SWOT Analysis Strengths: This organization has adopted a cost leadership strategy whereby all of

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 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 company has used the element of networking with the prospective marketers and ambassadors to market their products. The company has also used direct sales through fundraising to increase prospect of gaining more market.

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

There are many internal and external factors that can affect how a business is developed and maintained. Amazon.com has been molded from many of these factors that exist within their business and their macroenvironment. Macroenvironment is defined as the most general elements in the external environment that potentially influence strategic decisions (Bateman & Snell, 2009). Internal business factors can include new entrants, buyers, suppliers, rivals, substitutes and complements, and the competitive environment Amazon is faced with. The macroenvironment introduces the economy, technology, laws and politics, demographics, and social values that may affect Amazon’s progress as a leading, online retail

The source of Overstock.com’s power on its expansion plans come from their skilled executive team and large funds set aside to take advantage of unanticipated opportunities. Among the online retailers at present, the prices of their merchandise are lower than competitors such as Ebay.com and Amazon.com. This is because their products come from overstock, bargain basement priced companies.

However, these work to hide one of the most unethical, and successful, businesses today. Amazon’s unethical practices are different from most other companies. With the exception of a few electronic tablets, they don’t produce anything, so their pollution is minimal. They aren’t a financial company, so with the exception of how they report their taxes (which is technically legal), they do their finances in an ethical way. However, there is one area which Amazon handles in a completely unethical way: the way they treat their employees.

SWOT analysis consists of data analysis with both internal and external factors within a business. The management tool consists of four different factors that include: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Analysing these components allows businesses to make important management decisions to improve their business. Elements such as strengths and weaknesses are internal factors that are taken into consideration whilst being compared with other competitors (Fong, 2007). The strengths that M&S have within their competitors is their diversity of quality products and services and that they are an international company operating in many countries. Similarly they are in diverse locations within the country such as having stores across high streets and out of town retail parks (Corporate.marksandspencer.com, 2014). Having the ability to use management

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

Negative publicity. Amazon has recently attracted negative publicity due to tax avoidance in the countries where it earns most of its revenues. Amazon is also criticized for poor warehouse conditions for workers, anti-competitive actions and price discrimination.

Amazon.com is a Fortune 500 company that has revolutionized the retail industry. In recent years, Amazon has faced increased competition in the highly competitive online retail space as competitors invested heavily in their online storefronts and infrastructure. Positioned in a highly fragmented industry, Amazon must find solutions that can sustain its long term profitability and maintain its market share. To that end, Amazon should grow the Amazon Prime membership base and expand on its media and mobile offerings.

The unmatched economies of scale at Amazon offer huge cost effciencies through a combination of high-volume, low cost

Amazon strives in a rapidly evolving and intensely competitive industry. Amazon competitors include publishers, vendors, distributors, manufacturers, physical world retailers and producers. Other competitors include media companies, web portals, shopping websites, online and mobile e-commerce sites, web search engines, and social networks, either directly or in collaboration with other retailers. Any company that provides e-commerce services, including website development, fulfillment, customer service, and payment processing is considered as a competitor by Amazon. Even Yahoo Inc. is also part of these services now with its new framework for providing easy e-commerce website development and payment processing services. Additional competitors include companies that provide information storage or computing services or products, services related to Cloud Computing, including infrastructure and other web services, companies that design, develop, market, or sell consumer electronics, telecommunication, and electronic devices. The competitive factors in retail businesses include selection, price, convenience, fast and reliable fulfillment. Additional competitive factors for Amazon seller and enterprise services include the quality, speed, and reliability of our services and tools. Many of the current

Amazon is a global expanded company offering online service to consumers making convenient for them to buy anything at any time. With growing competition in the market with other companies coming up with more range in products and online service, Amazon has maintained its competence level and an image among consumers by applying different pricing strategy to attract more consumers and remain competitive in the online retail market.