...Amazon.Com Strayer University Online 1. Examine how at least three (3) growth strategy alternatives utilized by Amazon.com in the global and domestic retail markets influenced profitability, and indicate if the strategies were successful. For the past 18 years, Amazon.com has entered a variety of product categories both domestically and globally. Since 1995, Amazon.com started by selling physical media and has expanded by adding categories such as electronics, toys, baby, tools & hardware, home & garden, apparel, sports & outdoors, jewelry & watches, health & personal care, beauty, shoes & accessories, dry goods, auto parts & accessories, Kindle Devise & Store, and office supplies. Amazon.com first entered the European market in the United Kingdom in 1998 by selling physical media, and has expanded to other nations. As of 2012 year-end, Amazon.com has achieved $61 billion in revenue a far cry of $34.2 billion in revenue just three year prior in 2010. The breakdown of the revenue mix is $34.8 billion in North America and $26.2 billion internationally in 2012. The top three categories in North America as presented by Amazon.com is electronics and other general merchandise, media, and other which “[i]nclude sales from non-retail activities, such as AWS in North America segment, advertising services, and our co-branded credit card agreements in both segments”. Amazon.com objective is “not to discount a small number of products for a limited...
Words: 1465 - Pages: 6
...Amazon.com - Financial Analysis Case Study Introduction The bookselling industry is one of the steady growing industries which have estimated the sales of $27 billion in the year 2006. The sales of the books highly depend on different seasons. The industry has diverse customers who buy different categories of books which includes the trade books, college books, professional books, mass market paper-back books. With stiff competition across the market, the companies are strongly focusing on adopting different ways and means so as to attract more and more consumers and achieving high market share in the industry. Company overview Amazon.com is considered to be the market player in the e-commerce industry (bookselling). Amazon.com was founded by Jeff Bezos, who focused on enhancing the book shopping experience of consumers, with innovation and new ways to sell books online. One of the major players of Amazon.com is Barnes and Noble. Amazon.com started as an online bookstore that has turned into one of the largest online retailers selling items from music and movies to artwork and furniture. As the company website states “it is by design that technological innovation drives the growth of Amazon.com to offer customers more types of products, more conveniently, and at even lower prices.” In this paper you will learn the financial health of the company Amazon.com. The 9-step process written about by Professor Piper will be followed to assess how financially sound Amazon.com...
Words: 2907 - Pages: 12
...Amazon.com Team B Assignment University of Phoenix The evolution of Amazon.com has increased the Internet giant’s footing in the e-commerce world, taking the book retailer from the beginnings of providing a shopping experience above the walk in bookstores of the past. Today, Amazon offers services to thousands of businesses as well as the continued service for both sellers and buyers of many products of music, apparel, movies, toys, pet supplies, and more. Amazon’s strategy has moved the Internet business from retail to competing with Google and Microsoft to offer data and information storage retrievable by uncomplicated software. Amazon’s use of e-business and e-commerce in the B2B and B2C realm continues to add services for businesses to reduce operating costs and increase the subscriber’s efficiency that places Amazon in a position unimaginable 10 years ago. Amazon.com is a business whose sole transactions involve the Internet to some extent. Unlike many traditional department stores, Amazon has no storefront from which to conduct business. Its entire operation operates via e-commerce or e-business. E-commerce is the sale, purchase, or exchange of items, including products and services, over a computer network. E-commerce is similar to e-business, but includes all aspects of a business, including developing customer relationships and collaborative efforts between companies. Amazon uses both e-business and e-commerce in its business dealings to achieve...
