Competitive Forces Analysis Of Amazon

Michael Porter wrote about five forces affecting the profitability and viability of companies. The five forces are existing competitors, new entries into the market, substitute products, bargaining power of customers, and the bargaining power of suppliers. (quickmba)

Competitive environments are defined by the identity, track record, financial strength and market share of key competitors. Harvard Professor Michael Porter 's Five Forces model can be used to evaluate a company 's competitive position. These five forces are barriers to entry (the ability of new players to enter the market), buyer power (the ability of customers to influence price),

The five forces of rivalry is an efficient method that companies apply to facilitate their ventures to locate most valuable industry for its business. These five forces

The short product life cycle in this industry requires competitors to continuously evolve. This continual innovation is difficult for new entrants to achieve. Also, existing products, such as Apple’s iPhone, have built brand loyalty and associated switching costs for consumers, which pose as barriers to entry for new competitors.

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.

The Five Forces Model as defined by Dr. Michael Porter of Harvard University uses five different strategic factors to explain Competitive Rivalry a company or industry faces. The fiver forces that comprise the model are Bargaining Power of Suppliers, Bargaining Power of Buyers, Threat of Substitute Products, Potential Entrants and Completive Rivalry (Porter, 2008). The intent of this analysis is to rank-order each of these five factors from the standpoint of their influence on Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) and their competitive position in the retailing industry. Each of the five forces are rank-ordered in terms of their importance to Target.

In the five forces model by Porter, four forces will influence the fifth one (see the model on the right). The bargaining power of suppliers, the bargaining power of customers, the threat of substitute products and the threat of new entrants will influence the fifth force: the level of competition in the industry (S.Clegg, C.Carter, M.Kornberger, & J.Scheitzer, 2011).

As we begin to strategically plan for our business, it is important for us to take a deep dive into our competitive environment to understand where we are strong competitively and where we are weak competitively. An analysis of the forces driving industry competition using M.E. Porter’s Five Forces Model will assist us in determining where the power lies in a business situation as we begin to plan. We must understand how they work in our industry and how they affect our particular situation. Whatever the collective strength of these forces is, our job as the strategists of the organization is to

In the article, “The Five Competitive Forces that Shape Strategy,” Michael Porter argues that the five forces are an important element for managers and investors in the business industry. Porter stated that it is important to “understand the competitive forces, and their underlying causes” which many companies will use to determine if they will gain profit or not (Porter 80). Companies determine their profitability of the industry through the level of the force that they face. For instance, when the forces are favorable, most companies will be profitable. Porter gives a detail description of the five forces and explains the importance of each force. The five forces are the threats of new entrants, the power of the buyers, the power of the suppliers, the threats of substitute for products or services, and the rivalry among existing competitors. Porter believes that “a company strategist who understands the competition extends well beyond existing rivals will detect wider competitive threats and be better equipped to address them” (Porter 93). In other words, when strategists understand the different forces it will benefit them to make better decisions and to be ready to face the different challenges between competitors. In the article, Porter’s main goal is to present the importance of the five forces to the audience.

Porter 's five forces framework assesses the competitive pressures a company faces within the industry. The five forces of competitive pressure include: competition from rival sellers, competition from potential new entrants to the industry, competition from producers of substitute products, supplier bargaining power and customer bargaining power. The model helps us determine the strength of competitive pressures and profitability of an industry. [3]

Porter’s five forces analysis is a tool is useful for us to analyse the threat of competition in an industry. Porter believed that the industries were influenced by five forces; competitive rivalry, threat of new entrants, bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of buyers, and the threat of substitutes. Analysing these areas can allow you to see attractiveness of the market and find a competitive advantage.

The Amazon Kindle is an e-book reader which you can download readable and audible content into. The most innovative idea of Bezos about the Kindle was the use of the “E Ink” technology to reduce battery consumption and to provide a more legible display. The Amazon Kindle’s successors were the tablets Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD. Amazon priced the Kindle Fire with just $199 as a strategy to boost its revenue from content sales. Amazon’s latest example of diversification includes the launch of the Amazon Fire TV in order to compete with Apple TV and Chromecast. Bezos also entered the highly competitive smartphone industry by releasing the Fire Phone in 2014. An economic advantage diversification provides is economies of scope. Economies of scope refer to a reduction in unit cost based on the idea that the total cost of producing two different goods or services together is less than the total cost of producing them separately. Amazon makes use of the distribution side of economies of scope by shipping a wide range of goods together rather than separately. This gives Amazon the chance to negotiate more lucrative deals with freight companies. Geographic

The Porter`s five forces are threats of new entrants, the bargaining power of buyers ,product substitution and intensity of rival of rival among competitors .These forces measure the competitiveness of the market and also helps the company to identify strategies to use to penetrate such and gain market share.

Porter’s five forces are used to determine the competitive intensity and attractiveness of a market. These are close forces that affect a company’s ability to make a profit and serve customers. If any of these forces change, a company must reassess its marketplace. The five forces include: the threat of substitute products, the threat of the entry of new competitors, the intensity of competitive rivalry, the bargaining power of customers and the bargaining power of suppliers.

Porter’s Five Forces model is used to evaluate the degree of rivalry between competitors in a given industry through assessing the four forces that lead to this outcome. These forces are the threat of new entrants, the bargaining power of suppliers, the bargaining power of buyers, and the threat of substitute products.