第七封信中英文对照：

To our shareholders:
致我们的股东：

Long-term thinking is both a requirement and an outcome of true ownership. Owners are different from tenants. I know of a couple who rented out their house, and the family who moved in nailed their Christmas tree to the hardwood floors instead of using a tree stand. Expedient, I suppose, and admittedly these were particularly bad tenants, but no owner would be so short-sighted. Similarly, many investors are effectively short-term tenants, turning their portfolios so quickly they are really just renting the stocks that they temporarily “own.”
长期思考，既是作为主人的必要条件，也是身为主人的必然结果。主人和客人的心态是全然不同的。打个比方，若有一对夫妇把房子出租，那么承租的家庭通常比较不爱惜房子。当他们要放置圣诞树时，他们会倾向于使用权宜之计，直接把圣诞树钉在地板上，而不是使用一个不伤害地板的架子。当然，这样的比喻指的是那些特别糟糕的租客，但我想说的是，没有一个主人会如此短视。同样地，很多投资人就像是短期租户，他们转换投资组合的速度非常快，以至于他们只是在「承租」这些临时拥有的股票，而非拥有。

We emphasized our long-term views in our 1997 letter to shareholders, our first as a public company, because that approach really does drive making many concrete, non-abstract decisions. I’d like to discuss a few of these non-abstract decisions in the context of customer experience. At Amazon.com, we use the term customer experience broadly. It includes every customer-facing aspect of our business—from our product prices to our selection, from our website’s user interface to how we package and ship items. The customer experience we create is by far the most important driver of our business.
我们在1997年的致股东信中，强调了我们的价值观－长期主义。这样的价值观，实际推动了许多具体的决策。我想在客户体验的背景下，讨论这些具体决策。在Amazon，我们广泛使用「客户体验」这个词。它涵盖了我们业务的每个面向－从我们的产品价格到选项，从我们的网站接口到商品包装和运送。至今为止，我们创造的客户体验，是业务增长最重要的驱动力。

As we design our customer experience, we do so with long-term owners in mind. We try to make all of our customer experience decisions—big and small—in that framework.
当我们设计我们的客户体验时，我们会以长期主义进行思考。无论决策的大小，我们都会在客户体验的框架下进行决策。

For instance, shortly after launching http://Amazon.com in 1995, we empowered customers to review products. While now a routine http://Amazon.com practice, at the time we received complaints from a few vendors, basically wondering if we understood our business: “You make money when you sell things—why would you allow negative reviews on your website?” Speaking as a focus group of one, I know I’ve sometimes changed my mind before making purchases on http://Amazon.com as a result of negative or lukewarm customer reviews. Though negative reviews cost us some sales in the short term, helping customers make better purchase decisions ultimately pays off for the company.
举个例子，1995年Amazon上线之后，我们授权客户对商品进行评论。虽然这样的做法现在已经是Amazon的常态，但是当时可是受到不少商家的抱怨。这些抱怨基本上是质疑Amazon是否了解自己的业务：「你们透过销售商品来赚钱，那你们为什么要允许网站上出现负面评论？」我自己也是Amazon的高频用户，我也经常在看了负面评论之后，改变购买意愿。尽管负面评论在短期内使我们损失了一些销售额，但帮助客户做出更好的购买决策，最终会为公司带来回报。

Another example is our Instant Order Update feature, which reminds you that you’ve already bought a particular item. Customers lead busy lives and cannot always remember if they’ve already purchased a particular item, say a DVD or CD they bought a year earlier. When we launched Instant Order Update, we were able to measure with statistical significance that the feature slightly reduced sales. Good for customers? Definitely. Good for shareowners? Yes, in the long run.
另一个例子，是我们的实时订单更新功能，它能在购买时提醒你，你已经买过这个商品。客户过着忙碌的生活，以至于他们很难总是记得已经买过哪些商品，像是一年前买的DVD或CD。当我们发布实时订单更新功能时，我们从数据中知道该功能使销售额略降。对客户有好处吗？绝对有。对股东有好处吗？长期来看，是的。

