

While user experience is essential, a good web design that offers advantages is important.

Ensure the navigation of your site with a good design and development.

Remember that the loading time has to be less than two seconds since people will leave after that time if they do not receive a response from your website.

Give the relevance that usability needs.

The user enters your website from their mobile, tablet, or desktop computer. The design must respond in the shortest possible time.

With a responsive design that adapts to different formats and devices and offers the best experience to visitors.

You get to optimize the results you seek by implementing measures that facilitate, improve and enable navigation. It is an investment that offers an excellent means of communication with users or the interested public.

Web design is an essential element since it is in charge of creating the public and visible face of a brand.

The challenges, and unreliable and inconsistent results that teams experience during a website redesign are a product of outdated strategies.

Growth-Driven Design is an approach to web design that eliminates many pitfalls and drives optimal results using data.

Growth-Driven Design brings:

A smarter approach
Quicker and better startup
Investment spread over time
Launch on time and within budget
Optimization of results
Data-driven decisions
Month-to-month improvement

Invest in the growth of your business with the inbound marketing philosophy by applying Growth-Driven Design.

Growth-Driven Design is an investment that delivers reliable results month after month. Your website gets stronger as you continue to measure, iterate and act.
We can help you.

The importance of cross-selling in the Amazon business model

Cross-selling is the sales strategy popularized by Amazon where products or services are displayed next to the product your customer is interested in buying.

It is an excellent way to increase customer loyalty. This strategy makes cross-selling an ideal to foster the growth of a digital business.

Implementing the suggestive offer helps to increase sales, as there are features in different products that relate to the ones your customers went to buy. This way, taking advantage of promotions and quantity discounts, they finally buy several related or complementary products.

For example, if a consumer enters the process of buying a TV, the chosen product appears on the screen, and others, such as wall brackets or tables with the measurements for that TV added to the cart.

Although is a pioneer in this model, many e-commerce platforms currently offer to cross-sell: Mercado Libre, Tienda Nube, Diggit, and many others.

Amazon attributes the cross-selling technique to 35% of its sales today.

This action is a commercial strategy to obtain customers that want to buy other products and spend more. Just by logging on to the site and clicking on any product, the other tempting options unfold.

The intelligence of Bezos, the founder of Amazon, to implement cross-selling in a business that offers such varied products has allowed him to obtain millionaire profits over his competitors, taking advantage of the emotion of the customers' purchase.

How Amazon has become the World's largest e-commerce Platform

It has established itself as one of the world's most profitable and popular e-commerce companies for entertainment and various products, along with Netflix, who until now had almost no rivals within the streaming after Blockbuster closed its doors for good. (Read the article on Netflix)

Amazon's rise as a cloud platform is due to its entertainment service and products for sale, such as software, video games, music, books, clothing, furniture, etcetera.

It is gaining millions of followers with content and making great audiovisual productions for series lovers, which it broadcasts via streaming, just like Netflix.

The History of Amazon

It was founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos. Previously, he had resigned as vice president of D. E. Shaw & Co, a Wall Street company, and moved to Seattle, where he began working on a business plan, which would eventually become Amazon.com.
Bezos chose the name Amazon for his e-commerce business from the meaning of the term "Amazon," linked to the exotic Brazilian region and the river that bears the same name, which is the largest in the world, as he planned to make his company the largest in the world as well.

He drew up a list of 20 products online, of which only five remained: CDs, computers, software, videos, and books. Among this smaller list, the founder decided to sell books online due to the worldwide demand for literature.

The reduced prices for books and a long list of titles brought Amazon success, so it became a recognized online platform to sell digital books.

Amazon's business plan was risky, as it expected to get benefits on its initial investment within five years, which could go very well or badly.

However, luck was on their side because while many companies ended up melting down due to the expansion of the internet in the early 2000s, Amazon stuck with it and started to grow, making huge profits that proved the success of their ambitious plan.

Amazon launched a new marketing strategy called Amazon Prime Day

The company offered the opportunity to its Prime customers to get flash deals on millions of products during 'Prime Day'. However, in 2019 taking into account the success of the previous Prime Day launch, Amazon decided to increase the offers from 24 to 48 hours.

