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What are the chief elements of Amazon’s overall competitive strategy? How well do the pieces fit together?Is the strategy evolving
Amazon competitive advantage strategy
Amazon competitive advantage strategy
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I. Corporate strategy Directional As far as directional strategy of amazon.com is concerned, it possesses a well-organized management layer to take care of all managerial issues within the company. Hiring experienced managers with proven track records in blue-chip companies on key positions of the company is one of key component of directional strategy of amazon.com (Chan, Lee and Tharam). The directional strategy of the company focuses on practices that can best serve its customers, and on the team that possess proven ability for execution of business goals. The founder and CEO of the company, Jeff Bezos, has clarified his vision of effective leadership by pushing the concept as well as operations of the company through various critical strategic phases. The diversification of e-tailing products and services is an exemplary move to highlight the directional strategy of the company (Combe). Portfolio analysis For now, three businesses are registered in Amazon’s portfolio. Analysis of all these businesses is given in the paragraphs below. Online Retail During early days of its establishment, Amazon appeared as an online retailer of books only. However, with the passage of time, the company expanded its operations rapidly in music and movies. Market reputation and popularity ultimately made Amazon the biggest online retailer of electronics and household goods. This rapid expansion has made Amazon "Earth's Biggest Selection" of cost-effective products (Dennis and Harris). As an online marketplace, Amazon is enjoying a revenue stream without needing any warehouse to keep the product stock. Internet Services Due to great interconnection with its retail and Kindle ecosystem line of b... ... middle of paper ... ...ing developers and businesses an easier way of distributing content to end users while sustaining low latency, high speed of data transfer, and no commitments. Amazon Fulfillment Web Service Merchants can access the world-class fulfillment capabilities of Amazon via Amazon Fulfillment Web Service (Amazon FWS). This service provides a simple web services interface to the merchants who can send the information of their orders to Amazon with specific instructions for fulfilling customer requirements on their behalf. All the above mentioned alignment strategies of Amazon depict that the company will continue to develop the IT systems that can support its Kindle e-book reader, which is a new product of the company. Further advancements are expected to be taken specifically for the online Kindle Book Store and the related "Whisper net'" wireless distribution network.
History”, n.d.). But the unbelievable pace at which Amazon added new products and new customers proved to be a formidable barrier for any competitors. Within the first 10 years Amazon accomplished an unbelievable feat; it had 49 million customers and 6.9 billion dollars in revenue, and it had done so by selling some products at a loss to build market share (Rivlin, 2005). At times it was difficult leveraging so much capital to grow market share, but Jeff Bezos’ focus on the customer and long term growth of the company proved to be the real reason Amazon didn’t fall prey to the .com bust like so many other internet
It's important to realize that first and foremost Amazon.com is a technology company. Over the past years, Amazon.com grew from an online retailer into a platform on which more than 1 million active retail partners worldwide do business. Behind Amazon.com's successful evolution from retailer to technology platform is its SOA (service-oriented architecture), which broke new technological ground and proved that SOAs can deliver on their promises.
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.
This strategy can benefit the company and its employees by direct and strict policies, in which it will relay to the employees to work harder and keep improving. In addition, this hard work and constant progress can result to the employees deeply appreciating their work and become more confident about themselves. If both the employee and managers are pleased about the performance and outcome, then the customers too will appreciate the service and product they receive. Also, a customer who becomes satisfied with their service will most likely become a loyal customer. In turn, the company will gain growth in profits and recognition from other customers. A successful business model or strategy like Amazon’s should be adapted by other companies to ensure the success and development in both the company and its employees. Just like what David Rockefeller said, “Success in business requires training and discipline and hard work. But if you’re not frightened by these things, the opportunities are just as great today as they ever
In addition to Amazon great physical networking presence with all of their warehouses they also have a great delivery network that allows businesses to sell their goods through Amazon. Having many warehouses spread out helps getting products delivered quicker and cheaper than many smaller businesses can. Smaller businesses sell their goods via consignment with Amazon. Selling their goods using Amazons delivery and website services helps keep cost for small businesses down despite the fees paid to
Encompassing this ‘long tail’ retail model, Amazon introduced the sale of used products through its seller marketplace. This retail model provides another retail revenue stream for the company without the need to store products in its warehouses. Shipping and advertising are handled exclusively by sellers, with Amazon taking a percentage cut of every sale for simply providing the channel.
