The bookstore chain has been decreasing in profit in the US over the past 20 years. Most of the books retailers are closing down their operations and only a few stores are operating in the country still. Barnes and Noble has converted itself into a powerful bookseller in the industry by positioning rapidity into web presence though eBook marketplace. This business strategy has helped the firm to reach a large scale number of customers and remain as a strongest competitor in the book retailing market. Barnes & Noble was successful on releasing the NOOK tablet to eliminate the physical copy of book to the customers. This product was complimented the store services and offering. NOOK digital book took off to a new direction. As the result the company continued to expand and innovate in this area. The company continues to amaze the consumers by introducing NOOK Color in 2010. The firm did not stop there, it has been non-stop releasing new and fresh products such as Simple Touch with Glow Light, NOOK HD. Barnes & Noble continues to grow stronger by deciding doing join business adventure with Microsoft in October 2012. This partnership helps to move forward with digital eBook to hundreds of millions of its customers. The firm also made a decision to partner up with Pearson which is the world well-known online learning tool company. Pearson alone, invested approximate $90 million in case to NOOK Media, Inc. Barnes & Noble is well known for offering many different options to its customers. Readers can take a visit to any store locations digital books on the company website to NOOK products. The firm remains a competitive advantage position in the marketplace, even though it has to compete with many powerhouses in the sa... ... middle of paper ... ...e or stop selling products to Barnes & Noble. For the fiscal year of 2013, the firm estimated purchase approximate 53% of it merchandise through these suppliers. If there is no business contract, these five largest suppliers are not guarantee supply the merchandise to Barnes & Noble in the future. The situation can create put the firm into a disadvantage competitive with other companies especially Amazon. In addition, these suppliers would not give Barnes & Noble a good payment terms. Since the firm does not have a long term business relationship with these suppliers, in contrast there is no vendor and customer relationship between them. These supplier collect payments early from Barnes & Noble, which have a major impact on its financial condition since the firm doesn’t have good sales in any of the quart fiscal of the year round and keeps losing the profit.
Moreover, despite the presence of some large chains, specialty retail markets are highly fragmented. Barnes & Noble, for example, with over 900 stores, is the largest US bookseller but has a market share of only 15 percent. With increasing transportation costs and tighter margins, there is a possibility that some large specialty retail players will consolidate assets, knowledge and outsourcing capabilities in order to generate economies of scale and scope. Key Opportunities High-end and niche merchandise: With rising disposable incomes, the demand for high-end goods is increasing, which can best be catered by specialty retail stores.
Is Amazon a bubble waiting to burst? The following discussions in this research paper will explore several key issues from its birth to its debatable future. Amazon is not a stranger to arguments revolving around questions of its longevity and success. When the systemic bubble of 1999 arrived Amazon’s corporate goal was to get big, to do it fast, and to establish a hold of new markets before any other competitor. During this time frame Amazon began branching out and selling anything and everything. With the burst of the internet bubble in 2000 and 2001, Amazon changed its goal from growth to aggressively making profits in all areas of their business. In 2001, Amazon’s founder and CEO stated in a Wall Street Journal article “We’ll ferociously manage the products we carry so that we sell only products that are profitable. The thirty-pound box of nails isn’t long for our world” (Elmer-DeWitt, 2001).
The ecommerce industry is growing faster than ever. TJ Maxx needs to start focusing more on ecommerce not only to keep up with competition, but also to make sure they do well during weak economic periods. ecommerce, overall, tends to do very well during lackluster economic times. TJ Maxx will be able to cut costs more easily the more they expand their ecommerce business. Our business idea will allow them to expand their ecommerce as we will take over their website and delivery. TJX Companies’ three ecommerce sites accounts for only about 1.0% of the company’s total sales. However, the online channel is a key growth driver and TJX is taking initiatives to improve its online business. The ecommerce sales
There are many things that B&N and its book publishers can do to stimulate more business. The best strategy in my opinion would be to make more deals with large companies like Apple and Samsung. These companies are at the height of every competitive market in electronics, from cell-phones to televisions, and hold some of the most loyal customers in the market (Surowiecki, 2013). If B&N wants the Nook to stay in the competition, they have to market their product to be appealing in today’s society. To do this they have to factor in competitive prices, capabilities, and other features that can compete with top sellers. Joining up with larger companies will not only increase exposure, but also put B&N and book publishers on the same platforms as their competitors.
Jeff Bezo’s began Amazon in his garage in July 1995 with three Sun workstations setting on wooden doors for tables and extension cords running from everywhere (Academy of Achievement, 2010). Right from the beginning he was a visionary leaving his well paying job as a senior vice president with D. E. Shaw to begin Amazon.com (Academy of Achievement, 2010). Being the visionary that he is he saw an opportunity prompted by the huge growth rate of internet use in a single year and ran with it never looking back. Jeff realized that the internet had “no real commerce to speak of” so he began researching possible businesses (Academy of Achievement, 2010). “After reviewing 20 mail order businesses and deciding which could be conducted more efficiently over the internet than by traditional means he decided on books” (Academy of Achievement, 2010). He thought books were perfect because attempting to send huge catalogs for all the available books would be expensive and cumbersome, but an online resource database that was easy to navigate would provide customers with easy access and a single point from which to shop. “In 30 days, with no press, Amazon had sold books in all 50 states and 45 foreign countries, obviously by the success of Amazon he was right (Academy of Achievement, 2010). In a case study written by Javad Kargar called “Amazon.com in 2003” he stated that “Amazon's online store was a big hit, with about $5 million in the first year of operations” (2004). This huge success so quickly would have confirmed for Jeff that his idea was viable and drove him to continue to strive for more. Jeff Bezo’s charismatic-visionary leadership is the key to his and Amazon’s success.