The Amazon case is another evidence that growth does not necessarily have to be short-term, but focusing on the strategy makes the difference too.

Companies like Apple, Google, Coca-Cola, Lay's, and Netflix themselves achieved a position in the market by creating products or services designed to meet the demand of a large audience. Amazon is one of the most profitable companies in recent years and probably the second in e-commerce.

Learn about success stories in online business by reading our articles and in our networks.

Hubspot: One of the most comprehensive automation software

HubSpot is a software developer and marketer that offers sales, customer service, and marketing tools. Hubspot is the creator of the inbound methodology.

This methodology is slowly being introduced in Latin America but is already well developed in North America and Europe and is a new way of thinking about strategies to attract customers to your business.

Your sales team needs to understand the context in which your customer is and to identify the needs and problems they are looking to solve because as your business grows, you need a system that allows you to document and store all that information.

The situations we mentioned are perfect for addressing with a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) since this tool allows you to organize and intelligently use all the information about your prospects and potential customers.

The inbound methodology applies to every department of your company and is referred to as the "inbound philosophy'', as it can apply even to our daily lives.

HubSpot offers a complete and easy-to-use CRM platform for implementation in your business.

What is the Hubspot story?

Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah are the founders of HubSpot. In 2004 they founded the company because they noticed that the way consumers were buying was changing, that no one wanted to be invaded by commercials or advertisements, and from that observation, they developed this new methodology.

Since 2005, the year in which the company opened its doors, until today, they haven't stopped growing. In 2014 HubSpot launched its own CRM.

It's designed to work seamlessly with a company's sales department and is free with the basic version. If you require advanced integrations, you must pay a fee.

HubSpot is set on the inbound principle, which advocates the idea that people don't feel comfortable being invaded and chased by companies to buy their products or services and, to this day, continues to advocate that this is the right way to do business.

What is inbound?

As we all know, since marketing appeared, the audience received content that wasn't always interesting. That is called outbound marketing or the traditional way. But now, with this new era, inbound marketing forms connections for the customer by solving real problems.

Inbound is the philosophy on which HubSpot built its company. This philosophy adapts to business and is feasible to apply to different areas: for example, we've inbound marketing, inbound sales, and inbound operations, and each one adapts its tasks to this business methodology.

To understand an example of how we can apply inbound in a business, let's take a look at
how inbound marketing works, and the main area where HubSpot started to implement this methodology.

It relies on the principles of inbound and connects with marketing tasks, taking the customer as the center of a company's operations and understanding that they no longer want invasive content that forces them to buy by insistence.

Inbound marketing seeks to bring quality content to customers, bringing what they need and in the format they are looking for. Inbound marketing is a more human way of doing business that always seeks customer satisfaction.

Inbound strategies: Attraction - Interaction - Delight

This strategy aims to attract new and retain old and current customers.

Attract

Create relevant content such as blog articles, social media posts, tutorials, and emails with news and information that interests them.

To arouse interest in your customers through inbound marketing, optimize all content with an SEO strategy, which consists of associating phrases and keywords to your products or services and specifying how they can help your customers solve their problems and achieve their goals.

In this way, your content will systematically appear to the target audience you are looking for.

Interact

You've to focus on how the customer service team handles calls from prospects and prospects. Always sell a solution rather than a product.

The interaction will ensure that the deals you close represent real advantages for your customers, delivering value to ideal customers.

Delight

The delight strategy of inbound marketing aims to ensure that the customer feels satisfied, happy, and at ease after making a purchase.

Your sales team acts as advisors and consultants even in after-sales. Tools like online chats, surveys, and social media allow to stay in touch with the customer and build trust, ensuring a great shopping experience.
After the global impact of the pandemic, the world is mutating to a new way of doing business and a new way of socializing, which large companies could take into account if they want to grow in the new era.

Incorporating new technologies with a human approach to doing business and keeping in mind the satisfaction of employees and customers are the keys to companies that, even with the pandemic, have still grown. HubSpot is one such example.

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