With a résumé that spans Microsoft and LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Ali Kole, Amazon’s current head of premium beauty, is a master negotiator.
Her secret? “Empathy, and having the other person’s interests in your heart as much as your own. For me, there’s no deal that is not a win-win deal,” she said during a fireside chat at L.A.B. with Beauty Inc editor in chief Jenny B. Fine. “I’ve also been involved in unwinding deals and renegotiating deals. If you can do it right the first time and structure a deal that aligns your interests, that is in both of your interests.”
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Kole’s strategy seems to be working. Amazon’s premium business is on fire — as evidenced by its recent partnership with Clinique.
“Leaders of other brands have said, ‘That launch was an incredibly bar-raising launch,’” Kole said. “The brand is doing great, and the launch has set a new standard in the industry for how we’re going to bring a brand to market.”
Clinique’s introduction on Amazon includes its interactive diagnostic quiz that prescribes routines to shoppers online. “With Clinique, we launched a personalizable interactive skin care diagnostic quiz, which lets a customer put in their preferences, needs and desires, and it simplifies the research,” Kole said.
Enhancing the consumer experience through engaging tools has been key to building out Amazon’s premium beauty business. “Video is super important, and we rolled out a new brand store technology platform,” Kole said. “We’ve incorporated the ability for much more shoppable video so a brand can tell their story in an interactive way.”
Storytelling — be it as simple as detailed product descriptions and ingredient lists, Kole said — is key to nabbing the attention of more Amazon shoppers.
“We have a segment of consumers that want to consume content deeply, and we offer tools for both the experienced who know what they want, as well as the person who’s looking at the latest trends,” Kole said.
She said she thinks of the Amazon Beauty shopper in three different buckets: one who replenishes the products they know they want, explorers who use the platform to discover new brands, and an in-between group that is equally loyal to brands while researching newer emergents.
“We serve over 100 million customers in the U.S. across every demographic, and they’re coming because we have so much choice,” Kole said. “You play a bit differently in the Amazon ecosphere if you’re a small brand, a medium brand or a large brand. But we have tools, services and programs that are designed to serve brands at different stages.”
When thinking about heading to Amazon, though, Kole noted a few things to evaluate before joining the platform. “I get asked a lot when the right time is for a brand to go on Amazon. I say ‘as soon as you can, you need to be able to keep up with the demand,'” she said.
“Value is a piece of what we think about, and availability is extremely important. We put a lot of attention on getting the product to the customer with a fast delivery promise. We want to delight customers.”