...Amazon.com Evolution Business Information Systems/219 October 25, 2010 Amazon.com Evolution With an untold amount of online retailers fighting for a piece of the consumer dollar, only one has risen to the top to become the world’s largest online retailer. With a diverse set of services to support its online retailing, Amazon is in direct competition with two of the largest Internet and software companies, but by using its vast informational resources Amazon has continued its success in internet based business. Many analysts and consumers wonder if Amazon.com is moving away from its core competency of being an online retailer. When you first look at Amazon.com starting from a book seller and trying to become a service provider your initial answer would be yes however, according to Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com his vision of the company was to create a place you could buy anything and everything. Bezos decided to start selling books because of the low cost, and he did it online because a computer allows you to sort, search and organize a wide selection. Between 1998 and 1999, Amazon.com went from books to music, DVDs/video, toys, electronics, home improvement, software, and games. As sales rise they continue to adventure out to a broader spectrum to bring more to their consumers. Amazon.com always focused on selling products to others and now was ready to launch other services. For instance auctions, search engines, simple storage...
Words: 1297 - Pages: 6
...Amazon Evolution July 26, 2011 XBIS/219 Instructor: Angelina Shelton Amazon.com started out as being a large-scale online book store, but has since expanded itself to include a more complex and vast directory of products and services available to its consumers. From the beginning, Amazon pledged to “revolutionize retailing,” but some analysts wonder if the company will ever be able to successfully fulfill that promise (Introduction To Information Systems). Although Amazon’s company averages over $10 billion dollars per year, its profitable growth has not been a consistent climb. With competition between other companies such as Google steadily increasing left and right, Amazon has had to become more strategic by offering even more services than had originally been planned at the business’s origin. Although it may have started out being an online bookstore, Amazon now provides certain services to individuals and businesses “to help them run the technical and logistical [components] of their business” (Introduction To Information Systems). The Simple Storage Service (S3), the Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), and the Mechanical Turk are some of the most popular services that Amazon.com has available to its business-minded consumers. Through the Simple Storage Service, Amazon is able to charge businesses who store data and applications to Amazon disk drives 15 cent per gigabyte for each month. One company using the S3 service is webmail.us, which sends Amazon over a terabyte...
Words: 580 - Pages: 3
...Amazon Evolution Lisa Marie Kostka XBIS/219 March 6, 2011 Shawn Rieder Amazon Evolution While Amazon remains the leading online retailer, there are some who will challenge whether or not the organization has shifted its core competencies. In the beginning Amazon was merely a resource for consumers to buy books at a reasonable cost without ever having to go to a store. This provided consumers with a way to get what they want for a reasonably small shipping fee without ever having to leave their house. For the most part, these competencies are still intact; however, the focus has expanded in terms of products and services. The economic climate has affected businesses all around the world; Amazon is not different. Their approach now is to offer additional services such as Simple Storage Services (S3), Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), and the Mechanical Turk. (Rainer & Turner, 2008). The S3 has been developed to offer businesses a way to store data on Amazon disks which is another form of disaster recovery in a sense. The EC2 offers customers a way to use Amazons processing power; this is charged at an hourly rate. Mechanical Turk is a bundled service that combines processing power and people to help monitor traffic that takes place online. This strategic move will do one of two things; set them apart from other online retailers or bury them in costs if not managed wisely. One particular area is data management. Although many organizations have reached out to...
Words: 542 - Pages: 3
...Amazon Evolution Amazon is a Fortune 500 company and is the global leader in e-commerce. They have expanded significantly their product offerings, international sites, worldwide network of fulfillment and customer service centers. Amazon offers everything from books and electronics to tennis rackets and diamond jewelry. Technological innovation has driven the growth of Amazon, offering customers more types of products, the luxury of convenience, and even lower prices. Big-name retailers work with Amazon Services to power their e-commerce offerings from end-to-end, including technology services, merchandising, customer service, and order fulfillment. Other branded merchants also leverage Amazon as an incremental sales channel for their new merchandise; enabling to find products from top retailers across the Amazon site. Amazon has come along way from its humble beginning; their evolving with a mission to create new technologies, expand into more geographies and continue to improve the lives of shoppers and sellers around the world. With evolution within a company comes change; these changes generally stem from the company’s core platform, competition, and business in general. Amazon has been very successful in all of their accomplishments; with all of these accomplishments Amazon is trying to evolve. Amazon is expanding the possibilities in a variety of businesses ventures; Amazon is venturing toward a more a web-based search engine and service provider instead...