Words: 1389 - Pages: 6
...Resources, 2009). It is the largest online electronic retailer in America (Webley, 2010). Amazon was founded in 1995 by Jeffrey Bezos’s (Amazon Global Resources, 2009) . Since Bezos opened the doors of Amazon he has defined and redefined online retailing for the rest of the Internet retail world. When the doors first opened it was from a two car garage in Bellevue, Washington (Amazon Global Resources, 2009). It was nothing more than an online bookstore; the inventory was stored in Bezos’s two car garage. It has now expanded to offer the Earth’s biggest selection of books, CDs, videos, DVDs, electronics, toys, tools, home furnishings and house wares, apparel and kitchen gadgets (Amazon Global Resources, 2009). Customers still rank Amazon.com as the best online Internet retail shopping website (Farfan, 2011). This was based on their internet shopping experiences during the 2011 holiday shopping season (Farfan, 2011). Identifying Amazon’s Mission, Vision Statement and Primary Stakeholders Mission and vision statements are written for the employees and customers. Mission statements can be one sentence or a short paragraph which describes the purpose of the business. It identifies, the companies values and principle business aims. A vision statement can also be a sentence or a short paragraph providing a broad image of the future (Farfan, 2011). Amazon’s vision and mission statement are the same, "Our vision is to be earth's most customer centric company; to build a place...
Words: 2092 - Pages: 9
...Amazon.com - Financial Analysis Case Study Introduction The bookselling industry is one of the steady growing industries which have estimated the sales of $27 billion in the year 2006. The sales of the books highly depend on different seasons. The industry has diverse customers who buy different categories of books which includes the trade books, college books, professional books, mass market paper-back books. With stiff competition across the market, the companies are strongly focusing on adopting different ways and means so as to attract more and more consumers and achieving high market share in the industry. Company overview Amazon.com is considered to be the market player in the e-commerce industry (bookselling). Amazon.com was founded by Jeff Bezos, who focused on enhancing the book shopping experience of consumers, with innovation and new ways to sell books online. One of the major players of Amazon.com is Barnes and Noble. Amazon.com started as an online bookstore that has turned into one of the largest online retailers selling items from music and movies to artwork and furniture. As the company website states “it is by design that technological innovation drives the growth of Amazon.com to offer customers more types of products, more conveniently, and at even lower prices.” In this paper you will learn the financial health of the company Amazon.com. The 9-step process written about by Professor Piper will be followed to assess how financially sound Amazon.com...
Words: 2907 - Pages: 12
...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...
Words: 2093 - Pages: 9
...Amazon.com - Financial Analysis Case Study Introduction The bookselling industry is one of the steady growing industries which have estimated the sales of $27 billion in the year 2006. The sales of the books highly depend on different seasons. The industry has diverse customers who buy different categories of books which includes the trade books, college books, professional books, mass market paper-back books. With stiff competition across the market, the companies are strongly focusing on adopting different ways and means so as to attract more and more consumers and achieving high market share in the industry. Company overview Amazon.com is considered to be the market player in the e-commerce industry (bookselling). Amazon.com was founded by Jeff Bezos, who focused on enhancing the book shopping experience of consumers, with innovation and new ways to sell books online. One of the major players of Amazon.com is Barnes and Noble. Amazon.com started as an online bookstore that has turned into one of the largest online retailers selling items from music and movies to artwork and furniture. As the company website states “it is by design that technological innovation drives the growth of Amazon.com to offer customers more types of products, more conveniently, and at even lower prices.” In this paper you will learn the financial health of the company Amazon.com. The 9-step process written about by Professor Piper will be followed to assess how financially sound Amazon.com...
Words: 2907 - Pages: 12
...The Evolution of Amazon.com Between 1995 and 2006, Amazon.com sold its first book and branched out into serving seven countries with fulfillment centers totaling more than nine million square feet of warehouse space (Layton, 2006.) Amazon.com started out with the idea of revolutionizing retail shopping as the world knows it. However, over time, Amazon.com has begun to move away from their original strategy by implementing new programs and services. The people behind Amazon.com are hoping that these new programs and services will help them compete with the biggest names in the industry, such as Google and Microsoft. In this paper we will discuss why Amazon.com is moving away from its original strategy, discuss areas in which Amazon.com is competing with other top companies, address issues with the database, and describe how Amazon.com uses e-business and e-commerce for business to business (B2B) and business to consumer (B2C) transactions. Amazon.com is not moving away from its core competency of being a leading online retailer; they are simply competing with a business strategy to survive. Stretching their wings by evolving into bigger and better services for their consumers is one way to keep up and compete with Google and Microsoft. Amazon’s make-to-order strategy of producing customized products and services is a business strategy to keep them amongst the leaders in online retailing. Their goal is simple, “To be Earth's most customer-centric company where people can...
