...I choose Amazon…………………………………………………………... 3 Amazon's Channel Design including its use of the Web………………………………... 3-4 Web Beginnings……………………………………………………………………... 4 Today………………………………………………………………………………… 4 Amazon’s future including key strengths and weaknesses……………………………… 4 Amazon’s Vision and the changing Web…………………………………………… 4-5 Key Strengths and Weaknesses……………………………………………………… 5-6 Opportunity and Threats…………………………………………………………….. 6 SWOT Analysis…………….…………………………………………………………… 7-9 Amazon’s Ethical Challenges…………………………………………………………… 9 Changing Web Ethics……………………………………………………………….. 9 Ethical challenges for Amazon……………………………………………………… 9 Strategy Recommendations for Amazon………………………………………………... 9-10 References……………………………………………………………………………….. 11 Introduction Amazon is one on the world’s undisputed leaders in web-based commerce. Although they were not the first company to capitalize on using the World Wide Web for commerce, they certainly raised it to an art form. When you think of shopping on the web, you think of Amazon. Amazon perfected this channel and continues to innovate as the technology and access to web grows. Amazon has zero brick and mortar retail locations, it’s business was founded on the web and this basic model is the delivery mechanism for it products, content and services from manufacturers, wholesalers, and publishers from around the world. Amazon has over 40 distribution centers around the globe. Amazon’s leadership in online commerce continues to...
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...Business Approaches, Management, and Marketing: Amazon.com vs. Borders Books BUS 302: Management Concepts April 29, 2012 Jeff Bezos, former vice-president of D.E. Shaw, founded Amazon.com in 1994. After reading an article that forecast an annual Web growth of 2,300 percent, Jeff Bezos decided to make Amazon.com’s headquarters in Seattle, Washington. Seattle, Washington was a hot spot for the rapidly growing high tech work force. Bezos had a hard time finding initial investors, because he did not project a profit for the first five to six years of the company’s formation. Bezos startup funds came from family and friends, he ultimately raised one million dollars for his initial capital. Amazon.com started its operations in Bezos garage selling books, but quickly grew to the Amazon.com we know today. Amazon.com sells DVDs, CDs, furniture, jewelry, electronics, software, video games, toys and even food. Amazon.com sells its products all around the world and can reach any consumer that has an interest connection. Borders, or Borders Group, Inc., started out as a single used bookstore in Ann Harbor, Michigan. Borders was founded by Louis and Tom Borders in 1971. In 1975, Louis and Tom bought out stock of Wahr’s an eighty year old bookstore that was closing its doors and moved their store to a much larger location. Borders was bought out by Kmart in 1992. Kmart tried to expand Borders into Canada, but failed because regulations could not be met. Borders did...
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...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 (FPS). Flexible Payment Services allows the transfer of funds amongst two entities with the support competence for multiple and...
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...to help other organization to establish a simply, secure connection their corporate network into the cloud. This service brings heavy competition against other companies that provide cloud services. In addition, with Amazon’s simple step guide, it creates a new horizon of opportunities for new clients to explore. In this essay, I will discuss my impressions, thoughts about organizations should consider the service, and its possible technical limitations. I have personally been a big fan of Amazon’s great services. From my orders being delivered on time, refunded from unwanted purchase transactions, and to reviewing other company’s products through Amazon, I believe Amazon has taken the next step to guide organizations to a more healthy and lucrative way to promote business. Amazon’s private cloud service has created a convenient and comfort level of security for its clients. According to Amazon’s Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), it has a variety of services under an affordable price. Amazon allows organizations to create four basic topologies that resembles more to theirs network infrastructure. Amazon has broken down their Virtual Private Network to allow clients configure the VPC by adding or removing subnets, attaching network gateways, changing the default route table and modifying the network Access Control Lists (ACLs) – Article from Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC). Despite everything being simple and elegant as it seems, there are...
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...Case Study 10. Learning from Amazon’s culture of metrics Questions 1.By referring to the case study, Amazon’s website for your country and yourexperience of Amazon offline communications, evaluate how well Amazon communicate their core proposition and promotional offers. Worldwide, the proposition is summarised by the well-known brand identity, which features ‘from A toZ’ suggesting the range of products and breadth within categories. Amazon used to refer to itself asthe world's largest bookstore.In the article, the following sentence gives an idea of the different aspects of the custom valueproposition to watch out for.‘It believes the main competitive factors in its market segments include ‘‘selection, price, availability,convenience, information, discovery, brand recognition, personalised services, accessibility, customer service, reliability, speed of fulfilment, ease of use and ability to adapt to changing conditions, as wellas our customers’’ overall experience and trust in transactions with us and facilitated by us on behalf of third-party sellers’.Googling Amazon will show the different propositions explained in your region.For Amazon US, the proposition is clearest – the listing in Google states: Amazon.com Books: New & used textbooks, biographies, children's Online shopping from the earth'sbiggest selection of books, magazines, music, DVDs, videos, electronics, computers, software,apparel & accessories, shoes and for books. Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics...
