Comparing Two Similar Businesses
Describe the history and core business of each company.
Amazon was founded in 1994 by a man whose name is Jeff Bezos. Mr. Bezos originally started Amazon in his garage. He believed that only the internet had the ability to grant consumers the convenience of being able to browse a myriad selection of book titles in the shortest amount of time. In 1995 he started the website Amazon.com which was primarily an online book store at the time. “During the first 30 days of business, Amazon .com fulfilled orders for customers in 50 states and 45 countries- all shipped from his Seattle-area garage” (Overview, n.d.). In Two years later in 1997 Amazon went on to become public being listed on NASDAQ under the trade
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The Kindle Fire made it easy and convenient for users to download, browse, and read books, magazines, newspapers or other media over a wireless network. I believe that with an attempt to win over some Apple customers, Amazon launched Amazon MP3 which is an online music store owned and ran by Amazon. I have downloaded music from Amazon and iTunes with Amazon having the cheapest price, I can definitely see some customers possibly leaving iTunes just for that very reason. Amazon announced in May of 2011 that they are selling more Kindle books than printed books. You have to give Amazons management a lot of credit for their approach on internet marketing and sales.
Borders management approach to internet and marketing sells were unacceptable. I do not believe that management did anything right to boost internet sells. Furthermore, Borders did not change with the times. They failed to expand their customer base the in many ways that Amazon did. The only thing that they offered was books and very little music. I can almost say for sure that a competitive analysis was never done because if it was management would see that their business strategy was not effective and that they were being blown away by the competition.
Analyze 3 reasons for Amazon’s success despite not turning a profit for the first five to six (5-6) years.
One reason for Amazon’s success despite not turning a profit for the first five to six years is because they made
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.
Amazon’s three-prolonged strategic plan has been one of the greatest strengths in the entity over the years. The company uses cost leadership in the process of dealing with prices in the online markets (Murrell, 2014). The company has developed differentiation strategies especially in the approach to portfolio listing. The strategic plan has had a significant implication on Amazon’s growth because of the level of value that shareholders yield from the company (Bensinger, 2016). On the same note, Amazon has embraced the extent of competitive advantage it derives from
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
How did the Amazon.com business model evolve from the company’s launch in 1995 to early 2001?
The company I have chosen to write about is Amazon. Amazon, was launched on July 16, 1995 by founder Jeff Bezos in his two-car garage in Bellevne, Washington. When Amazon first launched as a website that only sold books, but Jeff Bezos wanted Amazon to be much more than a bookstore, he wanted it to be an everything store. This paper will answer the required questions listed below:
Amazon.com has a bunch of growth strategies in place. Their number one strategy is the fact that they start with the customer and work their way backwards. To them as a company they live by what all companies should live by – customer satisfaction is their number one goal. Amazon.com themselves even said that even if that makes third-party sellers angry about low-priority placements (James). Another one of their strategies is instant gratification. The way they are pursuing this strategy is by keeping up with their Kindle device that they
One of America’s greatest start-up success stories is Amazon. Jeff Bezos launched the website in 1995 and he is now having revenues of $61 billion. At the start of e-commerce, Amazon was an innovator of delivering supreme customer service, which at that times was very rare. Amazon is an illustration of massive organising skills, the company sells an enormous range of products, all day, every day, for 365 days a year and is able to maintain over 80 warehousing and fulfilment centres.
Founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos, the company went online on the World Wide Web in July 1995.Amazon focuses on increasing its market share and revenues in the long term and maintaining competitive costs of profit margins and dividends paid to its shareholders in the short term. Amazon’s sound business fundamentals include its core business and essential revenue sector of e-commerce, a new focus on media independent of Kindle, improved profit margins from Amazon’s Web Services (AWS) as well as the management of a negative cash conversion cycle (Samonas, 2015).
Amazon’s competitors include Apple Inc., Barnes & Noble, Inc. and Wal-Mart.com USA, LLC (Hoovers, 2014). For the purpose of this financial analysis we will be comparing Amazon to the SIC Code: 5961, CATALOG AND MAIL-ORDER HOUSES, industry average. The financial analysis will take into consideration the balance sheet, income statement and ratios for the past 5 years, 2009 to 2013.
Amazon’s victory is significant, keeping in mind that the company grew by 41% in the last fiscal year by $48.1 billion, that is, five times faster than Walmart, that grew only by a mere 8% (Fig 2). Indeed, Amazon’s world-wide popularity and recognition will be difficult to beat, with demographics of 237 million active customers worldwide, making it one of the most valuable brands in the world. Not only has Amazon seized the world with its e-commerce strategy, but it is also willing to forego profits to gain market share, making it difficult for Walmart to find a space in the online retailing spotlight. Not being hamstrung by an enormous brick-and-mortar business like
Part II of the book primarily touches on the topic of consumer market. Applying the concept of the “opportunity grid”, Amazon has definitely taken into consideration related and unrelated markets by expanding its services and selection of products. For example, Amazon introduced its very own kindle reader in 2007. This portable device revolutionized the way people read due to its convenience and accessibility. Now, people are able to wirelessly download books, magazines, newspapers, etc all through the Amazon site and even through the kindle app on their own smart phones or tablets. Amazon also recently opened its very first brick and mortar store as a way to test out a quicker delivery service. This is a great example of how Amazon is constantly innovating and improving its products and services to the market, which also relates back to strategic thinking because Amazon is focusing on the right activities.
1. Summary statement of the problem: Increased competition, a consistently poor economic environment and a possible repeal of the Internet sales tax exemption has forced Amazon.com to generate new strategies on how to remain competitive in the e-Commerce business. This issue seems to be, how to retain a competitive edge while minimizing costs and still remaining focused on the core vision of the company. The strategies focused on the services side of the company instead of the products side, as the services side was the best suited for new opportunities.
Amazon’s growth is a relative measure. Here are several comparisons that will surprise you. In the first 5 years of their existence, these are revenue
* Amazon’s main competitors are the retailing store – physical ones – and booksellers online tried to reach the x
In a Jeff Bezos’s shareholders’ letter, he stated that the objective for Amazon.com is to try to raise customer trust with the company. The second part of the objective is to not profit on the short-term but to profit on the