Words: 1759 - Pages: 8
...The Amazon Evolution Holly Guerra XBIS/219 In order to increase their profit, Amazon decided to extend its services to other companies. By doing this, they get money from the other company as well as the customer and the participating company has a new way to advertise, offer and sell their products through Amazon. In a way they have revolutionized online retail because they are widely known for providing a large variety of goods to consumers through the convenience of the internet. Amazon’s solution to make their infrastructure available to companies and hire individuals to help them run the technical and logistical parts of their businesses has made a great difference. They provided three services,Simple Storage Service (S3), the Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), and the Mechanical Turk. Amazon charges per Gigabyte per month for businesses to store data and applications on Amazon’s disk drives. They also have people who power their networks so that they can keep an eye out for inappropriate content in images or transcribing audio which are duties that are not able to be done by computers. As a result, thousands of companies are using Amazon services for everything from sales to advertising. Amazon has a wide variety of competitors online such as Wal-Mart, Google, and Yahoo. The edge that amazon has over the rest is that Amazon has the advantage of having everything...
Words: 328 - Pages: 2
...Amazon Evolution Amazon.com was founded by Jeffrey P. Bezos in July 1995 with the online sale of a single book. By 1998, Bezos had expanded the company's selection of titles to more than 3.1 million. He also implemented personal greets and additional title recommendations to online shoppers. Soon Amazon was selling CD's, videos, electronic games, toys, and more. Criticism intensified. Analysts said Amazon was selling too many items, and it would eventually fail. Many new strategies have evolved Amazon into "a sort of Windows for e-commerce, allowing Web developers to sync up with Amazon's e-commerce software much more intimately" (Hof, 2011). Amazon's infrastructure is now available on the open market. They provide services that help online companies run the technical and logistic parts of the company more effectively; the Simple Storage Service (S3), the Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), and the Mechanical Turk. Wiley.com explains that for a monthly fee businesses use S3 to store data and applications on Amazon disk drives, and rent processing power by the hour. The Mechanical Turk combines processing power with networks of real people who are paid to do the kind of work that machines cannot do well, such as recognizing inappropriate content and transcribing audio (Wiley, unk.) These services have improved Amazon's productivity and allowed the company to remain competitive with major e-commerce giants such as Google, Microsoft, and E-bay. The complexity of Amazon's...
Words: 425 - Pages: 2
...1. Amazon Evolution Ruth A Whaley XBIS/219 April 14, 2013 Caryl Rahn 2. A Princeton graduate’s idea, in July 1995, introducing the World Wide Web launched Amazon.com. Amazon.com was originally to offer a larger array of books over the Internet. As of today, Amazon is still one of the companies who offer online reading materials. After remaining near the top of online sales for so long, there now seems to be a question of whether or not Amazon is steering in a different direction from what its core competency was. Amazon has seen their operating cost margins to be less than that of Wal-Mart. Amazon has watched its profits dwindle away. With seeing the losses in revenue Amazon has started moving away from its core they are becoming an E-commerce titan by renting out their infrastructure. Amazon is going forth in a way to make more profit for the company by using only ten percent of its total capability at any one-time. Amazon has decided to offer a variety of services from computing and storage to other companies for a price. Providing these services will bring revenue into the company while helping other companies who do not have this type of capabilities. Amazon.com has three components which make up their database. Simple Storage Services (S3) Amazon set a price of fifteen cents per gig per month for companies to store their data and apps on the Amazon disk drives. The second component is the Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and they rent processing...