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... Border Books and Amazon.com both started out selling books. So, why is Amazon.com one of the largest retailers in the world and Borders Books is out of business? There are many things that go into making a business a success. It is not enough to have a product to sell and a location to sell that product. In order to understand the difference between Amazon.com and Borders Books, it is important to look at the history and core business of each company, the management approach each company took to Internet marketing and sales, the reasons for Amazon’s success despite not turning a profit for the first five to six years, the reasons Borders Books, although they were initially successful ended up in bankruptcy, the extent to which the management of each company adapted to changing market conditions, and ways a company should build flexibility to back up its decision making process so to adapt to changing market conditions. In order to understand the difference between Amazon.com and Border Books, it is important to understand the history and core business of each company. Looking at Amazon.com first, Amazon.com opened for business on July, 16 1995. “The company was nothing more than a few people packing and shipping boxes of books from a two-car garage” (Webley, 2010). The company was using a desk made out of an old door to pack the books. When Amazon.com first started selling books, people wondered why anyone would purchase books off-line when they could...
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...this day. Primarily focusing on Amazon, which was founded in 1995, I actually have noticed the drastic changes in the way the company has been running its business over these past few years in comparison to a decade ago. Amazon’s business structure manages to keep up with the market by constantly introducing technology that meets the needs and improves the lives of shoppers and sellers around the world. The company and its e-commerce business is still continuing to grow and evolve as the world’s e-commerce platform. Based on the information I have learned from the first two parts of the book, Amazon changed the rules of the game by offering more services than just selling a book and dove into new opportunities to keep up with the ever changing market. The greatest take away for me in part I of the book was the idea of “strategic thinking”. I used to think strategic planning was one of the most important elements to have in a business, but strategic thinking is the real prerequisite to success because it places the focus on a long term mindset. Because our economy operates in rapid change, it is crucial for businesses to keep up with it. The book places a big emphasis on what the focus should be while making sure that it is in the right activities. Amazon’s business structure is a great example of this. The company differentiated their e-commerce business by offering many types of products, more conveniently, for lower prices. For example, Amazon originally started off as a...
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...opened for business July 16, 1995 by a young man named Jeff Bezos. It started out as nothing more than a few people packing and shipping boxes of books from a two car garage in Bellevue, Washington. The books were ordered on line then packaged and mailed away. Today, Amazon is one of the largest retail online companies in the world. Amazon started out as a only having books on sale to being able to purchase items ranging from music CD’s, to clothing. The best thing about Amazon would be the price of the products/ items. Many of the items are sold cheaper on Amazon than in a local retail store. Amazon has grown to be the easiest way of shopping online. Amazon’s core business is definitely good as well as keeping their promises. It has grown from books to products in over 30 categories but the business model are intact. Amazon’s goal is to attract customers with a competitive, cheap retail service that would be hard for any other retail store can compete. Amazon also offers many discount prices, is easy to navigate through for shopping, and has a quick, easy way to checking out. Due to the great shipping charges, great turnaround for shipping merchandise to the customers, and great prices, Amazon has and will continue to be the biggest online retail company. Amazon is one way for customers to purchase items that are available via the internet, however, many customers prefer shopping in an actual store. Bookstores are there to help the customers have access to the item at that...
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...Profile Amazon.com strives to be Earth's most customer-centric company where people can find and discover virtually anything they want to buy online. By giving customers more of what they want - low prices, vast selection, and convenience - Amazon.com continues to grow and evolve as a world-class e-commerce platform. Founded by Jeff Bezos, the Amazon.com website started in 1995 as a place to buy books because of the unique customer experience the Web could offer book lovers. Bezos believed that only the Internet could offer customers the convenience of browsing a selection of millions of book titles in a single sitting. During the first 30 days of business, Amazon.com fulfilled orders for customers in 50 states and 45 countries - all shipped from his Seattle-area garage. 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. Among its many technological innovations for customers, Amazon.com offers a personalized shopping experience for each customer, book discovery through "Search Inside The Book", convenient checkout using "1-Click® Shopping", and several community features like Wish Lists that help customers discover new products and make informed buying decisions. Year 2000 Amazon.com began to offer its best-of-breed e-commerce platform to other retailers and to individual sellers. Today, more than two million small businesses, world-class retail brands and individual...
