Amazon Prime VP Jamil Ghani: "Prime is Not A Loyalty Program"

Jamil Ghani is the Worldwide Vice President of Amazon Prime, leading product, technology, marketing, decision science, operations, and finance teams that build and operate the membership program for over 200 million members across 26 countries. He sits down with Natalie at the end of the Amazon Prime analyst event in Seattle to discuss the latest innovations and strategic direction of Prime. They explore: The key pillars of Prime: convenience, savings, entertainment. With new Prime markets like Colombia and Ireland, Jamil discusses why Amazon aims to launch Prime internationally "as quickly as possibly but as slow as necessary". What Prime is NOT: Jamil says it's not a loyalty program, not a breakage model, and not a loss leader. Is Prime nearing saturation? Learn where Jamil sees opportunities for further customer acquisition in the US. The first half of the episode focuses on Natalie's takeaways from the Amazon Prime analyst event. If you'd like to skip straight to the interview with Jamil, this starts at 10 minutes. * Natalie will be releasing a Forbes article with more insights from the event later this week. * Jamil's bio: Over his 7-year tenure, Jamil has accelerated Prime's growth, tripling the membership and doubling per member spend. He has also broadened Prime's offerings, expanding to 13 new countries and launching new benefits in multiple high-value categories, including health care, grocery, and restaurant food delivery. He works across Amazon's consumer businesses to innovate on behalf of customers, build the Amazon and Prime businesses, and make customers' life better every day. Before coming to Amazon in 2017, Jamil served as Senior Vice President, Enterprise Strategy, Digital & Innovation, for Target Corporation. Before that, he spent five years at The Walt Disney Company focused on identifying, developing, and launching travel and leisure growth initiatives. This included the MyMagic+ experience system, Shanghai Disneyland Park, and Aulani destination resort. Jamil holds a BA magna cum laude from Harvard College in economics and computer science and an MBA from the Harvard Business School, where he was selected as a Baker Scholar. Jamil lives with his wife and two (soon to be three) daughters in Bellevue, WA.