...An In Depth Analysis of Amazon Inc. In Relation to Information Technology Systems Table of Contents History page 3 Management page 4 Competitive Advantage page 5 Five Forces Model page 6 IT Strategy page 8 Value Chain page 9 E-Business page 13 Operating Systems page 15 Risk Assessment page 16 SWOT Analysis page 17 Supply Chain Management page 19 Customer Relationship Management page 19 Current Issues page 21 Recommendations and Conclusion page 22 Exhibits page 24 History Amazon.com, Inc. is a multicultural electronic commerce company founded in America by Jeffrey P. Bezos in 1994. It was originally named Cadabra, but was renamed after the Amazon River to bring into the picture a more powerful meaning (mashable). Amazon, since its release in 1995, has since become one of the Fortune 500 e-commerce company. In the business world, Amazon is currently the largest online retailer in the world. It manufactures consumer electronics, most widely known is the Amazon Kindle e-book reader, and has an extensive cloud computing service. Amazon’s start-up was initially only an online bookstore, giving Amazon an advantage of having more and readily available books than any long-established brick-and-mortar book store. By the last 1990’s, Amazon’s success had enabled an expansion from an online bookstore to a wide variety of other products...
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...Case Report - Amazon CONTENT 1. Amazon in Brief 2. Amazon’s Five Forces 2.1 Threat of New Entrants 2.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers 2.3 Rivalry Among Existing Competitors 2.4 Bargaining Power of Suppliers 2.5 Threat of Substitute Products or Services 3. Amazon’s Value Chain 4. Conclusion 5. References Case Report - Amazon 1. AMAZON IN BRIEF Amazon.com, an American company, started the journey 1994 in a small garage based in Seattle, Washington. Today, twenty years later Amazon has become the world's largest web retailer with a predicted revenue around $100 billion in 2014. The founder Jeffrey Bezos, a former Wall Street broker, started Amazon.com by selling books online from the garage in Seattle through the website Amazon.com; With a mission to provide everything for everyone. The company is one of the most customer-centric company in the world and every decision taken by Amazon, started with the key question; What is the value for the customer? - to provide the costumer with the best possible experience of Amazon. Jeffrey Bezos did not care about profit or return to the shareholders; the main focus has always been to provide the costumers with the most enjoyable experience. By offering a wide range of products and services to the lowest possible price and a fast and convenient delivery. Over the years, the selection of products and services have expanded enormously from just...
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...Global Production, Outsourcing, and Logistics Learning objectives • Explain why production and logistics decisions are of central importance to many multinational businesses. • Explain how country differences, production technology, and product features all affect the choice of where to locate production activities. • Recognize how the role of foreign subsidiaries in production can be enhanced over time as they accumulate knowledge. • Identify the factors that influence a firm’s decision of whether to source supplies from within the company or from foreign suppliers. • Describe what is required to efficiently coordinate a globally dispersed production system. This chapter focuses on two major activities—production and materials management, and attempts to clarify how when they are performed internationally, the cost of value creation can be lowered, and how value can be added by better serving customer needs. The choice of an optimal manufacturing location must consider country factors, technological factors, and product factors. Foreign factories can improve their capabilities over time, and this can be of immense strategic benefit to the firm. Managers need to view foreign factories as potential centers of excellence and encourage and foster attempts by local managers to upgrade factory capabilities. An essential issue in many international businesses is determining which component parts should be manufactured in-house...
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...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...