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.....................................................................................................................................3 Available Alternatives..................................................................................................................8 Recommendations ......................................................................................................................9 2 Amazon Case Analysis Executive Summary The purpose of this case analysis is to examine the way Amazon does business and determine areas where the company can improve and respond to emerging challenges. Amazon operates in the online shopping industry, an industry that is characterized by growing consumer acceptability, rapidly changing technology, and rising security threats. Amazon has been a major player in this market since its inception and had grown to be the largest online retailer in the world at the time of the case. Some of the key problems that Amazon is facing are the growth of competing companies that have been imitating their business model, a push from consumers to buy more local products, and the...
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...Domination With a name that has become synonymous with online-shopping, Amazon has become one of the most recognizable and influential brands in the world. Founded in 1995, Amazon has dramatically changed and expanded the options and opportunities for consumers as well as competitors. Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos, is not content with the status quo. “Amazon is a company that is anything but asleep. Amazon, in fact, is an eyes-wide-open army fighting--and winning--a battle that no one can map as well as its general (McCorvey, 2013).” Bezos realized that consumers desire low cost and fast delivery, and he took these consumer-driven concepts to never-before-seen heights through the implementation of fulfillment centers, Amazon Prime, and AmazonFresh. According to McCorvey, Bezos’ goal is for Amazon to create global, same-day delivery. This goal of same-day delivery is entirely possible, and Amazon is well on its way to realizing its plan. To make sense of how this plan will come to fruition, it is important to look at what brought the company to its current position, analyze Amazon’s competition, and understand how the company plans to reach the same-day delivery milestone. History Amazon’s CEO has been looking ahead from the beginning, wiring to understand the consumer and develop programs and services that will drive customers to his company. Originally a company focused on book sales, Amazon has progressed to become an absolute retail giant with more than 209 million...
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...Page 1 of 27 Page 2 of 27 1. Executive Summary When Amazon.com started its business operations on 16-07-1995, with a few employees packing & shipping boxes of books from a two-car garage in Bellevue, Wash. The company's founder and CEO, Mr. Jeff Bezos used some of his time on the road to write the company's business plan when he was leaving N.Y. City for the Pacific Northwest. On its 15th-anniversary in 2010, Amazon is truly proud to be one of the world largest online retailers, selling everything from musical instruments and sports equipment to household appliances and apparels (Kayla, W. 2010). In our coursework group assignment, we are tasked to study and analyse the strategic management issues of Amazon.com. The case study will base on fourth quarter of 2007 as a current year. We will be evaluating the company's external and internal environments, how the company emerge into the industry by means of its strategies management in dealing with economic, technology & distribution issues and competition. We will also look at the company's vision & mission and it relate to the expansion of its product lines and reach, to increase its revenue and market share, and to understand and consider their possible near-term and long-term objectives that the organization could pursue. Lastly but not least, to out up recommendation for Amazon and conclude it with our learning experiences on BPS module. Page 3 of 27 2. Company Overview Amazon was founded by Mr. Jeff Bezos in 1994...
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...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...
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...and smart devices such as kindle, has achieved a great success in the past 20 years. However, there are also some imminent challenges to overcome for the successful giant. When it comes to the external environment of the company, we think there are three main trends of the technology industry. Firstly, era of mobile internet. In fact, as technology has been evolving, traditional boundaries between hardware and software, products and services, and online and bricks-and-mortar stores have not only become increasingly blurred as the article tells us, but also have connected with each other by internet and smart devices, especially smart phones. Though the Fire phone turned out Amazon’s first misstep, the smart phone is very important for Amazon as it may be the most-used device for consumers accessing to Amazon’s diversified products and services. Secondly, the emerging of digital ecosystem. We can draw from the other three giants, Apple, Google and Facebook that they are running and expanding their businesses centered on their hundreds of millions of users. Based on a huge user base, Apple expands its product categories adding Apple TV, Apple watch and Apple pay. Google made inroads into tablet business, TV set-top box, social networks. Facebook launched the HTC First specifically designed with the Android-based Facebook app in mind, meanwhile, Facebook crossed into e-commerce. The same can easily go for Amazon. Thirdly, fierce competition between giants. As we can see, with the development...
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...Jeffrey P. Bezos in 1994. It was originally named Cadabra Inc. They found that the name was often negatively mistaken as “Cadaver.” The name Amazon was adopted soon after because the Amazon River is the largest in the world, and the letter “A” would help the company to show up at the top of alphabetical lists. Amazon, since its release in 1995, has become one of the Fortune 500 e-commerce company (btmaushart.iweb, 2014). 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 including, but not limited to: CDs, videos, DVDs, electronics, toys, tools, home furnishings, and more. In addition to those products from Amazon, Amazon also sells products from well-known retailers through intermediaries’ agreements. Among those retailers are Toysrus.com Inc., Target Corporation, and Circuit City Stores Inc (FundingUniverse.com, 2014). Amazon takes on a face of a company that came out of nowhere and took over the internet in terms of e-commerce. Amazon has customized the way people can buy things online and continues to come...
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