Assignment Questions:

1. What is Amazon’s business and what factors are critical to its success? [list or table] Amazon’s Businesses | Critical Success Factors | Retail Goods | Operational Efficiency | | - Disintermediated the retail process | | - Largely automated and information intensive fulfillment centers with huge inventories | | Control | | - Information systems that provided information that managers used to squeeze every last drop of productivity out of their processes | | Innovation | | - Created a new type of facility that allowed Amazon control the transaction from start to finish | Cloud Computing Services | Innovation | | - Developed own methods and built Web-enabled information systems from scratch | | Dedication to collecting and using information to run the business | | | | | | | Supply Chain Management | Operational Efficiency | | - Disintermediated the retail process | | - Largely automated and information intensive fulfillment centers with huge inventories | | - Destroys virtually every other retailer’s turnover rate | | | Back-end Fulfillment Services | Dedication to collecting and using information to run the business | | Control | | - Information systems that provided information that managers used to squeeze every last drop of productivity out of their processes | | | | |

2. What challenges did Amazon face when it first entered the marketplace? [list] a. . No profit due to razor thin profit margins and generous business practices b. . Treading in unchartered waters with eCommerce c. . Huge infusion of capital needed for something never done before d. . Developing new methods e. . Building its own web-enabled information systems from scratch

3. What information is required by Amazon to transact, to manage,