Amazon is global, it was an original .com within the last ten years it has devolved a consumer data base it has been one of the first online retailers. Amazon stated with books and ventured to now include electronic, toys, games, do it yourself and more. Weaknesses- with the addition of Amazons new category's, it could risk its brand status. Amazon is number one retailer for books. With their venture with new product category's they stand the chance of confusing customers while endangering band name.
Amazon focuses on convenience, selection range, and price. “We seek to offer the Earth's Biggest Selection and to be the Earth's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they may want to buy online”. In addition to the direct retailing services, Amazon allows other small and medium sized businesses to sell their products through the company’s websites. The customers and business are able to complete their orders and transactions in Amazon’s websites. Other individuals such as authors, musicians, and filmmakers are also able to sell their products using the same platform.
However, a successful company like Amazon.com also has its own actual problems. What is the actual problem? Since the 1990s the company has invested heavily to quickly develop the best-in-class retailing, fulfillment, and customer service capabilities required to support its rapidly growing and increasingly complex business. During 1998 and 1999, Amazon.com spent over $429 million to build a state-of-the-art digital business infrastructure and operations that linked nine distribution centers and six customer service centers located across the United States and in Europe and Asia. However in late 1999 this distribution infrastructure provided 70 percent to 80 percent overcapacity.
Barnes & Noble is for the folks who love the smell of books. With over 40 product categories ranging from books and DVDs to pet food to health and beauty products, there is something for just about everyone on Amazon.com. The site contains your browsing history, which can be either good or bad depending on who's looking over your shoulder when you next log in. Amazon offers 1-click check out once you set up an account, and also offers incentives to consumers who use Amazon's own credit card. Orders over $25 ship free to continental U.S. addresses.
Amazon Evolution Amazon, the largest online retailer, has annual sales in excess of $10 billion but investors have not seen the consistent profit growth they expected (Rainer & Turban, 2008). Jeff Bezos started Amazon.com in 1995 by selling books because he believed that only the Internet could offer customers the convenience of browsing a selection of millions of book titles in a single sitting (Small Business Notes, 2009). According to Small Business Notes (n.d.), “Since 1995, Amazon.com has significantly expanded its product offering, international sites, and worldwide network of fulfillment and customer service centers.” Amazon continues to grow and evolve as an excellent e-commerce platform by giving customers more of what they want such as low prices, vast selection, and convenience (Small Business Notes, 2009). However, many analysts wonder if Amazon will ever fulfill its original promise to revolutionize retailing (Rainer & Turban, 2008). According to Rainer & Turban (2008), “By 2007, Amazon had spent 12 years and some $2 billion building the infrastructure of its online store, which is among the biggest and most reliable in the world.” However, Amazon does not use but a small amount of its processing capacity at any one-time so the company 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 businesses (Rainer & Turban, 2008).
Value Innovation – Amazon´s Kindle Amazon saw the opportunity to offer books and other media from its own collection to consumers in a compact and convenient way, and in 2007, it introduced the Kindle, revolutionizing the very act of reading and launching the first commercially successful e-book reader. The Kindle, perhaps appropriately named for its ability to “re-kindle” interest in reading books among the ever-busy and tech-happy young professionals´ society of today, is a salient example of value innovation in response to changing consumer trends over time. Kindle´s Sources of Value The figure below demonstrates the Kindle´s value curve compared to a traditional hardcover book. The 6 factors examined were accessibility, resilience, convenience, variety, internet connectivity and price. Accessibility – Accessibility of a hardcover book depends on the specific book, as some books are out of print and more difficult to access.
Books have been the cornerstone of our society for centuries, especially after the invention of the printing press perhaps the most important invention in human history because it carried history, the medium that gave us our initial knowledge about important events in the past, literacy and themes or universal truth the teach life lessons. Digital technology has begun to radically change the role of books in our society. Like for example, the usual books that we carry around while walking inside the university has been suddenly replaced by portable hardware’s installed with an eReader. Like what is presently adopted by La Salle Green Hills in Mandaluyong city. They issued 500 eBooks to selected students to lessen their burden in carrying books.
The most important marketing strategy in Amazon is its customer-centricity. Achieving customer loyalty has been their biggest success factor. Amazon.com Case Study 1.1 Case Study Objectives * To investigate, analyze and evaluate Amazon.com external and internal environment * To study background information Amazon.com's Customer Relationship Management (CRM) * To study how Amazon.com can offer its back-end expertise to customers * To answer questions of underlying case problems regarding Amazon.com value proposition and its CRM technology offerings 1.2 Company Background Amazon.com, an e-commerce company was incorporated in 1994. Jeffrey P. Bezos founded the company and has been the Chairman since 2000. Bezos wanted a name for his company that began with "A" so that it would appear first in lists, like in phone books.
E -BUSINESS The founder of amazon.com studied the book market before choosing it as a starting place for amazon.com, but more importantly was his understanding of internet and willingness to invest in the latest internet technology to make shopping online faster, easier and more personally rewarding. Jeff Bezoz saw an opportunity that other booksellers couldn’t see, as observed in Business week “ what Bezoz understood before mostly was the ability of the web to connect almost anyone with any product , meant that he could do things that couldn’t be done in the physical world, such as selling 3 million books in a single store”. In a nut shell, Amazon.com gained the first mover advantage CONTINOUS INNOVATION Another success factor for amazon.com is the company’s ability to innovate. The words of saunders said that Amazon.com is “technology company” aside being a retail company. Bezoz knows that there are no sustainable technological advantages and it has to be an ongoing strategy.
Amazon is an American electronic commerce company that has become an icon of internet business. Jeff Bezos founded the company in 1994 and launched it online in 1995 as an online bookstore. However, the logo soon became symbolic as they started to sell everything from A to Z. Time magazine names Bezos “1999 Person of the Year” and said, “Bezos’ vision of the online retailing universe was so complete, his Amazon.com site so elegant and appealing that it became from Day One the Point of reference for anyone who had anything to sell online.” Strengths • Well established web brand • Loyal customers base of over 12million shoppers • Distribution facilities to handle growth and fulfillment • Leader in use of technology to delivery targeted content • Excellent offline customer service • Building international presence in markets outside of the USA • Has moved away form being a low price supplier of books toward a focus on delivering outstanding service at a price Weaknesses • Amazon.com brand has been diluted by entering a wide number of product segments, increasing competition • Need to restructure business to drive toward profitability has meant upward pressure on prices • No offline brand presence • Insufficient community added value • Now competes as a mass merchant, allowing specialty stores to identify with particular segment, e.g. Barnes and Noble - books, eToys - Toys, Home Depot - Tools.