Among the most expensive customer experience improvements we’re focused on are our everyday free-shipping offers and our ongoing product price reductions. Eliminating defects, improving productivity, and passing the resulting cost savings back to customers in the form of lower prices is a long-term decision. Increased volumes take time to materialize, and price reductions almost always hurt current results. In the long term, however, relentlessly driving the “price-cost structure loop” will leave us with a stronger, more valuable business. Since many of our costs, such as software engineering, are relatively fixed and many of our variable costs can also be better managed at larger scale, driving more volume through our cost structure reduces those costs as a percentage of sales. To give one small example, engineering a feature like Instant Order Update for use by 40 million customers costs nowhere near 40 times what it would cost to do the same for 1 million customers.
在所有的客户体验改善手段中，我们最关注的是每天的免费运送优惠，以及持续的产品降价。减少缺陷、提升生产率，并以更低的价格把节省下的成本返还给客户，是一项长期的决定。要提升销量，需要时间，但降价的政策，却会即刻带来影响。然而，长期来看，持续推动「价格－成本结构循环」将会使我们的业务越来越强大、越来越有价值。我们有很多成本（例如软件工程）是相对固定的，而我们的变动成本，则可以透过规模化有效改进。最终，我们的成本占销售额的比例会降低。举个例子，设计一个实时订单更新功能，提供给4000万客户使用和提供给100万客户使用的成本是一样的。

Our pricing strategy does not attempt to maximize margin percentages, but instead seeks to drive maximum value for customers and thereby create a much larger bottom line—in the long term. For example, we’re targeting gross margins on our jewelry sales to be substantially lower than industry norms because we believe over time—customers figure these things out—this approach will produce more value for shareholders.
我们的订价策略不是最大化边际毛利率（margin percentages），而是为客户创造最大价值。举个例子，我们将珠宝销售毛利率，设定的比行业水平还低，因为我们相信－随着时间流逝（客户将这些事情弄清楚了），这种方法将为股东带来更多价值。

We have a strong team of hard-working, innovative folks building Amazon.com. They are focused on the customer and focused on the long term. On that time scale, the interests of shareowners and customers are aligned.
我们拥有一支强大团队，由一群努力工作且富有创新精神的人组成。他们专注于客户且着眼于长期。在这段时间内，股东和客户的利益是保持一致的。

As always, I attach our 1997 letter and believe it is still worth a read. Here’s to not being a tenant!
和往常一样，我会附上1997年的致股东信，它依然非常值得一读。去看吧！一起着眼于长期！

Jeffrey P. Bezos
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Amazon.com, Inc.
杰夫·贝索斯
Amazon创始人暨CEO

P.S. Again this year, the widely-followed American Customer Satisfaction Index gave http://Amazon.com a score of 88—the highest customer satisfaction score ever recorded in any service industry, online or off. A representative of the ACSI was quoted as saying, “If they go any higher, they will get a nose bleed.” We’re working on that.
备注：今年，美国客户满意度指数再次给了Amazon服务行业有史以来的最高分－88分。美国客户满意度指数的一名代表说：「如果Amazon再往上走，他们会因为缺氧而流鼻血。」我们正往这个方向努力。

我的观点

这封信里，贝索斯没有提到这一年的经营数据，说明增长已经是常态了。

主要就是在谈客户体验。

亚马逊创造的客户体验，是亚马逊业务增长最重要的驱动力。无论决策的大小，亚马逊都会在客户体验的框架下进行决策。
比如：商品评论，实时订单更新

这算不算是客户体验驱动呢？

贝索斯还提了一下，怎么来强化价格成本循环

「价格－成本结构循环」将会使我们的业务越来越强大、越来越有价值。我们有很多成本（例如软件工程）是相对固定的，而我们的变动成本，则可以透过规模化有效改进。最终，我们的成本占销售额的比例会降低。

所以关键还是两个字： 增长。