AMAZON CREATORS

Making Amazon the top choice for commerce creators and their content

Background

In the summer of 2022, I was asked to lead design for Amazon’s Creator space, a new initiative built to empower influencers to monetize their passions and inspire the next generation of Gen Z customers.

It was a bold charter. My team of eight creatives, designers, copywriters, and art directors, worked alongside eleven product managers and over sixty engineers to create an ecosystem that served four audiences: creators, publishers, customers, and Amazon as a business.

Authenticity vs. system constraints

On the Creator side, our goal was to help creators move through a continuous cycle of creating, tracking, learning, and improving. But when we examined the existing Storefronts - the creators’ public pages on Amazon - we discovered that they felt transactional. Creators described them as “salesy,” saying they didn’t reflect who they were.

The deeper problem was structural. Amazon’s design system, intentionally built for consistency and conversions, didn’t allow the kind of customization that creators needed to express individuality.

I encouraged a designer on my team to explore what an authentic Creator Storefront could look like, even if it meant stretching beyond system constraints. Together, we studied how creators express personality across social platforms and translated those insights into customizable templates that reflected different creator styles.

When we presented the prototypes to leadership, the reaction was immediate: they saw, for the first time, what a “creator-first” experience on Amazon could feel like.

Authenticity vs. Shoppability

On the Creator side, our goal was to help creators move through a continuous cycle of creating, tracking, learning, and improving. But when we examined the existing Storefronts - the creators’ public pages on Amazon - we discovered that they felt transactional. Creators described them as “salesy,” saying they didn’t reflect who they were.

The deeper problem was structural. Amazon’s design system, intentionally built for consistency and conversions, didn’t allow the kind of customization that creators needed to express individuality.

I encouraged a designer on my team to explore what an authentic Creator Storefront could look like, even if it meant stretching beyond system constraints. Together, we studied how creators express personality across social platforms and translated those insights into customizable templates that reflected different creator styles.

When we presented the prototypes to leadership, the reaction was immediate: they saw, for the first time, what a “creator-first” experience on Amazon could feel like.