Competition- Amazon has many competitors they are up against. They have the retail market competitors like Wal-Mart and Target, the online competitors like Ebay, and then various other businesses depending on the product category. For Jeff Bezos, he wants the business to focus on the customer (Bishop, 2013). While other businesses are distracted with trying to get ahead of Amazon, Amazon is focused on the customer and not the competition.
is a global company that offers internet retail shopping services. Amazon was an online book retailer established 21 years ago during the 1994s, and has grown exponentially in sales and size as the years have gone by. Jeffrey P. Bezos started it in July 1994 and has led to its success. It was possible because of the strategies Amazon used. Emerging of online banking on the internet gave rise to the idea of online shopping. To become a competitive firm strong strategies are to be made. Amazon positions itself as a low-cost retailer and offers a wide range of products and services via online which is unique in the internet retail business. Amazon competes healthily and preserves its competitive advantages as it constantly upgrades itself in the dynamic market. It also shows that Amazon can continue to grow and achieve it mission and vision of being "earth's most customer centric
Amazon is one of the largest brands in the world, reporting $23.18 billion in sales last quarter. They operate with a customer-first mentality. This is clear in their mission statement, which is as follows: “We seek to be Earth’s most customer-centric company for four primary customer sets: consumers, sellers, enterprises, and content creators (Amazon).” Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos seeks to bring the highest quality products and most efficient services to their customers. According to critics of Amazon, Bezos’ goals have lent themselves to a
Although Amazon has been active trying to find the perfect strategy to make profits, the numbers in its financial statements had not shown the most optimal results. We have discuss that even though its strategies have been right according to supply chain and logistics methodologies and theory, something had been missing to represent this successful strategies into financial results. It is seen that Amazon had spent too long time finding the right strategy which the last might be the one because in the financial statements profits started to come up. Amazon still have a long way to go to mature its strategy and represents it into profits for its shareholders.
Amazon has a few downsides, but the company's relentless focus on the customer has built a strong moat around its business. Amazon doesn't make much in profits, but the durable competitive advantages of its business lines are enormous and growing rapidly. Amazon has a very favorable image in the minds of millions of consumers, which paints a very pretty picture for the company's fortunes in the long term. (Faruk, 2013)
Since 1996, when Amazon.com was incorporated it has never offered dividends to its shareholders (Nasdaq, 2015). The company’s dividend policy is not to pay dividends so that it is reinvested by seeking out opportunities and developing new products (Reeves, 2012, p. 17). In addition, the company’s net income has been fluctuating since 2004. According to Market watch (2015), the company’s net income in 2010 was US$1.15 billion, it reduced to US$ 631 million in 2011, it reduced further to US$ 39 million in 2012 before increasing to US$ 274 million in 2013. In 2014 the company’s net income reduced to US$ 241 million. The fluctuations in net income arise from strategic investments that have long-term returns. Stewart, (2014), notes that the high prices of Amazon.com’s shares are due to investors’ positive outlook about the company’s profitability in future. In this regard, the long-term bets have paid off the company resulting to investor confidence. Amazon 's net income for the three months ending in June 2015 was $92 Mil. Its net income for the trailing twelve months (TTM) ending in June 2015 was $-188 Mil (Bezos, 2015). In comparison to three of its top competitors, Amazon has the lowest net income.
The advent of internet technology has once again changed the way consumers shop and Amazon.com has been at the forefront of that revolution. Shopping malls have lost their appeal for many consumers. People prefer to shop in the comfort of their homes, comparing prices and options. Amazon.com has made it simple and is able to quickly and seamlessly fill orders and deliver products to your door. They seem to be striving to be the go-to “one-stop-shopping” destination for consumers worldwide.
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.
From 1997 to 2000, Amazon experienced positive growth in net sales, making this upward trend likely to continue on into 2001. While operating expenses in fulfillment, marketing and technology also increased, these expenses were necessary to solidify Amazon’s opportunity for future growth and profitability. In 1998 and 1999, Amazon “spent over $429M to build a state-of-the-art digital business infrastructure and operations that linked nine distribution centers and six customer service centers located across the United States, Europe, and Asia” (Applegate, 2009, para. 1). This strategic expense in technology and restructuring suggests that future operating costs would likely level-off and the company would eventually cross over to begin making a profit.
Growth is core to Amazon.com's business strategy, and that has had a significant impact on the way they use technology: growth through more categories, a larger selection, more services, more buying customers, more sellers, more merchants, and more developers, increasing the different access methods, and expanding delivery mechanisms. The impact has been on many areas: larger data sets, faster update rates, more requests, more services, tighter SLAs (service-level agreements), more failures, more latency challenges, more service interdependencies, more developers, more documentation, more programs, more servers, more networks, more data centers. A large part of Amazon.com's technology evolution has been driven to enable this continuing growth, to be ultra-scalable while maintaining availability and performance.
Amazon has been able to maintain sustainable competitive advantage based on three operational strategies. These are low cost-leadership, customer differentiation and focus strategies. Low cost-leadership is pursued by Amazon by differentiating itself primarily on the basis of price. By offering low prices to customers Amazon ensures its future success. Partially modifying the costs of lowering prices over time through achieving higher sales volumes, negotiating better terms with suppliers, and achieving better operating efficiencies. Amazon makes sure that it offers the same quality products as other companies at a considerably cheaper price. Another strategy that Amazon has is its fast delivery service and there are many delivery services that one can choose from. With Amazon Prime, there are certain, but many products that have free two-day shipping. Also, with Amazon Prime, there are many offers specifically for people that have Amazon Prime. For example,
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,
Consumer behavior is how a company minimizes uncertainty when offering a goods or service to a customer. This is done through thorough research and marketing strategies developed by the seller. Amazon is a company that does not only practice current trends, but also influence and set them. They are the trendsetters in personalization, escapism, and the ever-important convenience. These are few of the many trends Amazon.com has created benchmarks for in the online sales industry. It is these trends that have taken to being number 13 on Forbes most valuable brands. Once at the top, their prioritization of the consumer over the business has helped them stay at the top. Colin Shaw who writes for Britton said, “Amazon.com puts the customer experience at the top of their short and long-term to-do list.” (http://www.brittonmdg.com/the-britton-blog/amazon-marketing-strategy-unusual-but-successful) Ludwig von Mises closely analyzed the approach Amazon.com is taking many years ago. This customer is king approach is what helps Amazon.com focus on the process rather than the product. Through consumer behavior trends, I believe a company has a higher success rate when this happens. See, if you focus on the process, the result will come. A good process ultimately will generate a well-balanced result. When your focus is on the final product, you lose sight of the process. By
Another part of Amazon’s retail strategy is to serve as the channel for other retailers to sell their products and take a percentage of cut of every purchase. Amazon does not have to maintain inventory on slower-selling products. This strategy has made Amazon a ‘long tail’ leading retailer, expanding its available selection without a corresponding increase in overhead costs.
Emphasizing on customer centricity, Amazon optimizes all of their processes to make it easier for the customer to decide and buy the product, and to make it as cheap to the customers’ as possible.