...Amazon.com is one of the most popular web sites in the short history of the internet. It began as a book seller and has expanded to include all sorts of general merchandise from clothing to appliances and more. Amazon.com once sold only new items but the people in charge quickly discovered that a large market existed for selling used merchandise. They decided to tap into this market for used goods, creating the Amazon.com Marketplace, a place for consumers to find products at low prices. What Does This Service Offer?: Amazon.com Marketplace is simply a service within the Amazon.com web site that caters to those who want to find used versions of products in order to save money. Also, it provides a means to find items for sale that are no longer in print, like certain books and CD’s that are no longer manufactured. There is no official link to the Amazon.com Marketplace from the main web site. To get here, you lookup a product you wish to buy. If there are any used versions available, you will see a link that says “xx Used and New Available from yy”, with the “xx” representing a quantity of items available and the “yy” representing the lowest available price. If you click this link, you will be taken to the Amazon.com Marketplace. Amazon.com’s Marketplace organizes these items by category. Used are listed first; followed by Collectibles and then New. Within each category, the items are listed in order of price, from lowest to highest. You will also see the price...
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...First movers have significant advantages over their new entrant competitors. The first first-mover advantage is that Jeff was able to establish extreme customer loyalty and secure a significant portion of the market. Even though competitors such as Barnes and Noble and Borders tried to imitate Amazon, Amazon was able to expand its product offerings to retain a majority of the customers. Not only did it offer books, but it also became a one-stop shop for any wants, needs or desires. Another advantage of being a first mover is that Amazon can reduce buyer power (Porters 5 forces) by controlling the switching costs. Through rewards and discount programs such as free shipping, Amazon has made it expensive to switch to a competitor. Once a customer is enrolled in these rewards programs, the price difference is such that the customer will pay more to switch. Unfortunatley, there are many disadvantages that come with being a first-mover. Although you can retain a portion of the industry through brand loyalty, there are many customers who choose to wait until products or services have improved. These customers will also wait for competiting businesses to lower costs and are willing to wait out the bugs and problems that first movers often run into. By being a first-mover, it is easy for competitors to see what you are doing right, and where you need to improve. They can easily take this opportunity to create a better business building off of your idea. The learning curve was steep...
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...| AMAZON – ONLINE SALESMGMT 5010 | PROF. JAISON MATHEWS | 3/10/15 | SUNDARESH NATARAJAN 4234175 | | | AMAZON – ONLINE SALESMGMT 5010 | PROF. JAISON MATHEWS | 3/10/15 | SUNDARESH NATARAJAN 4234175 | | 1. Why is Amazon building more warehouses as it grows? How many warehouses should it have and where should they be located? Amazon, started as an online bookstore, has evolved to an online retailer selling anything possible under the sun. The business model that Amazon operates is pretty easy to replicate and hence the differentiating factors would decide the winner. Factors like price, delivery time and ease of usage of the online portal. For a company that has is completely online, Amazon has invested more than $14 billion since 2010 (Bloomberg, 2013) in brick and mortar warehouses. Amazon is expanding its warehouses (called as fulfillment centres) in order to reduce the response time. Hence more warehouses means better response times (same day delivery being the new benchmark) which in turn leads to more new customers and retaining old customers and hence increased profit. Location of warehouses is based on proximity to major target markets, delivery time and cost of setting up warehouses (based on real estate). For example, Amazon need not have a warehouse in New York city since that would mean unimaginable expenses. Instead these customers can be serviced from New Jersey warehouses. Number of fulfillment centres...
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...Amazon Culture: Bar Raisers Hollis Alexander Indiana Wesleyan Management and Leadership MGT-302-01A Joyce Lawrence July 25, 2015 Amazon Culture: Bar Raisers Initially, I thought Amazon was a business on the internet that sold everything from A to Z. There are other companies that do the same thing, but have not become the juggernaut that Amazon has become. One thing that keeps coming up in conversations is the term “bar risers”. Why does Amazon use bar risers in their hiring process? What are the potential advantages of using bar risers for Amazon? What are the possible disadvantages of bar risers for Amazon? And finally what are the potential pros and cons for job applicants of bar risers being used? A “bar riser”, reports the Wall Street Journal, is a skilled evaluator who already holds a job with Amazon and plays a crucial role in the company’s hiring process (Moss, C. 2014). Amazon uses bar risers to weed out cultural and social misfits. Amazon’s senior management believes that bar risers help ensure that Amazon makes the best hiring decision by forcing several full-time employees to review and sign off on a potential candidate. The advantages of using bar risers in Amazon business model enable them to retain qualified candidates. In turn, Amazon saves money on new employee turnover. It costs the business a significant amount of money to get a new employee up and running. The bar riser program or culture saves Amazon millions in the long term. The disadvantages...