Words: 889 - Pages: 4
...Amazon.com Evolution Introduction Amazon.com, Inc. a fortune 500 company in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 founded by Jeff Bezos, and today offers Earth’s biggest selection. Amazon.com, seeks 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. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as books, movies, music, games, digital downloads, electronic and computers. Amazon Web service provides Amazon’s developer customers with access to in-the cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon’s own back end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. The company maintains a staff of programmers, editors, executive and all-around book lovers. (Amazon.com, 1995). Team A will address the core competency of Amazon.com, their competition; the uses of the Amazon.com database, and describe how Amazon.com uses e-business and e-commerce for B2B and B2C. Core Competency Based on the information and evidence Amazon.com is moving away from its core competency from Book Seller to Service Provider. The on-line retailer has decided to provide a series of computing, storage, and other services that make its infrastructure available to companies and individuals to help them run the technical and logistical parts of their business....
Words: 1101 - Pages: 5
...Amazon.com Evolution Amazon starts as a book distributor that is currently competing with a number of Internet companies throughout the world. CEO, Jeff Bezos, has a vision of Amazon.com being a place where anything, can be located on the website. Amazon is gaining significant ground in its ambition to take over the entire e-commerce e-tailing sector, according to the recent successes. Since 1996, the company has taken the lead, introducing venues for electronic shopping (Pearlson, Saunders 2005). Amazon.com is the largest online retailers in the world, Amazon develops it core competency by striving with the competition. In order for Amazon.com to remain the leading online retail, it is essential to expand the vision of the company. As the customers grow, the customer’s needs expand and the availability of product and services. To augment the number the number of shoppers that use its site, Amazon.com created a program, which awards other sites a percentage of a sale when customers are link to them from another site to make a suggested purchase. Competition is increasing with other websites becoming the favored first stop on the Web. Google has taken the place of such retail sites as Amazon, the resource used by a number of people to start their shopping. Amazon services thousands of companies. Whether Amazon services will contribute to the company’s bottom line is still unknown. Amazon is in direct competition with Google to create a Web-based, worldwide computing platform...
Words: 1123 - Pages: 5
...Amazon is a global leader in ecommerce. Since 1995, they have significantly expanded their product offering, international sites, and worldwide network of fulfillment and customer service. Their technological innovation drives the growth of Amazon, offering its customers more products at lower prices. Large 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. Its web service is called Elastic Compute Cloud. In addition, independent software developers also derive value from the platform, through Amazon Web Services by building profitable applications and services that cater to Amazon customers and sellers which puts it in direct competition with both Google and Microsoft. When you search the Google search engine or one of more than 150 other Google domains, you can find information in many different languages. Also, you can check quotes, maps, patents and much more. As a business, Google generates the majority of its revenue by offering advertiser, measurable, cost-effective and highly relevant advertising, so that the ads are useful to the people who see them as well as to the advertisers who run them. Its web service is called Google Apps Engine. The Microsoft’s Azure platform offer’s a flexible, familiar environment for developers to create cloud application and services. With Windows Azure, you can shorten you time to market and adapt as demand...
Words: 810 - Pages: 4
...Amazon.com Evolution Team B October 2, 2010 BIS/219: BUSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEMS Instructor Mohamed Hassan Axia College of University of Phoenix Amazon.com Evolution Less than two decades ago a man named Jeff Bezos had a vision of selling books online, and that he did. Amazon.com was established and started selling books online quite well. Since then, Amazon has become the largest online retailer selling a wide variety of products and services. In the past few years, the e-commerce company has become more than just a leading retail giant; it has become a technological platform. Even though Amazon is the largest online retailer, it still has competition and has to produce innovative ideas and advanced technological strategies to compete with the other online giants. Amazon.com is no longer just a place to purchase books online; it is becoming a one-stop-shop for consumers and businesses alike. Amazon is a fortune 500 E-commerce retail company that includes business to business as well as business to customer relations. Amazon was founded by Jeffrey P. Bezos, previously a financial analyst for the New York hedge fund D.E. Shaw & Company, who in 1994 started a wild business plan to become the world’s biggest book store (NY Times, 2010). In July 1995 Amazon.com was born and people were able to purchase their books online. The website started out with the goal to be the Earth’s biggest bookstore offering books, music and movies. Since the...