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...Fitting Room is a totally new product made by the group for Amazon. Group members made a set of marketing strategies for it. First, the company’s information and the product’s scenario will be introduced generally. Considering the future launch and success of ‘TRAILZON’ when it goes to market, this report will justify these proposals and discuss the further strategies and relevant issues based on the current propositions by the group. I. Recap, amendments and strategies Brief recap of ‘TRAILZON’ Amazon is an American electronic commerce company and it is one of the biggest online shopping retailers operating in over 14 countries all over the world (Barney, 2011). According to Cowen (2015), the garment and accessories sales occupied about seventy percent of the total income in Amazon in 2015. Thus, TRAILZON - Virtual fitting room was put forward to benefit more from the garment and strategies were made in order to achieve marketing target. TRAILZON is an online shopping app which enables users to fit clothes virtually. The target market of TRAILZON includes fashion brands, online shops and mobile users in the UK. TRAILZON will make profit by selling TRAILZON to fashion brands, sharing profits with application stores and selling clothes directly to customers so all retailing is virtual. As to the promotion, creative advertising will show on social media to make target market aware of this application. Besides, Amazon registered users will achieve relevant advertisement by...
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...INTRODUCTION Order fulfillment and delivery of products to customers are tricky parts of supply chain management. Earlier in 1990s, there was pull system in use and later it changed to push- pull system in order fulfilment. This change in system of order fulfillment was to increase margins, service and also to cope with the increase in volume of the orders. Order fulfillment does not confine to just delivering the ordered goods to the customers, but also provide all related customer services. In simple terms, along with the product, product information and usage information should be provided with the product. In addition to this, to maintain customer retention and satisfaction, there should be a system of exchange or return if desired by the customer. Order fulfillment includes several operations such as inventory management, packing, shipping, delivering and accounting. Hence, most of the operations involved are dealt without having to face the customers. TYPES OF ORDER FULFILLMENT Order fulfillment is of two types based on the usage of the process at a particular period of time. There is a conventional or traditional order fulfillment and E-commerce order fulfillment process. Traditional retailing of supply chain was used at the time of 1990s. In traditional retailing, inventory production is initiated at first and later is followed by pushing the product to customers. So, it begins with pulling and ends with pushing the product to customers. e- Commerce retailing deals...
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...ABSTRACT This report provides an in depth comparative analysis between Walmart and Amazon with respect to each company’s demographics, marketing, operations, and finance. The intent of this analysis is to determine the better stock to buy and hold over the next decade. It addresses the questions of market mispricing, the changes each entity must address to be competitive in the long run, and the importance of profitability. Jon Dages, Mei Li, and Chris Moore WALMART VS. AMAZON: The Economist Case Competition 2016 Table of Contents CUSTOMER DEMOGRAPHICS ........................................................................................................................ 2 MARKETING................................................................................................................................................... 4 OPERATIONS ................................................................................................................................................. 7 FINANCIAL ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................................... 11 RECOMMENDATION ................................................................................................................................... 13 APPENDIX .................................................................................................................................................... 14 WORKS...
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...Supply Chain Management Group Assignment Dr. Vikram Bhakoo Class: Tuesday 6:15-9:15 By: Widad Alharthi 822694 Di Cao Wasinee Phornnarit Yang Chan By: Widad Alharthi 822694 Di Cao Wasinee Phornnarit Yang Chan Table of Contents Introduction: 2 1. Supply Chain Management Practices 4 1.1 Walmart 4 1.1.1 Strategic allignemnt 4 1.1.2 procurement and distribution 5 1.1.3 Logistic and distribution management 5 1.1.4 Inventory management 6 1.2 Amazon 8 2. Strategic Alliances 9 2.1 Walmart 9 2.2 Amazon 10 3. Technologies employed in the SC Network 11 3.1 Walmart 11 3.2 amazon 13 4. Challenges and risks 14 4.1 Walmart 14 4.2 Amazon 15 5. Comparison of sustainable strategies in Supply Chains 16 conclusion 17 References: 18 Appendices: 19 Section A: 19 Section B: 19 Section C: 20 Introduction: Executive summary: This report provides an analysis and evaluation of the current supply chain strategies employed by two leading retail corporates, Walmart and Amazon. The report draws attention to the following aspects; supply chain management practices, strategic alliances, Information Technology, challenges and risks,finally sustainability in the supply chain. Method of the analysis includes reviewing a collection academic journals from different databases, analysing company’s annual reports and viewing news article for new trends and announcements about the company. The finding of this...
