Tour and talk deliver behind-the-scenes look at world’s biggest online store

University of Chester students were given a behind-the-scenes look at one of the biggest brands in the world.

Students from the University’s Business School enjoyed an insider’s view on what happens from the second a customer places a product in Amazon’s online shopping cart, to getting it delivered to their address.

They explored Amazon’s Fulfilment Centres (the warehouses where inventory comes in from manufacturers and is shipped to customers) virtually before a Question and Answer session at the Business School in Queen’s Park, Chester, with Tony Carr, the Manager of Amazon Warrington.

The experience on February 24 was organised for students taking the Retail Management module as part of their Business, Marketing and Events Management degrees.

They were given a glimpse of what it is like to work in a Fulfilment Centre, as well as the technology and people that make Amazon what it is. The students gained an insight on the scale of the operation at 175 facilities worldwide, with many centres spanning the equivalent of 28 football fields and holding tens of millions of items on any given day, and how it is all managed.

They also discussed the multi-national technology company’s growth from its beginnings in 1994 to include products such as Prime Video and the Alexa virtual assistant.

Lisa Conway, Senior Lecturer in Business and Senior Teaching Fellow at the University of Chester said: “We are so grateful to Tony and the team at Amazon for helping us experience this behind-the-scenes look at their operations. Not just as Retail Management students and lecturers, but also as customers, it was a fascinating insight into what happens from the moment you place your order to receiving the smiley brown package the very next day.

“Tony's talk also provided a wealth of information on leadership and management within the business and the key principles of Amazon's strategy, which our final year students found extremely insightful.”

Tony added: “It was fun and engaging for me to share some thoughts with the students and I was impressed with the range and incisiveness of their questions.

“Sharing some of Amazon’s principles to contextualize the virtual tour created a nice environment for us to trade ideas about leadership and operations in retail, and reinforced my optimism about the brilliant hands which hold our future.”

Pictured - Tony Carr, Manager of Amazon Warrington (in the centre), with University of Chester students and lecturers.