The Wheel of Retailing and Amazon: An Analysis

Vargo, Stephen L. and Robert F. Lusch (2004a), “Evolving to a New Dominant Logic for Marketing,” Journal of Marketing, 68 (January), 1-17.

The other main feature that puts Amazon.com on another level is the multi-leveled e-commerce strategy it employs. Amazon.com lets almost anyone sell almost anything using its platform. You can find straight sales of merchandise sold directly by Amazon, like the books it sold back in the mid-'90s out of Jeff Bezos' garage -- only now they're shipped from a very big warehouse. Since 2000, you can also find goods listed by third-party sellers -- individuals, small companies and retailers like Target and Toys 'R Us. You can find used goods, refurbished goods and auctions. You could say that Amazon is simply the ultimate hub for selling merchandise on the Web, except that the company has recently added a more extroverted angle to its strategy.

Jeff Bezos, an entrepreneur, created Amazon.com in 1994; the business was originally run out of his garage in Washington. With the additional investments from Nick Hanauer and Tom Alburg, Bezos was able to create the more user-friendly website that we are used to. As Amazon.com’s customer base began to grow Bezos realized that he was going to have to add variety to the products Amazon.com offered. Bezos hit on a successful idea when he added the feature that allowed customers to write their own book reviews. In 1997, Amazon.com went public and it continued to increase its product lines to include CDs, movies, and toys to its inventories. Amazon.com was

Amazon.com was founded as an online bookstore in July, 1995 and went public in May 1997. In June, 1998 Amazon.com launched its music store. Since then Amazon.com has become the most prominent Internet retailer. Over time Amazon.com has added several products including electronics, health and beauty products, house wares, kitchenware’s, music, tools, toys, videos, and several services such as auctions, 1-Click ordering, and zShops. Amazon.com has expanded nationally and internationally and now operates several customer service and distribution centers in the United States and international web sites that

Finally, since Amazon supplies books and videos, they could be substituted by e-books and by Video on Demand. In that way, customers would get the same services or product on the internet without any delivery.

As of January 2010, Amazon.com has three times the Internet sales revenue of the runner up, Staples. By offering a large amount of varied categories through its website and other international ones (Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.co.fr, and so on), it has managed to grow to a customer based company with over 30 million people. In addition, the online retail format enables the company to reduce costs of managing inventory (Amazon.com; online bookstore, 2008).

During the past decade, retail markets have undergone many changes in their processes, services, and formats. The last part of distribution of the market strategy, retailing serves as a bridge between the final consumer and the mass producers of products. Retailing has reached every corner of the globe, and Wal-Mart has been eying areas where the

Marketing has become more and more important, especially as the purposes of marketing expanded into performing marketing researches. Through marketing researches, it is asserted that marketing starts with a real customer need. Classic marketing, has, nonetheless, focused on making the need that will draw customers, and this stresses the advertising power of marketing (Woodall 2007, p.1284). This is also called the sales concept of marketing (Woodall 2007, p.1285). An example is how advertising lures people into buying a brand, because of the

“Retail is the business of selling goods made by others to individual consumers. It is a huge industry, dominated by Wal-Mart, which touches every corner of the globe. Due to the decline in the global economy, the future of many retailers is uncertain as consumers begin to spend less. The retail industry is the last step in the process of getting products to customers efficiently, and should not be confused with the wholesale activities which precede it. The difference between the two is that wholesalers are companies that sell their products to businesses, whereas in retail, the goods are sold

* Amazon is seen as ‘Virtual’ i.e it has no brick and mortar stores like competitors ( barnes and noble ), as well as no storage costs. Thus enabling them to invest more capital into enhancing its brand and website.

Wheels of retailing is a hypothesis of M.P.McNair that explains the patterns of change in retailing. It is new types of retailers who cut prices by lowering or eliminating customer services, once established, the retailer increases prices and customer services. During this process the retailer becomes vulnerable to the next low priced retailer.

Kotler, P., & Keller, K. (2016). Marketing Managment, 15th Edition. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc.

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.

Amazon operates using a web-based platform to sell books.  The web-based model targets a global market, has reduced overhead costs and a shorter operating cycle as compared to brick and mortar businesses such as Barnes & Noble and Borders. Amazon’s online model has a superior inventory

Amazon has always understood the importance of selling prices at a low and competitive price. The company has continued to promote the lowest prices for the most popular brands and products which has been a major success point for the company and a spot where many other competitors have. Amazon wasn’t the first store to exist online, but they have shown to be the most innovative. Amazon makes the customers and sellers happy by investing in the latest technology, for example integrating cloud technology. By keeping up with the latest technology, customers are able to have a shopping experience that is faster, more convenient and rewarding. (Keller &