The purpose of this report is to understand the evolution of the inventory management of Amazon and how it has affected the company’s growth. This case study is both a practice case and a problem solving case, so the first section of this report focuses on the practices used by Amazon in the 4 stages and then in the second section we will solve the problem regarding their product returns problem and provide recommendations.
Also, Amazon sells many products from many different brands and companies. The customers are most important to Amazon and Amazon knows that the delivery service is one thing that customers want the most. The way that Amazon fulfills the customer’s satisfaction of its delivery service is by having 55 fulfillment centers located in North America. Because fulfillment centers are not retail stores, Amazon products aren’t required to charge sale taxes. Along with the 53 fulfillment centers that Amazon has in North America, Amazon also has 53 distribution centers in Europe, Japan, Asia and India. Since Amazon has a lot of warehouses in many different locations, it can reach to its customers more conveniently. Amazon has been growing throughout the years has allowed its company to be able to reduce its costs. Besides being one of the top online shopping sites, Amazon has also developed the Kindle, which is now one of the most popular e-reader tablets out
A cost leadership strategy is where that the price is similar or the lower rate from the products of the other companies so that Amazon can achieve the success in the competitive market. By adopting these strategies company need to know that where they want to focus, which type of services they have to increase and for the products and the services Amazon create its value for the lower cost of the product in the competitive market (Wong and Karia, 2010). Amazon have to sell the products at the low price from the other companies and the services which are provided by them they are good and the customers are satisfied by them. Then only enterprise can achieve the success in the competitive market and achieve the targets which are per decided by the entity. Amazon has doing the business in partnership with the Morrison by that company make a new products and increase their consumers. Now the Amazon has entering in the grocery retail market has also put the pressure on their supermarkets to setup their e-commerce business. Amazon has the capabilities to establish any type of business whether it is of grocery or selling the different products. It increases the profit of the company by selling the new products and increases in the consumers (Kindström, 2010). Amazon uses the different strategies is more a cost leadership with compared to the one or more retailers. Amazon give the different and better facilities to their consumers and having a capability which gives the physical economies of the scale. Amazon provides the advantage of the cost and provide the different services so that entity can attain the success. Amazon have to take a feedback from the consumer about their products that the company provided those products by that consumers are satisfied or not. It spread the consumer focus
Amazon.com, as an e-commerce website has emerged as a leader in the e-business world. Originally, the company began as a website that sold books at discount prices, now Amazon.com has evolved into a marketplace for the world. Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO, has changed the business model of the company many times. He is focused on expanding the selection of goods and services offered on the website, in an attempt to please customers. However, he is having trouble managing the priorities of his gigantic company, he should give the existing categories priority and worry about expansion at a later time.
Amazon.com was a venture into an emerging market of internet and had to face hidden and unexpected hurdles in order to survive and excel in the market. Therefore, Amazon.com kept modifying its strategies with their focus on enhancing customer experience of online shopping and to delivery exceptional services with complete convenience to their customers. One of the major strategic decisions was to compromise on cost saving stragegy when Amazon.com started to maintain its own warehouses in different countries in order to ensure timely and accurate delivery to their customers
Amazon’s also tried to spearhead the industry by introducing the customer-pleasing traits in terms of the technology, order fulfillment and retailing strategies categori...
Amazon is best known for their kindle, fast shipping, and selling various products (Smith). With Amazon being such a large corporation, professionalism, academics, character, and engagement are crucial parts of the success of the company. Professionalism: Amazon has grown to become the largest internet-based retailer in the world by total sales. It began as primarily an online bookstore and soon began to sell more and more electronics and then over time began to sell pretty much anything. In 1998, Amazon earned about $0.6 billion, which held steady growth from 1998-2006 (“Amazon.com”).
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).
Firstly, Amazon.com employed the cost leadership strategy by offering products and services at lower costs than competitors. The key to making this strategy successful were the economies of scale that allowed the company to offer the largest range of products to its customers.