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...Shijing Zhao Date: February 23, 2013 Introduction and Problem Definition To best support its growth, Amazon Europe was considering building a European distribution network (EDN) where the location of inventory would be strategically determined. Among all issues to be considered, the most important one was to evaluate the three alternatives to design the EDN and choose one of them. External Analysis (See Appendix 1 for full listing) For opportunities, the first thing worth mentioning is the fast growth of international markets. Worth only $381.1 million in 2000, the Amazon International’s revenue reached at $1,168.9 million in 2002. That means the international market environment was fairly optimistic for Amazon and it should expand into other countries such as China and Korea. The second important opportunity is the large potential of European online markets and book markets. For example, Italy holds the third largest book sales of € 4,130 million in 1999 and the fourth largest online spending of €701 million in 2001. Amazon could consider Italy or other Europe countries with large potentials as its future target markets in Europe. For threats, the biggest one is the low EDI penetration among book, music and video distributors in Europe. EDI enables Amazon to get the information about the item ordered from the US supplier quickly. It would be difficult for Amazon to know details about the item ordered without EDI, which could seriously slower the order fulfillment process...
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... violated its agreement to give toy retailer Toys"R" Us Inc. the exclusive right to sell toys and baby products on Amazon's Web site. In the ruling,New Jersey Superior Court Judge Margaret Mary McVeigh said Toys "R" Us can sever theagreement it signed with Amazon in August 2000, in which it agreed to sell toys on Amazon.com'sWeb site, effectively putting Amazon in control of the Web address www.toysrus.com. The rulingpaves the way for Toys "R" Us to operate the Web site independently. Judge McVeigh deniedmonetary damages to both parties.Toys "R" Us filed suit in the New Jersey state court in May 2004 alleging Amazon breached thecontract. Amazon countersued in June 2004, alleging the toy retailer failed to keep items in stockand otherwise adhere to their agreement.The Amazon was disappointed to the judge findings they said that they strongly disagree with the judge's ruling, and they are in the process of reviewing a number of different options Regardless of the outcome and they remain committed to ensuring a great selection of toys for our customers atgreat prices. For its part the Toy R Us said that the company are preparing for the decision and iscommitted to providing customers online access to its web store. The Amazon spokesman said that the company disagrees with the suggestion that other retailers will be wary of working withit. They said that this ruling is specific to Toys "R" Us and it really doesn't have any impact on otherrelationships with merchants and partners. ...
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...A) The scenario selected is #6 regarding a business that is looking at growing by starting online sales. (B) Online Sales: Advantages and disadvantages: George Scifo (2010) 10 Advantages of Online Advertising. Retrieved from: www.georgescifo.com/2010/05/10-advantages-of-online-advertising Amy Martinez (2012) Amazon to begin collecting sales tax in Texas. Retrieved from: http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2018564432_amazon30.html Online Sales: Possible impact: Bill Siwicki (2012) Sales from mobile devices double in December. Retrieved from: http://www.internetretailer.com/2012/01/10/sales-mobile-devices-double-december Clark Fredrickson (2012) Apparel Drives US Retail Ecommerce Sales Growth. Retrieved from: http://www.emarketer.com/newsroom/index.php/apparel-drives-retail-ecommerce-sales-growth/ Phil Wahba (2011) EBay forecast pleases as PayPal, auctions gain users. Retrieved from: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/27/us-ebay-idUSTRE73Q7Z920110427 Don Davis (2012) Amazon’s North American sales rise 36% in Q2. Retrieved from: http://www.internetretailer.com/2012/07/26/amazons-north-american-sales-rise-36-q2 Online Sales: Different requirements for online marketing Rebecca Gill (2011) Successful Internet Marketing Begin With Goals. Retrieved from: http://www.web-savvy-marketing.com/2011/01/successful-internet-marketing- campaigns-begin-with-goals/ Biana Babinsky (2009) Make Marketing Easier...