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...FLIPKART: The success story… The Indian youth is embracing the boom in e-retailing and this boom is headed by the Flipkart in almost every market segment. The market share of Flipkart is so predominant that even the offline stores are getting heavily affected. But what has made this new comer such a force in market that even the global giant like Amazon is feeling the heat of competition in India? INRODUCTION- The story starts when two guys Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal alumni of IIT Delhi working in Amazon quit their jobs and start their startup in September 2007 with initial funding of Rs 4 lakhs at Bangalore. They adopted the Amazon model in India and started with books category because they are easy to store, low cost of maintenance and value doesn’t change with time. It took them 4 months to sell their first order and their initial orders were totally dependent on their friends and close relatives. From coding to delivering of books, all the tasks were handled by both of them but they never lost the hope and kept strong belief in their dream project. They realized the potential of Indian market in e-commerce sector and made a flexible business plan to tap that potential. Their plan and efforts were so aligned with the market requirements that it took them only 6 years to reach from Rs. 4 lakhs to Rs. 400 crores and overtook their all existing and new competitors by a big margin. The investors have such a strong trust in the leadership and vision of Flipkart that continuously...
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...example, free delivers, 4-day delivery window and a 365-day return guarantee. All these services help Zappos gain more loyal customers. Their revenues are mostly come from its repeat customers. Critical Success: a. Timeliness of shipment: because as the business of Zappos grew, Zappos was confronted with the issues that their customers’ orders can’t be shipped on time. So Zappos opened its own warehouse and fulfillment centers, and of course hiring more employees to satisfy this high demand. Therefore, by implementing this set of actions, Zappos can offer the best selection of shoes available everywhere online. b. Training of employees: new employees must complete an intensive four-week training program, which let them better understand the company’s culture, business strategy and process. By training them, employees can enhance customer’s satisfaction. c. Customer services: Zappos focus on customer satisfaction. The orders will be accurately and speedy delivered to individual customers as best they can do. Also, the 365-return guarantee is a great policy to show company’s reliability. Furthermore, there are no call center scripts, time limits on calls, or predefined response to customer issues. This...
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...copying, for fair dealing purposes, of 10% of the work, or one chapter/article, applies to the original work from which the excerpt in this course material was taken, and not to the course material itself.| © The University of Western Australia 2011| UNIT DESCRIPTION Introduction Welcome to the study of supply chain management. The unit and the instructional material have been developed to cover a wide range of issues in supply chain management, which lays a foundation to study specific topics or techniques of logistics and supply chain in depth. The objective of the unit is to enable students to achieve an understanding of the terms, concepts, and principles of logistics and supply chain management; the issues faced by logistics managers and new approaches to these issues; and the transport and other physical processes in logistics operations. The lecturer is Associate Professor Min Qiu, a transport professional with 26 years of experince in transport, logistics and supply chain management, gained through teaching, research and...
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...Walmart's thinking, there are three types of shopping trips (Depillis, 2013): The stock-up mission- this kind of shopping trip brings families to Walmart's 3,200 nationwide Supercenters. The basic grocery run- where shopping trip shoppers want to go someplace nearby, such as one of Walmart's 300 neighborhood markets. The "immediate access" stops - where shoppers head for the traditional convenience store. As of today, Walmart hasn't really touched the third segment, except for a handful of "express" stores in Arkansas. Bill Simon, Walmart’s chief executive, vision to put all three segments together on what he called “ecosystem”. Walmart believes that “tethering” is the key to make this system work. From tether hiring and back- office functions, to tether inventory distribution systems, and even online orders, for greater efficiency and quick response to demand. In other words, instead of having one huge store with endless goods, Walmart will offer three kinds of stores with most of those goods, at the time and place customers need them. Walmart’s current strategy includes more emphasis on smaller-format stores and more e-commerce. (Cheng, 2012). Competitive Advantage Walmart enjoys several of competitive advantages that are the source of the company’s market dominance. However, Walmart’s primary competitive advantage is low costs. Low cost culture and leadership initiated by the company’s founder, Sam Walton, and continuously reinforce by WalMart’s current management...