Words: 1170 - Pages: 5
...BIS/219 | Evolution of Amazon.com | The 21st century has introduced many new forms of technology to the world. One that has captivated all of us at some point or another is the internet. The ease of research and shopping has drawn consumers to the computer in search of quick answers and next day shipping. Many companies have jumped on the band wagon, converting their products to an online format and making special deals available to consumers willing to use their online shopping centers. One such company that has all but surpassed the rest is Amazon. They have built an empire with online access to almost anything consumers’ request, primarily known for music and books. Their prices are some of the best and most competitive in the nation, and their customer service is rival to some of the number one customer service companies in the world. In this paper, we will discuss Amazon.com and the impact they have had on today’s retail cyber-highway. Leading Online Retailer In 1995 when Amazon.com opened for business on the World Wide Web, the company’s main focus was to offer the “Earth’s Largest Selection” of books, music and video’s according to Amazon.com’s website. The founder left his job on Wall Street and began writing his business plan that consisted of 20 items that could be sold on his site and set out to create the largest selection on earth of books, videos, music and more. In the company’s 15 year history, they have mastered the online retail market and have...
Words: 1194 - Pages: 5
...The Strategic Framework Of Amazon Online Amazon.com Overview Amazon.com was one of the first major companies to sell goods over the Internet and has become a worldwide established name. Amazon.com is an American e-commerce company that is based in Washington. It was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 and began as an online bookstore but due to its success, Amazon has diversified into other product lines and services such as groceries, electronics and Merchant Program (see Appendix 1 for detailed portfolio). Amazon. com’s stock price has fluctuated in recent years from $105 in 1999 to $5 in 2001 (Lauden and Traver, 2000). Amazon.com has developed separate websites for Canada, UK, Germany, France, China and Japan. Amazon.com vision is to become (Amazon.com, 2007): “Earth’s biggest selection and to be Earth’s most customer centric company.” Definition of Strategy An integrated set of actions aimed at increasing the long-term well-being and strength of the enterprise relative to competitors. strategic thinking: creative, entrepreneurial insight into the ways the enterprise could develop. Strategic planning: systematic, comprehensive analysis to develop a plan of action. Opportunistic decision making: effective reaction to unexpected threats and opportunities. Strategic management: having an effective combination of coherent planning, incisive thinking and astute opportunism. The Evolving Nature of Strategy and Strategic Planning in Organization: World War II: Formal strategic...
Words: 8304 - Pages: 34
...Amazon.com, as an e-commerce website has emerged as a leader in the e-business world. Originally, the company began as a website that sold books at discount prices, now Amazon.com has evolved into a marketplace for the world. Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO, has changed the business model of the company many times. He is focused on expanding the selection of goods and services offered on the website, in an attempt to please customers. However, he is having trouble managing the priorities of his gigantic company, he should give the existing categories priority and worry about expansion at a later time. When Amazon.com first began in 1995, as strictly a book retailer, Bezos knew he had discovered an excellent company. After all, a physical bookstore cannot stock anywhere close to the number of books Amazon can offer online. Within a year, the company had a customer base of approximately 340,000 consumers and daily site visits were huge as well. But Bezos wanted to expand the company to offer music and DVDs, because he realized there was little or no barrier of entry. In the next years Amazon would emerge as a marketplace, expanding the company globally offering products from toys to kitchenware. Because of the relatively cheap prices Amazon was offering and also the growing number of online shoppers, the company was doing tremendous amounts of sales and creating profits. In 1999 Bezos invested huge amounts of money to help Amazon become a more efficient company. He built warehouses...
Words: 990 - Pages: 4