Words: 536 - Pages: 3
...Amazon Evolution Ashleigh DeGlopper April 7, 2011 Business Information Systems Raina Knox The Amazon company has made some very significant changes in order to make a profit. The internet retail company wasn’t making the lead way that was needed in order to stay on top of the internet market as it is today. The competition seemed to overtake the Amazon company. In response to this Amazon began to offer other services to businesses. These services did veer away from the original internet retail part of the company. These other services were through the use of Amazon’s computing storage systems because Amazon only uses 10 percent of this storage at any time (Rainer & Turban, 2009). This strategy for creating profits is actually a wise strategy because Amazon is putting to good use of its extra computing storage systems for a price. This increases the profits for Amazon and also brings it into a new group of competition known as the global computing platform. This is possible because Amazon provides internet businesses with three different services. The first service is known as Simple Storage Services (S3) and is basically a way for businesses to store any data for a reasonable price. The second service is called Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and this helps businesses to process information. The third service provided is The Mechanical Turk which is used by other businesses for processing information and then organizing that information into useful knowledge...
Words: 671 - Pages: 3
...Amazon Evolution BIS 219 June 24, 2012 Ursula B. Woodruff Being the global leader, Amazon.com is at the top of the ranks in e-commerce. This organization has not only enlarged its international websites, but had expanded their network worldwide of customer service and fulfillment service center (Amazon.com, 2009). Amazon.com was established in 1995 and has expanded into an international Fortune 500 cooperation with distribution locations in France, Germany, Japan, China, Canada, and the United Kingdom (Amazon.com, 2009). In an effort to sustain success in the business, the company took full advantage of innovative technology. Arising to be the method in managing business and shopping society uses the internet daily to complete such tasks. Also to maintain a thriving organization Amazon decided to broaden their services from retail online to offering services online in an extraordinary way. Online, customers have the choice and opportunity to view and purchase a broader selection of service and products. There is rivalry in every business. Google is an online search engine that allows customers the opportunity to utilize its online services. Google owns many other websites that are all well known. Leading the way for information in the technology field, Microsoft was founded in 1975. Although other online business such Google and Microsoft are in stiff competition with Amazon, the company is still considered the leading retailer online. When Amazon took the initiative...
Words: 683 - Pages: 3
...be the electronic interaction that enables the exchange of goods and their services. Amazon.com uses e-business for business to consumer (B2C) by using the internet to sell directly to the consumers. The consumers access the website, place their order, pay for the order, and then receive their order. According to Rainer & Turban, by 2007 Amazon had spent over two billion dollars on infrastructure for its online store, but only 10% of its processing capacity is used at any one time. To make use of its unused processing capacity, Amazon has decided to offer storage and other services to other companies at a fee (2008). From this picture, it is clear that Amazon is not moving away from its core competency of being a leading online retailer rather it is making use of its infrastructure and resources to improve the profits. The strategy of Amazon is to provide online services as well as online retailing which would enable Amazon to compete with Microsoft and Google for their online services. Amazon only uses 10% or less of their systems capacity at any-one-time. Many of their customers went to Microsoft and Google because Amazon did not provide online services. By providing this online service and continuing with their online retails, this may help reestablish old customers and gain...
Words: 681 - Pages: 3
...electronic interaction that enables the exchange of goods and their services. Amazon.com uses e-business for business to consumer (B2C) by using the internet to sell directly to the consumers. The consumers access the website, place their order, pay for the order, and then receive their order. According to Rainer & Turban, by 2007 Amazon had spent over two billion dollars on infrastructure for its online store, but only 10% of its processing capacity is used at any one time. To make use of its unused processing capacity, Amazon has decided to offer storage and other services to other companies at a fee (2008). From this picture, it is clear that Amazon is not moving away from its core competency of being a leading online retailer rather it is making use of its infrastructure and resources to improve the profits.No comments The strategy of Amazon is to provide online services as well as online retailing which would enable Amazon to compete with Microsoft and Google for their online services. Amazon only uses 10% or less of their systems capacity at any-one-time. Many of their customers went to Microsoft and Google because Amazon did not provide online services. By providing this online service and continuing with their online retails, this may help reestablish old...