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...------------------------------------------------- Can Flipkart Deliver? From a start-up with an investment of just four lakhs rupees, Flipkart has grown into a $100 million-revenue online retail giant in just five years. “It came to me as a Christmas gift from my Secret Santa, and it was all about choice, convenience and a new relationship,” is how Naveed Ansari, a 26-year-old Project Executive from Mumbai, recounts his first experience with Flipkart. A typical professional from a metro, he's short on time, and he's invariably seeking convenience. So, an e-voucher from Flipkart seemed an ideal fit. This gift marked his initiation into the sphere of e-commerce, and the journey for him has “just begun”. Many Indians today are embracing e-retailing with enthusiasm. Popular portals such as Flipkart are spearheading the conversion of offline shoppers into online bargain hunters. Adds Naveed, as an afterthought, “I felt Flipkart was the best option as the transaction was easy, and the variety of products was a bonus.” For Flipkart, this means the unlocking of a vast audience waiting to experience the joys and comfort of shopping online. Sachin Bansal, CEO and one of the co-founders of Flipkart (the other being Binny Bansal), is an ardent believer in the merits of customer service. “A simple desire to create a tailor-made product for the Indian consumer has grown into something beyond what we imagined,” Sachin muses. A quick glance at Flipkart's timeline shows it was to start as...
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...Director of European Supply Chain Operations, sat in his office in Slough, United Kingdom, and pondered what changes Amazon needed to make to sustain its growth in Europe. Established in the fall of 1998 through the acquisitions of two on-line Logistics Planning & Modelling Techniques booksellers, Bookpages.co.uk in Britain and Telebuch.de in Germany, Amazon.com’s European Distribution Strategy International, comprising Amazon Europe and Amazon Japan, now Amazon Europe had developed into three strong, independently run, country-based organizations in the UK, Germany, and France. Amazon represented 35% of Amazon revenues and was the fastest growing segment of the company (see Exhibit 1). Amazon.com’s European Distribution Strategy Amazon.com’s European Distribution Strategy Amazon.com’s European Distribution Strategy Amazon.com’s European Distribution Strategy To sustain its growth, Amazon Europe faced multiple expansion Taylor felt that a lot had been accomplished since his arrival six months options: it could replicate the broad array of product lines Amazon earlier. His team had managed to standardize and improve supply offered in the US, launch new Marketplacea activities, or expand into chain processes across Europe in the areas of vendor management, other European countries. In addition, Amazon Europe had to decide sales and operations planning, customer backlogs, and inventory which of its activities it should...
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...Market Entry Strategies for Entering E-Commerce Business in China May 18th 2014 Table of Contents 1 Introduction 1 2 Market overview 1 3 Market analysis 2 3.1 Approach using Porter’s Five Forces 2 3.2 Approach using SWOT analysis 2 4 Failed market entrants 3 5 Successful market entrants 3 5.1 Leveraging local platforms 3 5.2 Buying stakes in local businesses 4 5.3 The case of Amazon 4 6 Key success factors 4 6.1 Understanding the market 5 6.2 Differentiation 5 6.3 Social Media 5 6.4 Payments 5 6.5 Logistics 5 7 Conclusion 5 8 Bibliography 6 Introduction This paper covers challenges and strategies in entering the e-commerce business in China from a Western point of view. The focus thereby is on companies doing classical business-to-consumer (B2C) business and that are established players in their home market. Market overview According to market analysis (ref 1-2-3) the e-commerce market in China surpassed the U.S. one in 2013, reaching almost 300bn USD in turnover while U.S. reached just little above 250bn USD. Not only the size is impressive but also the growth rate, which has been around 70% in China since 2009 compared to 13% in the U.S. (see Figure 1). The online part of the retail sector is around 7% whereas Western countries report from 2% to 6% according to (Hoffmann & Lannes, 2013). In addition, more than 50% of all transactions are carried out via mobile devices. Finally, it is important to mention...
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