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...between Toys R Us and Amazon, TRU argued that Amazon fail to abide by the contract that the two parties had agreed upon. The contract stated that Amazon would sell toys online exclusively from TRU. Amazon breached the contract by allowing other distributors to sell their toys through Amazon. After TRU carefully reviewed the website they learned that Amazon was also selling more than 4000 products offered by competitors. Amazon argued that TRU failed to abide by the contract by not keeping products in stock. The judge’s decision was for the two parties to cut their ties with each other and allow TRU to establish an independent website. The judge also ruled that Amazon had breached the contract but did not award any punitive damages to TRU. I believe that the outcome should have been that the two parties cut their partnership and neither side would receive any monetary damages. In my opinion both parties breached the contract. Amazon breached because TRU was suppose to be exclusive to Amazon and Amazon was not suppose to let the competitors sell the products on their website. TRU breached because if they were not capable of keeping the product in stock, especially around the Christmas season, then Amazon needed to seek out the competitors to help fill orders that were being placed. 2. Amazon and TRU faced many advantages and disadvantages when they decided to enter in a contract together. Some of the advantages were the increase in sales that both Amazon and TRU would receive...
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...Amazon and EBay A) For this purpose, the two retail websites of my choice are the very well known Amazon and EBay. Both websites offer a variety of items available for purchase and highly service regions within the United States of America. On both sites, you can find commodities ranging from house hold items, electronics, clothes, books and to some extent automobiles and automobile parts among other items. Both websites act as virtual stores where just about anybody with access to courier services and payment platforms such as MasterCard or Visa can easily make purchases on their computer or related devices and have the items delivered straight to their door step. The main reason as to why I opted to use the two sites in my response is mainly because both sites are highly diversified in terms of products available for sale. As initially stated, both sites deal with a variety of items including the most basic items such as clothing. Another reason as to why the two website retail stores fit this purpose is because they are among the leading retail websites on a global basis where both websites offer retail services beyond the United States thanks to logistics services from companies such as DHL and FedEx that have made shopping on both sites open to just about any other country outside the United States. For diversity purposes and range of products available on both websites, below are screenshots of categories of the various commodities both sites have to offer as “website based...
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...The e-commerce of Amazon and Toys r us Beverly Boyd Man 223 08/02/14 The e-commerce of Amazon and Toys r us In the state of New Jersey, Amazon.com” filed a lawsuit against Toys R Us. The lawsuit stated Toys R US had“ infringed on the contractual agreement of their joint venture”. (Foster, 2004). Amazon asked for” $750 million in this suit. In return, Toys R Us countersued, “declar- ing Amazon had dishonored “the exclusive rights to sell toys, games, and baby items through third-party merchants on Amazons’ website, which were the same products sold by Toys R Us (Foster, 2004). Afterward, the lawsuits were petitioned to a high court, the “judge denied both party “ damages. But was appealed then a second time, to an appellate court; the judge ruled in favor of Toys r us, and was awarded $51 million. Afterward, Toys R Us shut down its website”. (Foster, 2004). Wal-Mart was one of the competitors whom “Toys r us was hurt by in August 2004. So Toys r us decided to sale its 1,200 toy-store chain, and a spin-off of toy or baby products businesses. Some investors purchased Toys r us for $6.6 billion in August of 2005”,the new owners made the company private; is it really over? (Mangalindan, 2006) In researching the court dispositions, there was evidence from the testimonies of the employees from Toys r us and Amazon, proving a breach of contract by Amazon. Although some of the witness for Amazon pretended to have a lapse of memory, on the other hand. Most...
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...communication technology, networking technology and computerized data to perform business processes. E-business can assist a company in improving their business processes through improved customer service, increased sales, product and company promotion, and modern branding. Question -1 Discuss the pros and cons of Amazon’s growth and diversification of business and specialization, and make recommendations about what Amazon could have done differently Pros Using Amazon.Com to market products guarantees worldwide reach at a nominal price. Advertising techniques like pay per click advertising ensure that the advertiser only pays for the advertisements that are actually viewed. Affiliate marketing, where customers are directed to a business portal because of the effort of the affiliate who in turn receive a compensation for their efforts meeting with success, has emerged on account of e-business. Affiliate marketing has helped both the business and the affiliates. Amazon.Com engaging in e-business has managed to use cost effective online advertising strategies to their advantage. (Simonyi Business and Joint Ventures, 2011) List below are some Cost Effective Marketing and Promotions: • Confirmation email Except when they're part of a co-branded sale, Amazon's use of confirmation emails keeps users in the loop and increases their trust in the overall fulfillment process. • Fulfillment When you buy something, you get it. In the rare case that there is a problem, you get a clear email...
