Amazon 's Business Model Analysis Essay

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.

How would you define Amazon’s industry? What difficulties do you encounter identifying primary competitors and key lines of business?

Amazon.com has successfully managed to make its customers to feel that anything they could possibly want could be found on their website. Additionally, its products are marketed at a competitive price. Another important factor is their speedy delivery with their usage of UPS and FedEx (United States) and Royal Mail (United Kingdom). The company also caters for people that prefer online shopping with extra services such as Amazon Prime - a service with a yearly payment, customers are eligible for free next day delivery. Even though Amazon.com is known to be an online seller of most things, it still excels in its original market of book selling. Evidence of such is

Amazon is the world’s largest online retailer that was launched in 1995 (Rouse, 2014). Amazon was mainly a book selling company that has enlarged its’ business by selling a variety of goods. The company sells all types of technology devices such as cell phones, games, televisions, movies, cameras, computers,

Amazon was originally incorporated in Washington in 1994 and later reincorporated in the state of Delaware in 1996. Amazon.com (Amazon), like Overstock is an online retailer that sells all sorts of different products and merchandise on its website. According to Mergent Online, the products on Amazon’s website “primarily include merchandise and content purchased for resale from vendors and those provided by party sellers, and it also manufactures and sells the Kindle e-reader” and they also provide “services such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), fulfillment, miscellaneous marketing and promotional agreements, such as online advertising and co-branded credit cards. Amazon consists of two separate business segments, North America and International. North America consists of “amounts earned from retail sales of consumer products (including from sellers) and subscriptions through North America-focused websites such as www.amazon.com and www.amazon.ca and include amounts earned from AWS” and includes the export sales from the above mentioned websites (Mergent Online, 2011). The International business segment consists of “amounts earned from retail sales of consumer products (including from sellers) and subscriptions

Amazon focuses on global reach, putting customer first,, and extensive selection of products through its vision which is “To be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online” (Gregory 2016).

According to the company’s Vice President of International Retail, approximately half of Amazon’s revenue comes from outside the United States. For Amazon, global strategy means delivering a consistent customer experience based on their original vision: allow customers to discover the products they want to buy at the lowest price possible. It has its presence in many countries. Amazon has retail websites for many countries such as US, Canada, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Brazil, China, and Japan (see “Amazon Map” below) with international shipping to certain other countries for some of its

Headquartered in Settle, Washington DC, Amazon.com is a cloud computing electronic and commerce company (Amazon, 2016). The company is one of the largest internet based retailers both in the US and globally based on total sales and market capitalization. The company does a majority of its business through online retail websites throughout the United States and with more that ten countries throughout World. In 2015, Amazon overtook Wal-Mart to become the most valuable retailer by market capitalization.

Amazon’s mission is “to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they may want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices” (Amazon, 2014, para 1.)

With the advent of the information technology, specifically the internet, it is said that more and more companies are existing in the online world. The changes in the business market also allows customers to change and become more dependent on online stores and online shopping than go and find something in shopping malls or retail store. One of the existing and considered as the largest and competitive online shopping in the world is Amazon. In this report, the goal is to analyse Amazon based on the case study provided. The analysis includes the discussion of Amazon’s s strategic intent, main resources and capabilities. In addition, this will also include analysis of the resources and capabilities that give

Amazon.com’s marketing strategy consists of a few different techniques. Amazon.com’s mission statement is stated as "To be Earth 's most customer-centric company where people can find and discover anything they want to buy online." The embedded marketing techniques that Amazon employs

The threat of substitutes for Amazon is high. With the exception of its patented technology, there are quite a lot of alternatives to Amazon’s products and services. In addition to physical presence, most companies have an online store as well. Amazon’s products can be purchased all over the internet and they are just spread out among different web sites. The companies operate in brick-and-click mode providing the similar product categories and competitive prices have become the biggest threat for Amazon. However it is extremely difficult for Amazon to establish physical stores or launch price

The topic of this report is Amazon.com. Report reveals the key points of why is Amazon such a unique company with many sections that are doing outstanding job in their field. The topics that this report contains are: company history; current company situation and area of operation; company strategy and future plans; list of some of Amazon’s products; future innovations; and customer service, which is one of the company brightest points. Amazon is a very stable company stock wise and it is constantly growing. Its revenue and profit are increasing every year, for example in 2001 the revenue was 3.1 billion, in 2005 it was 8.5 billion, in 2010 was 34.2 billion, and in 2013 the revenue reached 74.5 billion, based on the data found

“Because all its products were shipped, Amazon.com offered a number of shipping options, including free shipping on orders over $25. Amazon.com also posted links to shipping companies, so its customers could easily track their orders. Product returns needed to be shipped back to Amazon.com by the customer”. (Collins, Mockler, & Gartenfeld, 2003, p. 5). By charging monthly management fees and commissions on completed purchases, Amazon.com developed a steady revenue stream without incurring much expense. (Collins, Mockler, & Gartenfeld, 2003, p. 6). This type of operations was the cornerstone for Amazon, and can be rated as “stars” for generating the most operating profit.

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