Amazon.com was set up in 1994 and was open to the public in July 1995. Being one of the first ecommerce portals, it practically invented the online distribution model. Although Jeff Bezos never owned any physical shop, he intended to compete with established players like Barnes & Nobles. Amazon was a start-up on one hand and Barnes & Nobles was a century old store chain headquartered in 5th Avenue in New York. They are a book retail store giant and are in business for over 100 years, with a huge amount of capital at its disposal. Amazon followed a model where its tries to charge the lowest possible price for any particular product, unlike many, who try to charge the highest possible price. Being a new online only store back in 1995, when the internet was not mature and the whole concept of online shopping was new, it was important for them to make it an attractive option, given that for most customers, it would be hard for them to put their trust in it, having to pay first and get the product later.
Amazon, originally an online bookstore, later diversified into selling other items. Being a fresh start-up company, it did not have a brand image to maintain which stores like Barnes & Nobles or Borders had to deal with. Today amazon sells almost everything except for perhaps military supplies making it a one stop destination for online shoppers. The majority of the sales are still generated from the Books, CD/DVD and videos. One of the key factors which have propelled Amazon’s growth is its research and development wing. They aim to provide every user a customized and personal experienced on their website. To display a single product details page, around 200-300 services are called to make this personalization possible. This in turn has helped them to retain customers better than other online retailers. One more aspect which they put a lot of effort into is