Amazon Evolution, Research Paper Example

Is Amazon.com’s core competency that they are the leading online book retailer? When Amazon first came on the scene their goal was to be the largest bookseller on the planet. The founders of Amazon identified a market for expensive books that the public was already consuming and at discount pricing and then filled that need. The market was inundated with mothers seeking out diet books or self help gurus. Once the college crowd learned there was alternative to mandatory, high-priced, academic texts being pitched to their professors, Amazon’s stock took off like a cheetah. Besides Amazon, there were other modes to purchase inexpensive books online but famously, they involved bidding which took time and the buyer paid for shipping-EBAY comes to mind and in its infancy at Amazon’s birth. (Mohr: 274)

Flushed with its own success after its arrival on the scene Amazon sought to expand its product and customer base appeal, delving into the video game market segment, and generating huge profits for Amazon. This led to the belief that they could entice their customers to purchase other forms of edutainment and not just books and media games.

Amazon was quick to see that if it promoted itself as a supermarket with online shelves it could stock them with items other than books, using marketing strategies similar to other corporate retail giants like Wal-Mart. Using the Wal-Mart example, who began as a consumer retailer carrying items such as clothing and shoes but today vend everything including food and groceries, televisions, and appliances. This is the approach that Amazon adopted which today includes its original offering-books, the Kindle e-reader being its flagship- computers and their attendant accessories, all manner of toys, tools and home improvement items, automotives, clothing, shoes, jewelry, and home and garden items. In other words, Amazon has moved beyond their original conception as a book seller. Amazon has the online appearance of a virtual Wal-Mart. There is however one huge difference between the two retailers and it is that Wal-Mart has been plagued by accusations of utilizing sweatshop tactics by its purchasing agents, no such allegations have soiled Amazon’s reputation. (Ortega: 229)

Consumers find a navigable website simple to navigate in large part thanks to Amazon’s search engine which efficiently directs its clientele directly to their selected purchase or inquiry. In fact, the engine provides alternate selections as part of the online purchasing experience resulting in a satisfied client. This compares for example with their real-time rival Wal-Mart’s employees are hourly-waged based and rarely suggest alternate or co-purchases to compliment the original selection, whereas the Amazon search engine has been developed with just such expertise as its raison d’être. (Han: 275)

With respect to Amazon’s search engine capabilities customer satisfaction, bigger purchases imply other online stores. The purchase of a digital camera for example shows that buyers who picked up the camera, also acquired other items as well suggesting the need for a photo printer, a larger SD (Secure Digital) memory card, or photo finishing depending on their needs. Jeff Besos, Amazon’s leader, realized that shops on the street such as Best Buy, expended significant resources in luring the customer into their establishment. It is only when he is in that he is likely to buy because the cost of going to another store is high. Besos used this knowledge in a unique way but in reverse, using Customer Relations Management (CRM) on the website as a successful tool to provide a semblance of personal service in an otherwise austere virtual environment devoid of human contact. Amazon calls this innovative idea its Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), a virtual server environment of ervers, each managed like a physical machine with its own software environment configured to your needs. (Han: 276)

With free shipping, excellent search features, and an online human touch, Amazon goes where other retailers fail to tread and takes its consumers along.

References

Ortega, Bob. In Sam We Trust: The Untold Story of Sam Walton and how Wal-Mart is Devouring the World. (1999).Random House, New York.

Han, Jiawei & Kamber, Micheline. Data Mining: Concepts and Techniques (2006). Elsevier Inc. Oxford, U.K.

Management Fundamentals: Concepts, Applications, Skill Development. 4^th Edition (2008)

Student Edition, Cengage Learning, Mason, Ohio.

Mohr, Jakki, Sengupta, Sanjit, Slater, Stanley. Marketing of High-Technology Products and  Innovations.  Third Edition. Pearson Education Inc. Upper Saddle River. New Jersey.

Murty, James. Programming Amazon Web Services. (2008) Mike Loukides, Editor. O’Reilly Media Inc. Sebastopol, CA.