Jeff Bezos started with an idea to sell books on-line by being able to hold more books than any other brick-and-mortar store. The first mover advantage that Amazon gained has not let up since. Amazon has created customer loyalty through the use of 360 degree customer profiles and product recommendation system. Furthermore, Amazon has allowed access to big data for a monthly fee and created a web store for businesses saving on huge investments in development for a commission on sales. Big data is constantly evolving and Amazon is ahead of the curve with the application and analytics of big
The best companies embrace change and make plans to create a future for their business like Amazon did. Amazon did not have to wait very long for their strategy to take affect because that the way that the future of business was going. All they did was waiting until the demand flourished and took over the book giant’s like Barnes and Noble and Borders market share. This proves that Amazon did their research and plan accordable so that their demand matches their supply. This also shows the type of value chain process and evaluation that they did in order to continue to conduct business which is quite genius. Their demand has increasable giving them many opportunities to expand. ...
After analyzing Amazon’s management team, risks, products, potential new services, balance sheets and activities, it is clear that despite all the risks the company suffers, their success will remain over the years. Amazon has the objective to be in constant improvement and completely customer centric. In today’s world, the market demands companies determined to serve clients with the best product, the fastest service, unbeatable prices and a personalized and diverse offering of services and products. Therefore, it is a smart investment to buy a share of the company, as Amazon’s structure and business model is entirely made of what is demanded.
In the first stage Amazon’s main objective was to create a virtual bookshop, where customers could have more choices than any physical bookshop in the world, but also, he did not want to spend time and money on building warehouses and deal with inventory b...
One thing need to be improved is its pricing strategies. The company should avoid reducing price on every new version as it could affect customer expectation and product value perception. Customer-oriented pricing strategies can be used in the future to establish Kindle standard price. This could be achieved by understand how customer use the product, the product benefit for customers, and estimate all relevant cost and compare how the product benefits offset these costs (Shiu, 2011b). This is an important point to consider in order to achieve sustainable position as the leading innovative e-book reader in the market.
When Amazon.com first began in 1995, as strictly a book retailer, Bezos knew he had discovered an excellent company. After all, a physical bookstore cannot stock anywhere close to the number of books Amazon can offer online. Within a year, the company had a customer base of approximately 340,000 consumers and daily site visits were huge as well. But Bezos wanted to expand the company to offer music and DVDs, because he realized there was little or no barrier of entry. In the next years Amazon would emerge as a marketplace, expanding the company globally offering products from toys to kitchenware. Because of the relatively cheap prices Amazon was offering and also the growing number of online shoppers, the company was doing tremendous amounts of sales and creating profits.
Amazon’s customer philosophy can be traced from a letter extracted to the 1997 Annual Report that stated their focal points by offering customers products that they think is worth buying. Amazon tries to set apart their operations by suggesting extraordinary way in doing transaction and start by offering online books whereby they can get access to it anytime they want. Other value-added offers include 1-ClickSM shopping, customer’s gift certificates and immensely reviews, browsing options, content and suggested features. Amazon strategy focuses on reducing the price. Thus, increase the customer value. Amazon became the market online bookselling leader by encouraging customers repeating purchases through the advertising strategy that is proven effective which was word of mouth approach.
Amazon has recorded a magnificent success in its business throughout the years that it has been in operation. It has attracted almost all people to use it when necessary. Amazon has built its success in business methodically and slowly. Amazon has made much success because of its ability to read market trends and diversify its operations. It started as an online book selling company. However, it changed its operations and started selling other products. Currently, many large retail shops use Amazon to host and power their websites, for instance, sears and virgin megastores. Amazon now attracts over fifty million visitors in a period of one month. Amazon has tried to make their services fit each individual user. It has based its services on the end user. It has shipping discounts, customer product reviews and a credit card with bonuses. It also has prime membership, product forums and 1-click ordering system among other services. The company has tried to make a remarkable experience for customers and visitors (Thomas, 2006).
Bezos’ vision and mission statement for Amazon is “Our vision is to be earth 's most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.” For the most part, this vison has been achieved, Amazon is the “top revenue maker in online retail worldwide” and is geared towards giving consumers the ability to find what they want on their marketplace site. In 2014, Amazon’s mission statement was changed “To be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices.” This was due to Amazon’s expansion of their range of consumers from only customers to customers,
Best Buy opened it’s doors in 1966 by the name of “Sound of Music”, it wasn’t until 1986 that it proceeded to change it’s name to what it is recognized today. Best Buy is the top retailer in the nation’s (USA) consumer electronic retail industry. What makes Best Buy unique is that they sell electronics and appliances used for home and office, they provide customer service and business support through their Geek Squad Technical Support System, and they offer major tech brands and their products such as Apple and Windows in house. According to The New York Times, the computer and electronics industry consists of companies engaged in the retailing of computers and peripherals, consumer electronics and other technology products. The industry includes household appliances, audio and video equipment, consumer software, digital cameras, cell phones and components and other electronic goods.” Like many top leaders, Best Buy has not been immune to issues in regards to maintaining its status in the market. Some of the issues the company faces include, loss in stock value, loosing the retention of it’s customers, and being out-competed by e-commerce companies in the same industry such as, Amazon. All of this can be classified as a marketing problem Best Buy faces.