Introduction
Amazon and Ebay are two well-known brands of online shopping sites. They have evolved and grown from small firms to the giants of e-commerce today. In this essay, a comparison would be made between the two firms.
Questioning the types of business models Amazon and Ebay’s have employed and how they have evolved over time, the driving factors of change, and finally the future outlook of each firm help distinguish the trails both firms made to become the two leaders in the market of ecommerce. They are imperative in making a comparison between the two because despite being direct competitors in the same market, Amazon and Ebay’s business models are distinctly different. Both companies have altered business strategies over
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Amazon intended to benefit from cross selling on the basis that it already has a loyal installed base in place. (Krishnamurthy, 2004) Amazon also benefited from economies of scope as its basic infrastructure is already in place and highly scalable.
Three building blocks complement this: Amazon’s feedback system, recommendation system and its buy/sell system. Its recommendation system accounts for 35% of Amazon’s sales as customers are more inclined to buy a product based on the strength of the reviews of other customers. It also brought repeated purchasers that account for 66% of sales. (Salehnejad, 2012)
Also, Amazon has emphasized on building “several distribution centers around the world to hasten deliveries”(Hof and Himelstein, 1999). Coupled with its software it provides a “laser-like focus on the buying experience”(IT Business Edge, 2012). Such a system and service is what draws customers towards Amazon and subsequently retains them.
In 1999, Amazon became a merchant platform by introducing zShop, “a new service that allows anyone to sell merchandise through its website”. (Moore, 1999) It not only creates extra revenue from the $9.99 monthly subscription fee from sellers but also “60 cents per transaction for payments made with 1-Click, as well as 4.75 percent of the final sale”. (Moore, 1999)
The draw for small to medium business to subscribe to Amazon’s zShops would be Amazon’s huge customer
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
Amazon understood firsthand that the competitive advantage of a company originates immediately from how distinctive the organization's resources and competencies are. Amazon is able to both engage in production at a lower cost and generate a superior product at a standard cost. This is accomplished mostly via Amazon's strategy of having a wide variety of goods and competitive pricing. Customers know they can find basic products at slashed prices or high quality goods at standard prices and this is all achieved via the enormous range of products and product brands and types available on their massive marketplace. For example, the depiction displayed in the case study which shows how growth was related directly to: lower cost structure- lower prices customer experience traffic sellers -selection and convenience. While this is a grave oversimplification of the Amazon business model, it demonstrates how many aspects of the strategy reinforced one another.
Amazon.com has successfully managed to make its customers to feel that anything they could possibly want could be found on their website. Additionally, its products are marketed at a competitive price. Another important factor is their speedy delivery with their usage of UPS and FedEx (United States) and Royal Mail (United Kingdom). The company also caters for people that prefer online shopping with extra services such as Amazon Prime - a service with a yearly payment, customers are eligible for free next day delivery. Even though Amazon.com is known to be an online seller of most things, it still excels in its original market of book selling. Evidence of such is
Amazon’s fulfillment centers are valuable, rare, costly to imitate, and organized to captured value. Thus, they attribute to Amazon’s competitive advantage. Amazon Prime and 1-Click are also valuable to the organization. However, they can be replicated. Walmart launched a membership program to compete with Amazon’s Prime Service. With Walmart’s membership program customers receive free two-day shipping when they spend $35 or more on orders. Amazon Web Services is valuable, rare, costly to imitate and the organization has capture the value of it. Therefore, AWS has contributed to Amazon’s sustainable advantage. Amazon’s brand name and reputation have also given the company sustainable advantage. Amazon acquired enormous brand valuation in a short period of time. It is
Amazon.com Inc. was initiated by Jeff Bezos in 1994 after realizing the rapid rate at which the internet and websites were growing in popularity among business organizations and individuals. In 1995, the company started operating its website for selling books, videos, compact discs, computer software and computer hardware before being incorporated in1996 as an e-commerce company (Reuters, 2015). Apparently, the company offers may products and services for sale; these products include merchandise for resale products offered by third parties. In this regard the
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.
It provides a structure to capture the linkage of organizational activities that create value for the customer and profit for the organisation. It is particularly useful to get across the notion that operations and the other activities must work cross functionally for optimal organization performance(Chase et al. 2007).
Many consumers go for what appears to be cheapest and most convenient. The reality is, Amazon’s increasing dominance comes with high costs. “These consequences have gone largely unnoticed thanks to Amazon’s remarkable invisibility and the way its tentacles have quietly extended their reach” (LaVecchia, 2016). It is vital that consumers are aware of this superpower that is taking over.
E-commerce-Bezos understanding of e-commerce through knowledge of web users and the web that has made amazon a dominant company on the web .’(pg 27 Saunders 1999) ,Branding of the website is important .(Pg 91 saunders)
Since its beginning, Amazon has adopted various e-Business model to increase its customer base and recently set its focus on making profit. Given below are the strategies adopted by Amazon.
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
❖ Security; as the number of Internet crimes increases, customers are becoming aware of the possible danger involved in the process of on-line shopping. This security problem may not be difficult to improve since security technology is innovated quickly, but to convince customer of this is not as easy
In 2013, global e-retailer Amazon made over 74 billion dollars in sales (“Amazon Income”) . In addition to its primary e-retailing function, the company owns many subsidiaries, including companies like Audible UK and IMDB (“Subsidiaries”). Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, defines the company’s core values as as “customer centricity, putting the customer at the center of everything we do, invention. We like to pioneer, we like to explore, we like to go down dark alleys and see what’s on the other side” (“Amazon”). Since its inception in 1994, Amazon has led the e-commerce market, continually expanding and innovating to become the corporate behemoth it is today (“About Amazon”). The development of new technologies that set trends in Consumer Behavior has been critical to its success; many of these developments build on its pioneering software patent--One-Click.
Introduction: Amazon.com has become the largest customer friendly online retailer and provides one click purchase facility to its wide range of products including books, music, toys, gifts, electronics etc. For 2011 Amazon’s net sales documented the value of $48077 million to earn net income of $631 million (Annual Report, 2011). Currently, Amazon is serving more than 137 million of its customers with its 56200 employees all over the world. Moreover, International traffic also ranks Amazon at 16th
With the proliferation of communication and information technology, particularly the Internet, most business organizations have been at the forefront to join the e-commerce platform. Amazon is considered as one of the existing and largest e-business platform in the world. This report outlines Amazon’s strategic intent and key resources and capabilities. In addition, the report will also include an analysis of the company 's assets and capabilities that have provided it a sustainable competitive edge as well as, the recommended future strategy of the giant online organization. Amazon defines its line of business operations based on product and service sales, fulfillment, digital content subscriptions, publishing, and co-branded cards. The company 's line of business is defined as an online store, Internet service provision, and the Kindle ecosystem. This project will explore the truth that has made the online company to be considered as the top online retailer, which mainly focuses on strategy. This report also outlines how inventories play a fundamental role in the organization 's business or corporate strategy. The other issues covered in the report include the approach used by the online company deal with the supply chain and the reason behind fast shipping fast. The paper will outline the finance statute of the company and whether the finance effect will bar the organization from developing in future. In order to achieve the answer to the questions