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Business Diversification

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Business Diversification
Thomas Wilson
Dr. Browder Coates
Contemporary Business
29 January 2012

Amazon.com was founded in 1994 and the site went online in 1995. Since then it is the leading online book selling retailer in the USA. In 1997 it diversified from solely a bookstore into selling music, video, downloads, general electronics, apparel, furniture, food, and toys. In addition, Amazon has established separate websites in Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and China. It also provides international shipping to certain countries for some of its products. The growth and diversification is part of the strategic planning of Amazon.com which aims to provide a “one stop shop” for their customers. Amazon.com established that there are three areas that are of great significance to the customers: selection, convenience and price. Nothing epitomizes this better than their landmark e-book product Kindle which has by far the biggest available electronic library; instant downloads globally and it is considerably cheaper than traditional products. There are two strong values that are practiced by Amazon.com; these are customer satisfaction and operational efficiency. These two values complement Amazon.com’s operational strategies in achieving and maintaining an effective competitive advantage and encouraging employee and corporate performance.
While the diversification of the Amazon brand has merit, I would suggest that globalization is a more lucrative and achievable goal. For a company that has achieved the status of number 1 media outlet in the world largest market (USA) the global effort seems ludicrously anemic. The fact that Amazon only offers web services in only 7 other countries indicates a lack of global ambition and a lack of understanding of their role as market leader, that they should developed more. As a result Amazon

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