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...Amazon has a flat organisational structure. It has its own advantages and disadvantages. Advantages | Disadvantages | Faster decision, satisfied and happy customers | Job confusion, decreased customer loyalty | Communication is faster and effective since there are few layers | Workers may have more than one boss and their functions can become confused | Few levels of management means more flexibility in decision making .For eg. When the staff can make decisions quickly, they keep customers happy instead of forcing them to wait while they hunt down a manager. | When all the subordinates are reporting to a single executive, it's hard for the executives to be team leaders and keep their employees organized and productive. | Since manager compensation is typically more than other employees, fewer management levels means fewer managers to pay, which saves you money | Flat structure works well in small organizations but it becomes counterproductive in large organizations because the offices are too different and have troublesome. For eg. In Amazon, there have been instances where customers were given a discount on an item in one country. This does not promote good customer relations. | This structure focuses on highly qualified staff who are generally happier at work and less likely to quit their job or perform poorly. The longer the employees remain with the company, the less training you have to pay for and the more competent and productive they become. | But there...
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...States but they also wish to establish a presence on the Internet. Research the online marketing opportunities available for retail sales and provide a report to your manager which includes the advantages and disadvantages of marketing online, the potential impact of online sales to the company, and the requirements for a successful online marketing campaign. Main Ideas Advantages and disadvantages of online marketing Halligan, B. ( 2011). Inbound marketing. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/HubSpot/101-awesome-marketing-quotes Fowler, G. (2009). Amazon cuts ties to affiliates in Hawaii. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124638801268074915.html Lau, K. (2010). The advantages and disadvantages of online marketing. Retrieved from http://kevinklau.com/the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-online-marketing/ The potential impact of online sales Cerf, V. (1995). Computer networking: Global infrastructure for the 21st century. Retrieved from http://homes.cs.washington.edu/~lazowska/cra/networks.html Barr, A. (2013). EBay holiday quarter sales jump: 2013 forecast cautious. Reuters. Retrieved from http://news.yahoo.com/ebays-fourth-quarter-revenue-rose-18-percent-212124057--sector.html Macaluso, N. (2001). Analysts cool to Amazon q4 projections. Retrieved from http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/6565.html Requirements for a profitable online marketing plan Ivkovic, E. (2010). Planning your internet marketing campaign...
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...and anytime. Major venders such as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft have provided Cloud Computing services. This paper discusses the Amazon Web Services (AWS) and evaluates the scalability, dependability, manageability, and adaptability of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, Amazon Simple Storage Service, and RightScale. Moreover, this paper examines the security concerns for cloud-based services and assesses scalability, reliability, and cost issues. Assess how Ericsson benefitted from Amazon Web Service (AWS) in terms of cost reduction, automated software updates, remote access, and on-demand availability Ericsson is one of the world’s leading providers of technology and services to telecom operators. There are reasons how Ericsson success like that. According to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Case study, Ericsson uses AWS such as Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), and RightScale for provisioning and auto-scale functionality. AWS give many benefits to Ericsson. For example, Ericsson saves money to invest to build on-premises infrastructure by using AWS. Ericsson also saves the time to build and install the infrastructure. Some of the technical benefits of cloud computing include automation and auto-scaling. AWS had the ability to deploy new applications and automated software updates instantly. AWS are able to scale up and down as demand changed and drive more efficiency. With Amazon S3, Ericsson can add any amount of content...
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...Amazon vs. Barnes and Nobles vs. Borders Allison Foster Instructor Steven Brown BUS 508 – Business Enterprise April 30, 2011 Week Four Originally named “Cadavera”, Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994. The purpose of this company was to provide the largest online bookstore ranging from compact discs, books to electronics and apparel. Amazon made it’s own individual mark in 1994 when the owner created a business plan that had no predicted profit for the first four years. According to (wikipedia.com), by the year 2001 Amazon turned a five million dollar profit. The Pros and Cons of the Amazon Business Today Amazon has grown more than just the worlds largest bookstore. Amazon created many different entities such as; Amazon Marketplace, Amazon Fresh Market, Amazon MP3, Amazon Payments, Amazon Prime, Amazon Kindle, and Amapedi. Amazon.com is also eco friendly by promoting the Go Green campaign. This company partners with American Red Cross and raise funds for national and environmental disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, Hati Earthquakes, and 9/11. Although Amazon.com has grown to be successful, the company still endures advantages and disadvantages of diversification of business and specialization. Advantages of Amazon.com are the business to consumer relationships, vast amount of diverse product selections, low cost of merchandise, convenience, personalization, and free delivery . Over the years, Amazon has dominated the e-business and internet...
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