Ecommerce Evolution

In 2009 Chegg was one of the leaders in the online college textbook market.  They offered college students the ability to rent textbooks online for a fraction of what they could pay at the campus bookstore.  Word of mouth from delighted students and strong online marketing efforts fueled rapid growth…Then they had an unwelcome competitor enter the ring - AMAZON.     Most companies would shrink in terror, get angry, cry about the world being unfair and potentially leave the space altogether.  Chegg had been anticipating this move by Amazon and had been working feverishly for months to try and prepare.  In this podcast, I interview John Fillmore, Chief Business Officer for Chegg.com.  We dive deep into how they responded initially to Amazon and how they continue to innovate and stay relevant.     Chegg’s best move (and they’ve had a LOT of great moves) was understanding that their best asset was not an offer on cheap textbooks.  It wasn’t their website.  It wasn’t even their SEO value (that was immense at that