594: This Amazon Feature Looks Helpful – But It’s Stealing Your Customers

In this episode of the My Wife Quit Her Job Podcast, Steve Chou warns listeners about Amazon's Buy With Prime feature, arguing that it's a "data-siphoning Trojan horse" that ultimately hurts businesses by stealing customer data and relationships. He explains how Buy With Prime allows customers to checkout using their Amazon account on a brand's website, giving Amazon control over customer data, preventing retargeting and repeat business, and increasing costs through various fees. Steve argues that while it might offer a short-term conversion boost, it undermines long-term brand building and loyalty, and allows Amazon to gather valuable data to potentially compete with the brand later. He advises using Buy With Prime strategically only for low-margin, one-off products targeting cold traffic, while retaining control of the checkout process for core products and VIP customers to maintain ownership of customer relationships and data.