Amazon Analysis

When we compare walmart.com with amazon.com. Two of the biggest names in the industry are Amazon.com and Walmart, the latter of which has moved beyond its physical stores and begun to offer a variety of merchandise online. Amazon.com is one of the most recognizable names in the online retail industry. The site’s marketplace allows customers to purchase a wide variety of items online. And with a slew of third-party merchants in its roster, Amazon.com is a formidable presence indeed. Walmart is just as widely known of course, albeit in the real world. The company is a familiar name in the

This is due to Amazon being able to collect payments immediately for sales, therefore generating a large amount of working capital. Amazon made use of the partnerships and affiliation agreements to supplement its own product lines, with retailers like The Gap, Target, Eddie Bauer, Nordstrom, and Toys “R” Us. The company’s competitive market position within its industry

Through selling more in a lower price, Amazon can achieve economies of scale, which in return can increase their bargaining power over its suppliers and partners.

An industry product can be substituted by a substitute product which has the same or similar function by a different means. A substitute can limit industry profitability and growth. Porter (2008) gives several key elements on determining the threat.

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

Both Amazon and Walmart are seeking to accomplish the same goal, to become the world’s largest retailer by providing customers with a seamless shopping experience. Both companies have their own strengths, with Amazon being the leader in the online retail space, while Walmart is the clear leader in the brick-and-mortar arena. As more online and brick-and-mortar retailers are eating into the market, both Amazon and Walmart must content with other companies as well as each other. Amazon and Walmart were both created and detonated extraordinary growth due to an innovative push unlike any other in their own respective arenas. “If either Amazon or Walmart is destined to come out on top, it must come from a massive innovation push, a willingness to

Businesses are not only faced with competition within the industry they operate in. They also face competition from businesses in other industries.

Suppliers have less power because there are a lot of suppliers and they all willing to accommodate and provide discounts for their customers (economies of scale).

The threat of new entrants is high in the fast segment. There is a threat of new entrants is because the entry barriers are very low. The business barriers to entry the market could take those forms: first one is the capital costs, the higher the investment required, the less the threat from new entrants. Secondly, regulation and legal constraints are the main concerned points. In most industries, regulations related to health and safety, products handling, and licenses to operate, export, or install new facilities. And other forms of barriers could be brand loyalty which could be an important factor in increasing the costs for customers of switching products. The new entrants need to change the valuable brand suppliers with its efficient economies of scale to have a reasonable supply chain network or corporate with the low cost producers to supply the products in the market. Also it might gain a large market share in the market as well. For instance, Sports Direct Company reported retail sales were £371m while gross profit increased 9.6 percent to £149m, it

The competitive environment is primarily competitors trying to keep up with Amazon.com and their many endeavors, the company is current in many different industry with keep the competitors at bay. Wal-Mart has been trying to compete with Amazon.com in the procurement of some of the on-line e-commerce business. In the article, Wal-Mart’s new e-frontier the writer stated that “In August 2009, Wal-Mart said it would allow outside retailers to sell almost one million items - ranging from baby products to sports memorabilia - at its site, following one of Amazon 's key business models.” (Strauss, 2009). Even though Wal-Mart is still striving to capture some of Amazon e-commerce business they are still not a major competitor for the company. One of the latest products that Amazon has introduced to the marketplace is Amazon Fresh

The bargaining power of buyers stands in a direct relationship with the bargaining power of suppliers. If the bargaining power of buyers is substantial it increases the opportunity cost of suppliers. The greater the buyers concentration the greater their bargaining power. This bargaining power is also increased in markets where the suppliers’ concentration is high. The bargaining power is also increased when the cost of switching from one supplier to another is low. In instances where backward vertical integration is possible i.e. buyers setting up their own chains of suppliers the bargaining power of the buyer increases in that their prices may become more competitive. In a market where the buyers are more concerned over quality than price their bargaining power decreases as they are less inclined to shop

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

Intensity of rivalry among competitive firms. In the past, Staples has been successful in fighting against its competitors with its low prices and brand loyalty, but recently against Amazon there are bigger obstacles to overcome. The rivalry with Amazon, Walmart, Target and wholesale clubs is intense as they have more resources to use against Staples, such as the range of its customers and a thriving business line. Therefore, seeing that the rivalry is intense, it presents a threat to their profitability (Hill et al., 2015, p. 51). From this perspective, the competitive rivalry will be considered as high for Staples.

Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, Cost-Co, Target, Amazon.com, and etc… are all targeting the same consumers and continually adding value and\or discounting prices.

The threat of substitutes is the availability of a product that the consumer can purchase instead of the industry’s product (Free management books, n,d ). A substitute product is a product that produced by other industry and offer similar benefits to the customer as the product produced by the firms within the industry. The threat of substitutes can affect the competitive environment for the firm in that industry and also influence the profitability of the industry. This threat affects profitability of the industry because the consumers can choose to purchase similar product from other industry to instead of the company’s product. Besides that, the more the close substitute product can make the industry more competitive and decrease the profit potential of the firm in the industry whereas the less the close substitute product can make the industry less competitive and