The last Netflix DVDs were sent out in 2023

Netflix was founded in 1997, and initially the service worked like a kind of online DVD mail order business.

Physical DVDs were posted to customers, who returned them via drop-off points once they had finished watching them (BTW - do you remember the South African version called PushPlay?). The model worked well and a lot of customers loved it. Netflix itself was built on this initial disruptive idea.

Then from 2007, Netflix were pioneers of online video streaming, which is the same model that most of us are now familiar with.

What's not so well known is that Netflix continued operating through two models (DVD and online streaming), only discontinuing the old DVD mail order side of their business in 2023.

Why?

Netflix continued to ship out DVDs because lots of their customers still loved watching DVDs instead of streaming content online and the business chose to continue to support their legacy customers despite it being far more efficient had they simply forced them to migrate.

In some ways continuing to offer the DVD mail order option was a nod to the origins of the business and in other ways it was about making sure that the brand remained as accessible to all customer types as possible.

What it also demonstrates is a sheer commitment to customer preferences.

Most companies make decisions based on their own operational efficiencies, only the most-loved make decisions from the customer's perspective.