More handpicked essays just for you.
What are the chief elements of Amazon’s overall competitive strategy? How well do the pieces fit together? Is the strategy evolving
Amazon case study and answers
Amazon strategic competitiveness
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Amazon’s macro-environment is made up of six external factors: political, economic, environmental, technological, social, and legal conditions. These factors are important because they shape how the company operates and you must know each piece to be able to compete within the retail and eCommerce industry. An evolving political factor are the efforts the government has made toward punishing offenders of cyber-crime. This kind of thief wasn’t walking into your store, but hacking into your computer. This type of crime wasn’t possible before the internet. The government has started to take these crimes more serious as technology evolves. Technology is a factor that Amazon.com must invest heavily in. They are reliant on having top of the line technology to survive against cyber-crime and to stay relevant in the tech world. ECommerce is everywhere now and competition is very high. This brings in legal conditions; Amazon must know what laws exist in which countries because they are a …show more content…
Amazon Strengths and Weaknesses Amazon has more warehouses than any other online retail sites. They also have them spread out all over the world in more countries than any other online retailor. This gives them a competitive advantage because they are able to get the product to the customer quicker and most of the time overnight even. This is certainly a sustainable competitive advantage for Amazon because it is not a resource that will go away or that fluctuates on price or availability. 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
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
Starting out as solely an online bookstore, Amazon has become the largest online retailer in the world.
Amazon.com operates in the Online Retail Industry. The sector is one of the fastest growing globally and is outperforming the ordinary retail marketplace. It was created after 1995 and it was only the Internet that made it possible for such an industry not only to be established but to become one of the most flourishing sectors in the business environment. What is interesting is that Amazon.com, together with eBay is the pioneer in the field. Both companies were launched in 1995 and are still extremely successful. The creation of e-mail in 1996 had a huge impact on the development of online retail by introducing a fast and easy way to communicate with customers. For this two-year period Internet usage doubled annually, thus, allowing for the expansion of the industry. Google is launched a year later, in 1998, only to become the most used search engine in the world and an essential partner for the online retailers by helping them tailor their websites to customer’s personal preferences and by advertising. After that, more and more people see the opportunity in the growing industry and enter it. By 2001 there are more than 513 million Internet users globally, which calls for action in terms of creating regulations and laws to protect the users and personal property. In 2003, Apple launches iTunes, and provides a platform for low-cost digital downloads. Another major change is the appearance of social media from 2004, which is one of the biggest influencer on the state of the industry. With the launch of iPhone in 2007, this trend strengthens as people get to enjoy the Internet anywhere they want to. From then on, technological advancements have made it extremely easy and fun to shop online, making it ...
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.
With very humble roots, Amazon.com grew itself from a tiny garage start up in 1994 into a multibillion dollar corporation in just twenty one years. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon transformed a modest book selling website into the largest online retailer of all products which survived a giant collapse in the economy and the dot com bubble, helping Amazon start its own agenda. Amazon was vastly different than many other dot com startups due to its realistic, long term, and growth focused agenda, which greatly differed from the unrealistic, quick online startups whom mostly disappeared during the decade. Amazon has been one of the frontrunners in the new digital world, by displaying a progressive business model that builds for growth, and creating a positive future for
Launched by Jeff Bezos, the Amazon.com website started in 1995 and is today considered as one of the most prominent retail website on the internet with a record turnover of US$ 14.87 billion in 2007. Jeff Bezos’s intention was to create an internet based company with the most dedicated product portfolio on the internet where customers could find anything they might want. Amazon’s success is based on technology, services and products (Jens et al., 2003).
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,
One of the greatest opportunities for Amazon is an Online Payment System. The online system allows the company to reduce transaction fees and increase ease of use for their customers. Internet sales are increasing at a fast pace. This is a product of increased fuel prices, which make driving to a store less likely, and foreign purchases. This development allows foreign purchases to buy clothing as it becomes more popular abroad. Amazon’s biggest competitors can include retail stores that online stores such as Target, Best Buy, and Walmart among others, these can be considered the most dangerous for them since they have strong market share and can be a direct competitor since they attack the same market. Amazon wish to compete in prices, offering
In 1999 Bezos invested huge amounts of money to help Amazon become a more efficient company. He built warehouses in the United States to store inventory, in order to prevent under stocking during the holidays and also offer a greater selection of products that the companies distributors could not. Along with inventory, the company invested in logistics, such as controlling the supply chain through the same technology they used to create their unique website. Also they began to customize their website to individual customers. They stored information about the customers, which in turn made it easier for them to purchase goods on their website, which then reduced threat of the customer going to Amazon's competitors instead. Amazon wants the easiest and most enjoyable experience for customers when they visit the site. Bezos realized, that consumers need to have a good sense of security when purchasing products online, so the company invested in infrastructure and created an integrated system of customer service operations and payment processes.
Amazon was originally known for selling books and later, CD, DVDs and electronic books (Kindle). Today, Amazon sells various products from clothing, school supplies, automotive supplies, beauty supplies, household products and more. The mission statement proclaim Amazon’s goal is to be customer centric and providing products that are needed based on the buying trends of the customers:
Amazon model initially offered customers access to massive selection without the needs to incur cost, time and stress of opening warehouses and stores and the needs for inventory handling. Amazon realized to ensure customers get a pleasant experience and Amazon acquire its inventory at reasonable prices, they need to be in control of the transaction process from beginning to the end through operating the business from their own warehouses.
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 dollars, it held a steady growth from 1998-2006 (“Amazon.com”). From
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).
This statement is still driving Amazon to provide the best for their customers. It is impressive when a business is able to fulfill their original mission statement, while being an E-business that is demanded to provide and keep up with the most current wants and desires of the consumer, especially as Amazon began and still is highly driven from popular department of electronic related products. Amazon began by selling their first book, progressing to 1-Click Shopping experience, then to creating their symbol “AMZN” on the NASDAQ, while launching the Music Store, Advantage Program, and opening numerous Fulfillment and Customer Service Center within and outside of the United States (History of Innovation). Next, let’s look at how Amazon uses all these characteristics to be a financially
In the U.S., Amazon uses a centralized shipping platform, which it calls Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA), to store and distribute the products it sells. Sellers send their goods to Amazon’s fulfilment centres and pay a fee for the corporation to store, pick, pack, and ship their wares. Amazon implemented FBA in India as well, and to date has built nearly two dozen warehouses there, the largest one in Kothari in Telangana.