The Information Systems of Amazon Inc
Amazon.com, Inc. is the leading online retailer of books. The ¡§Earth¡¦s Biggest Bookstore¡¨ opened its virtual doors in July 1995 with a mission to use the Internet to transform book buying into the fastest, easiest, and most enjoyable shopping experience possible1. Amazon still holds their commitment to customer satisfaction and the delivery of an educational and inspiring shopping experience in high regard today and it is now one of the most widely known, used and cited commerce sites on the World Wide Web (WWW). Amazon has grown rapidly since their inception. The company experienced a surge is sales of 313% until 1998, supported by 8.4 million customer accounts in over 150 countries, of
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Some advantages of online retailing include:
„h It provides easy customer access to the large industry-wide database via the Internet;
„h It provides portability and a relatively low product cost;
„h It provides an easy transition from the existing mail-order concept;
„h It is cost-effective as it cuts down on overhead costs by eliminating inventories;
„h It results in quicker delivery time due to the faster distribution cycle of products being shipped directly from the wholesalers.
Amazon¡¦s idea of selling books online on such a grand scale, though, has brought online retailing to a new level. Following is a look at Amazon¡¦s online retail process and how information systems played a role in the overall process.
The main difference between traditional booksellers and online booksellers is that the online retailer does not have a physical presence. All interactions with the customer occur on the Internet, which is why customer focus is so critical. Amazon holds the ¡§upper hand¡¨ in that they have greater brand recognition and customer focus than their competitors. Amazon has been a customer-centric company since its inception and has devoted their efforts to ascertaining what the customer wants and has worked hard to fulfill the customer¡¦s expectations.
One example of Amazon¡¦s customer focus is their excellent use of email communication with the customer before and after the customer¡¦s purchase. Jeff Bezos,
Amazon.com operates in the Online Retail Industry. The sector is one of the fastest growing globally and is outperforming the ordinary retail marketplace. It was created after 1995 and it was only the Internet that made it possible for such an industry not only to be established but to become one of the most flourishing sectors in the business environment. What is interesting is that Amazon.com, together with eBay is the pioneer in the field. Both companies were launched in 1995 and are still extremely successful. The creation of e-mail in 1996 had a huge impact on the development of online retail by introducing a fast and easy way to communicate with customers. For this two-year period Internet usage
Another aspect of the Amazon's strong and steady success was that it devoted itself to becoming the most customer-centric online marketplace. Amazon always believed that shopping and searching for items had to be the simplest and easiest experience for customers and that via this ease and simplicity customers would continue to shop at Amazon. This philosophy has by and large been an enormous reason for Amazon's rapid growth and expansion. For example, the founder Bezos
1. This strategy can provide customer with more choices and attract new customers to Amazon’s online retailing, through which Amazon’s customer base is spreading. Amazon originally only sold books, but now it also sells Kindle, MP3 and so on.
As of January 2010, Amazon.com has three times the Internet sales revenue of the runner up, Staples. By offering a large amount of varied categories through its website and other international ones (Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.co.fr, and so on), it has managed to grow to a customer based company with over 30 million people. In addition, the online retail format enables the company to reduce costs of managing inventory (Amazon.com; online bookstore, 2008).
Amazon.com is a customer centric company. They put more effort in improving their system to make the experience of customer more comfortable so that he keeps on returning to the website. Jeffery Bezos who is the founder of the Amazon.com started this company after seeing the use of internet increasing rapidly.
Amazon is the world’s largest online retailer that was launched in 1995 (Rouse, 2014). Amazon was mainly a book selling company that has enlarged its’ business by selling a variety of goods. The company sells all types of technology devices such as cell phones, games, televisions, movies, cameras, computers,
Amazon focuses on global reach, putting customer first,, and extensive selection of products through its vision which is “To be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online” (Gregory 2016).
As discussed in the case study, the advertising and marketing strategy of Amazon have been focusing on how the products would gain interest from their target market and how they can be able to generate sales with their products. This is Amazon’s stronghold where it continues to yield strong sales revenue by leveraging off its excellent online shop in different locations, such as in UK and other country, strong brand name and excellent reputation among customers. Amazon has also been continuing to create affiliate websites to expand their business market among various consumers.
Amazon.com, Inc. was founded by Jeff Bezos out of his own garage in July 1994 under the name of Cadabra. It went online in as Amazon.com in 1995. Since that time it has never looked back and is now the world's largest online retailer. It is an American multinational electronic commerce company with headquarters in Seattle, Washington, United States. With a total revenue of US$ 61.09 billion, it has a total of 88,400 employees as of December, 2012. At first it started as an online bookstore, but soon it diversified
Amazon is an American commerce company based in Seattle, Washington, USA. The company used to be only a bookstore, but now it diversified into difference type of products. The goal of Amazon is to provide one stop shop experience where the customer can find everything on Amazon as earth’s biggest selection (Warman 2012). Amazon operates as a pure internet retailers that does not have retail store at all while the delivery will be done through Amazon’s networks of distribution centres. This operation makes the company is able to provide wider range of goods and lower cost of products with high quality. Moreover, it is also increase customer satisfaction as it supports customer convenience.
Amazon’s core competencies are in its ability to effectively use and develop technology to drive site traffic and enhance the customer experience. Their distinctive use of website real estate coupled with their ability to leverage their brand and effectively use that leverage to deliver low prices and high quality products, makes them a leader in online retailing. Their partner brands and their ability to adapt and recognize deficiencies enable them to effectively cut out the middle man, or at the very least, partner with them.
The company has many strengths. First, Amazon is the world’s leading online retailer. According to the 2016 Annual Report, Amazon had total net sales of US $135, 987 million in 2016. These total net sales include three segments which are North America, International, and AWS. Second, in comparison to many companies, Amazon has a superior logistics and distribution system, which allows the company to actualize improved customer fulfillment. Third, with its prolonged strategic drive on low-cost, differentiation, and focus, Amazon offers a wide range of product at low prices to customers. Fourth, Amazon enjoys global recognition from its customers. As stated earlier, Amazon built a strong brand in very little time. Finally, the
When it was started, Amazon was an online bookstore, however, nowadays it is diversified into selling a lot of products.
Amazon is a company that sells many open product categories online by allowing customers to take the time to search and shop through the product offerings. Many product categories that are offered on Amazon may include device accessories, kindle devices, beauty, books, electronics, health & personal care, etc. The foremost product category that can offer the greatest advantage compared with a retail store chain is most definitely the books category. Reason to this is that the company has expanded the customer’s online shopping experience by offering such a wide range of physical and electronic books, depending on the preference of the customers. They are able to search for the top-rated selling
Amazon strives in a rapidly evolving and intensely competitive industry. Amazon competitors include publishers, vendors, distributors, manufacturers, physical world retailers and producers. Other competitors include media companies, web portals, shopping websites, online and mobile e-commerce sites, web search engines, and social networks, either directly or in collaboration with other retailers. Any company that provides e-commerce services, including website development, fulfillment, customer service, and payment processing is considered as a competitor by Amazon. Even Yahoo Inc. is also part of these services now with its new framework for providing easy e-commerce website development and payment processing services. Additional competitors include companies that provide information storage or computing services or products, services related to Cloud Computing, including infrastructure and other web services, companies that design, develop, market, or sell consumer electronics, telecommunication, and electronic devices. The competitive factors in retail businesses include selection, price, convenience, fast and reliable fulfillment. Additional competitive factors for Amazon seller and enterprise services include the quality, speed, and reliability of our services and tools. Many of the current