Words: 683 - Pages: 3
...furniture, food, toys, and jewelry (Wikipedia). By 2007, Amazon had spent 12 years and some $2 billion building the infrastructure of its online store, which is among the biggest and most reliable in the world (Rainier & Turban, 2009). Although, Amazon may be the largest online retailer with annual sales in excess of $10 billion, the consistent profit growth that investors have expected has not been seen. In fact, profits have fallen, and the company’s operating margins (about 4.1 percent) are less than Wal-Mart’s (5.9 percent) (Rainier & Turban, 2009). Online retail competition and fallen profits are two major business problems Amazon has been faced with. In addition, Amazon uses just 10 percent of its processing capacity at any one time (Turban &Rainer, 2009). The solutions Amazon has provided in regard to these problems is computing storage and additional services to companies as well as helping them run the technical aspect of their businesses. With these services being provided, a number of individuals feel that Amazon is moving away from its core competency of being an online retailer. Though there is no definitive answer, this idea appears inaccurate because Amazon's primary goal of being the world’s largest retailer remains even now. Amazon appears to have discovered a way to develop and adapt to the fluctuating economy while utilizing the resources it previously had. Google is one of Amazon’s major competitors. Amazon competes with Google by offering Flexible Payment Services...
Words: 941 - Pages: 4
...Data Communications and Computer Networking Amazon : Genesis to Revelations Amazon began as an organization on July fifth 1994 as an online book retailer. Amazon.com sold its first book and stretched out into serving a few nations with satisfaction focuses totaling more than ten million square feet of distribution center space. Amazon.com began with the thought of upsetting retail shopping. On the other hand, over the time, Amazon.com entered numerous distinctive organizations which were far from its center of being an online book retailer. Amazon.com was trusting that the new wanders and administrations will help them contend with the greatest names in the business. In this paper we will examine how moved Amazon.com moved far from its unique technique. Amazon extended their wings by advancing into greater and better administrations for their buyers as restricted to keep up and rival Google and Microsoft. Amazon's make-to-request technique of delivering modified items and administrations is a business methodology to keep them amongst the pioneers in internet retailing. Their objective is straightforward, "To be Earth's most client driven organization where individuals can discover and uncover anything they need to purchase online" Amazon.com began an entered new wander of Cloud figuring to rival the greatest names in the data innovation industry. They are concentrating on a couple of key regions...
Words: 698 - Pages: 3
...Amazon Evolution Jeff Bezos created a company called Amazon.com in July 1995 by employing retail sales over the Internet. Jeff Bezos started the company, offering books for sale based from an Internet website. Now Amazon offers a vast selection, low prices, easy product search and ordering, detailed product information, and secure payment transactions while providing optimal efficiency in order product delivery (Turban, 2006). The business of Amazon has changed dramatically after the cyber store launched. Amazon is looking to become a platform for other cyber-stores, and the world’s store on the Internet. Amazon rates the best cyber-store on the content on the site and service. Other web merchants want to become a partner with Amazon for site development and back-end logistics help. According to Friedman (2004), “Amazon.com has limitless shelf space. Because they are more on an online catalog than a retail store, Amazon does not have to stock the entire inventory they offer. The downside to this is that you do not get to leave the store with your purchase in hand. In fact, depending on the availability of the item you order you may have to wait a few weeks! The upshot is that they can offer anything and everything – so you get an infinitely larger selection of goods. Customers are an integral part of Amazon’s sales force. Because Amazon is web based, they automatically have a place to post extensive product information, including customer reviews. When you are...
Words: 1188 - Pages: 5
...Amazon Evolution Your Name XBIS/219 Date Instructor Amazon Evolution Amazon (www.amazon.com) is the largest online retailer in the United States. Many people around the world go to amazon.com and find virtually anything they are searching for. In the beginning, Amazon’s initial strategy was becoming the largest online bookseller. Their plan was based on a combination of things, such as: a need in the marketplace for discount books, providing these books at discounts when purchased in bulk, and run the business without the same staff required at a traditional book store. Amazon.com very quickly caught on to people was looking for cheaper books, especially the college students. At that time, eBay was the primary way of buying other products online. Amazon changed the strategy of the business to make better uses of the company’s capabilities. The strategy was to make use of the extra 90 percent of the company’s processing capacity and improve revenue by offering computing, storage, and other technical services to businesses as well as individuals. This was a very smart move on their part. This was not the original purpose of the business; however, there was constant changing in the market and new competitive online retailers that they had to diversify the business. The new strategy took Amazon in a new direction that allowed them to compete in a broader business market. Three of the services offered are the Simple Storage Service (S3), the Elastic Compute...
Words: 378 - Pages: 2
