Amazon.com, INC
Section A: Business Overview
1) Provide an electronic link to the 10-K that you are reviewing. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1018724/000101872416000172/amzn-20151231x10k.htm 2) After reading the entire annual report on form 10K, define your company and its business. Clearly define the background of the company, its lines of business or segments, locations of operations, number of employees and any other information a potential investor may be interested in. Approach this as if you were writing a book report. You want your reader to have a good understanding of the background of your company, how they are organized, how they “make money” and you want your reader to WANT to know more. Although the 10-K will describe this information for you, do not “cut and paste” straight from the 10-K into your report. Use your own words to summarize their operations.
Amazon runs on four principles: “customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking” (https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1018724/000101872416000172/amzn-20151231x10k.htm).
It was originally incorporated in Delaware on 1994 and then became reincorporated due to a change in location on 1996 to Delaware. When incorporating the tiny state of Delaware is a good choice due to no charge on any sales tax and have business-friendly statutes and laws . Amazon’s principal corporate offices are located in Seattle
Amazon believes in keeping its marketing plan simple in order to be effective. Consequently, their marketing plan is based upon the 4 P’s (product, price, place, and promotion). Amazon’s product is to provide an unparalleled selection of any item that exists on the planet. Its prices are extremely competitive and often lower than traditional stores and it is more convenient for people to shop on the internet (place) than it is in a physical location. Finally, its promotion emphasizes big ideas, innovation, technology, and customer centricity, enabling it to market itself as the most convenient place for consumers to shop and satisfy their needs (Kerin & Hartley, 2015). This strategy targets
Amazon.com Inc. was initiated by Jeff Bezos in 1994 after realizing the rapid rate at which the internet and websites were growing in popularity among business organizations and individuals. In 1995, the company started operating its website for selling books, videos, compact discs, computer software and computer hardware before being incorporated in1996 as an e-commerce company (Reuters, 2015). Apparently, the company offers may products and services for sale; these products include merchandise for resale products offered by third parties. In this regard the
The increase in growth from 2009 to 2011 impacted Amazon’s profits, but it also created numerous challenges for the company. One of the biggest challenges Amazon dealt with was not being required to collect state or local
Amazon.com is a customer centric company. They put more effort in improving their system to make the experience of customer more comfortable so that he keeps on returning to the website. Jeffery Bezos who is the founder of the Amazon.com started this company after seeing the use of internet increasing rapidly.
It must not be forgotten that most of those companies failed and were shut down soon. Amazon had been successfully operating for almost two decades because of its unique business style. Amazon has ensured all this time that it must make customer preferences its preference and must cater to them accordingly.
Have you ever played monopoly? Not just the game Monopoly but the exclusive possession or control of something. Remind you of any company? Amazon. Amazon mostly cares about being on the top along with the other Tech Giants. Also, Amazon doesn’t care much about their workers and they’re allowing access for strangers to receive others information. Amazon is becoming too powerful!
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).
Since its incorporation in 1994, Amazon’s business model had expanded from offering a simple internet marketplace for books to providing web services to online retailers, storage solutions and a dramatically expanded product line. Nevertheless, despite massive sales the company failed to produce a profit for shareholders and Amazon was on the brink of bankruptcy at the beginning of 2001. If I were a shareholder who received the company’s 2000 annual report, I would have strongly agreed with CEO Jeff Bezos that the company must achieve profitability by year-end 2001. I would recommend that the company accomplish this by cutting costs related to fulfillment and inventory and by increasing revenue by capitalizing on the previous year’s investments in infrastructure.
The problem with Amazon is that employees are not valued. Instead, the customer has top priority. This is not necessarily wrong, but it comes down to how employees are treated in the
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
As we all may know government regulators are concerned with market power. When we look at Amazon`s business practices this is
In the article, “Amazon is not invincible, says Silicon Valley’s most powerful Aussie Jeremy Lew,” written by John McDuling discusses the opinion of Jeremy Liew about Amazon’s domination in the market. Mr. Liew talks about companies such as Chewy, PetSmart, and Zalando that, “ ‘It turns out most of them competed with Amazon,’ say Liew. ‘If you look at the data, it look like you can compete with Amazon and you can beat them.’ ” Going as well to talk about Amazon being, “. . . an amazing company, [but] even the most amazing can do only three of four things at the same time well . . .” Of course, Amazon is not an invincible and untouched company. It can be admitted that no company can out down every single company with the trait of being too huge. But it’s not just about the companies it’s about the people who are affected by this as well who have to worry about their
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.com had 5 years since the company went public in 1995 and needed 1 year to create and sustain value over time. Many of the investments have been made to build the state-of-the art digital business infrastructure. The company has tremendous opportunities according to the SWOT analysis. Amazon.com is ranked 48th worldwide and online retail sales are growing rapidly. Amazon.com has good leadership and digital infrastructure with excess capacity. Amazon.com has built high barriers to entry and is the leading online retailer globally and has a
Amazon is competing in some of the most competitive markets in the world, so consequently will face many threats to their success. Amazon has already faced governmental legislation in the form tax increases but could continue to experience more. Secondly, Amazon faces daunting competition such as Apple, Google, Facebook, and China’s Alibaba. Low barriers also allow new competitors to enter the market outside the already established companies. However, there is still a large capital requirement. Amazon also has formulated its strategy through acquisitions and partnerships. Not all partnerships end well. Toys R Us sued Amazon and lawsuits could continue to be a problem for Amazon if their partnerships are not managed correctly. Also because of competitive pricing Amazon has had to deal with lawsuits because unhappy retailers and competing companies. Finally, the threat of customer data and information security. More and more companies are being faced with making sure that customer credentials are safe and out of the reach of security threats.