Amazon.Com - a Company Overview

Amazon.com - A company overview  

Amazon.com is commerce and cloud computing company based in Seattle, the brainchild of Jeff Bezos. It is the largest Internet retailer in the world measured by revenue and second largest after Alibaba Group in terms of total sales. Amazon is the third most valuable public company in the world, currently worth more than Facebook with 385 billion dollars, and employing the most people in the United States after Walmart.

Amazon originated as an online bookstore, but has since diversified so much that it now sells video downloads/streaming, MP3 downloads/streaming, audiobook downloads/streaming, software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys, and jewelry. The company is also known as producer of consumer electronics such as the Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets, Fire TV, and Echo and is the world's largest provider of cloud infrastructure services. The essence of Amazon today can be simply captured in the word dominance. And the road to its dominance on the global market can be summarized in a three step strategy which we will discuss in detail. Namely, search, selection and delivery.

1. Search:

As we have learned in the previous classes, companies destined to dominate global markets are those willing to invest, develop and implement new technologies. But what makes Amazon different from the rest is their ability to actually learn through these technologies about customer habits and how best to satisfy those habits and needs. Online retail is all about search, and Amazons success comes from utilizing its bookstore search engine. We have used the example of Black Friday previously in class to conclude that in this digital age it has evolved into a glorified TV wrestling match, since all the customers are on their phones buying from home and getting their product directly delivered. According to recent polls, more than 52% of people online search for products directly through the Amazon search bar. The Amazon A9 project database ensured this company will dominate digital retail through innovation and consistency on the market.

 2. Selection:

As we have learned, regarding logistics, it is not always essential to operate owned warehouses in order to establish a successful delivery network. Besides their owned warehouses, Amazons collaborates with many secondary warehouses where more than a million smaller retailers sell under Amazons brand directly to their customers.  

3. Delivery:

Amazon is not interested in production, they do not make the products we require, but delivering those products to our homes is essentially what keeps’ Amazon in business. And their focus is on delivery not only in regards to the present where one or two day delivery is the norm, but the company is also regarding its future where a lot of money is invested in utilizing technology of the future in the form of blimps and fleets of drones which would drastically improve the way and the time of delivering packages directly to us, the customers. Thus, Amazons mission is defined as helping us find what we need and getting it as fast as possible and at the best possible price.