Amazon.com Case Study Essay

Amazon.com operates in the Online Retail Industry. The sector is one of the fastest growing globally and is outperforming the ordinary retail marketplace. It was created after 1995 and it was only the Internet that made it possible for such an industry not only to be established but to become one of the most flourishing sectors in the business environment. What is interesting is that Amazon.com, together with eBay is the pioneer in the field. Both companies were launched in 1995 and are still extremely successful. The creation of e-mail in 1996 had a huge impact on the development of online retail by introducing a fast and easy way to communicate with customers. For this two-year period Internet usage

Amazon understood firsthand that the competitive advantage of a company originates immediately from how distinctive the organization's resources and competencies are. Amazon is able to both engage in production at a lower cost and generate a superior product at a standard cost. This is accomplished mostly via Amazon's strategy of having a wide variety of goods and competitive pricing. Customers know they can find basic products at slashed prices or high quality goods at standard prices and this is all achieved via the enormous range of products and product brands and types available on their massive marketplace. For example, the depiction displayed in the case study which shows how growth was related directly to: lower cost structure- lower prices customer experience traffic sellers -selection and convenience. While this is a grave oversimplification of the Amazon business model, it demonstrates how many aspects of the strategy reinforced one another.

Bezos’ entrepreneurial vision perceived new opportunities in the rapid growing usage of the Internet. He believed a 2300 percent increase in web trafficking every year could develop into a new sphere of commerce. After reviewing top mail order business, Bezos discovered that no mail order catalogue existed for selling books. Big name libraries like Barnes and Nobel considered that a catalogue including all the feature titles would need thousand of pages therefore making it expensive to mail. Bezos saw an Internet database as a solution to this issue and decided to serve this unattended market by launching

Amazon’s fulfillment centers are valuable, rare, costly to imitate, and organized to captured value. Thus, they attribute to Amazon’s competitive advantage. Amazon Prime and 1-Click are also valuable to the organization. However, they can be replicated. Walmart launched a membership program to compete with Amazon’s Prime Service. With Walmart’s membership program customers receive free two-day shipping when they spend $35 or more on orders. Amazon Web Services is valuable, rare, costly to imitate and the organization has capture the value of it. Therefore, AWS has contributed to Amazon’s sustainable advantage. Amazon’s brand name and reputation have also given the company sustainable advantage. Amazon acquired enormous brand valuation in a short period of time. It is

The Amazon.com mission is one that has a centric value to hold very close for all operations involved, the Amazon.com online customer is first and foremost. Amazon has a clear focus and a solid mission that has imprinted since the beginning. Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has multiple times referred to the Amazon mission statement as the force that guides his powerful leadership decisions multiple times within the Amazon.com history. The success of Amazon is confirmed as one of the top internet retail companies in the world is due in part of the commitment to their mission and the way top leadership executes. The mission and vision of Amazon is, “Our vision is to be earth 's most customer-centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.”

One of the companies that exploits opportunities and business ventures to create growth and sustainability is Amazon, Inc. Amazon was founded in 1994 and since then it has opted to take its business online and thus develop a global strategy that has paid off and turned the company into a technological business hub that serves consumers by offering an assortment of products and services in a noteworthy customer service. These strategies have made Amazon one of the leading online retailers with a revenue of US$ 88.988 billion as of 2014. This paper thus seeks to describe Amazon’s grand strategies of product development, market development, and concentration as part of its long-term growth strategy.

Amazon has been able to maintain sustainable competitive advantage because the company has adopted cost leadership, differentiation and growth strategies.

Looking at Amazons value chain above, its core competencies would be: Fulfilment centres (warehouses), Extensive products, Suppliers and Customers relationship, Supply chain management, Technology advancement, Its image brand, Marketing and Finance.

Amazon.com has had a clear focus and a solitary mission since it began. Founder Jeff Bezos has publicly referred to the Amazon.com mission statement as the guiding force behind his leadership decisions many times in the company 's history. It can be concluded that the success of Amazon.com as the top Internet retailing company in the world is due at least in part to their unwavering commitment to this mission and the daily execution of it. Amazon is continued to grow and continues to include one of its most important asset in its continued growth. It continued investment in human capital. The Amazon mission statements is followed by all their locations and it is not only a statement but a way of life.

The main characteristic of Jeff Bezos is that he does not expect to get it right the first time. He has learned that building a successful new business does not come from one big idea but it rather takes a lot of time to

The presence of strong as well as effective leadership in today’s organization imposes a great responsibility to the organization’s team and management networks as leadership implies the overall capacity of the organization’s performance like for instance, in terms of operations and research development. It can be said that Amazon’s resources and capabilities can be divided in the management of the company specifically their leader which is Bezos, the ability of the management to effectively use strategic supply chain management and aligning it with their business process and information technology, their competitive advantage in the online market, and the financial resources that it gains through its successful approaches.

Once again, we used various methods of analysis to figure out what Amazon's internal strengths and weaknesses were. We started with a resource based view, looking at the tangible and intangible assets of Amazon and its organizational capabilities. Next we looked at functional view of Amazon, taking note of its research and development, marketing and operation factors and management organization. Finally, we took a value based approach to see how Amazon was benefiting the consumer with their cost reducing practices.

Amazon’s core competencies are in its ability to effectively use and develop technology to drive site traffic and enhance the customer experience. Their distinctive use of website real estate coupled with their ability to leverage their brand and effectively use that leverage to deliver low prices and high quality products, makes them a leader in online retailing. Their partner brands and their ability to adapt and recognize deficiencies enable them to effectively cut out the middle man, or at the very least, partner with them.

The company has many strengths. First, Amazon is the world’s leading online retailer. According to the 2016 Annual Report, Amazon had total net sales of US $135, 987 million in 2016. These total net sales include three segments which are North America, International, and AWS. Second, in comparison to many companies, Amazon has a superior logistics and distribution system, which allows the company to actualize improved customer fulfillment. Third, with its prolonged strategic drive on low-cost, differentiation, and focus, Amazon offers a wide range of product at low prices to customers. Fourth, Amazon enjoys global recognition from its customers. As stated earlier, Amazon built a strong brand in very little time. Finally, the

Amazon has grown up from a normal online website to an ecommerce and broadcasting partner to development platform being driven by the spirit of innovation. Amazon is a service based company offering customers best services and providing more types of products, at lower prices and with proper reviews. Their innovations towards the technology increase the growth of Amazon. Since 1995, Amazon has significantly expanded international retail websites, its product selection, customer service centers and worldwide network (AmazonJobs).