Examples Of Value Proposition Of Amazon

Amazon.com was founded as an online bookstore in July, 1995 and went public in May 1997. In June, 1998 Amazon.com launched its music store. Since then Amazon.com has become the most prominent Internet retailer. Over time Amazon.com has added several products including electronics, health and beauty products, house wares, kitchenware’s, music, tools, toys, videos, and several services such as auctions, 1-Click ordering, and zShops. Amazon.com has expanded nationally and internationally and now operates several customer service and distribution centers in the United States and international web sites that

The bookstore chain has been decreasing in profit in the US over the past 20 years. Most of the books retailers are shutting down their operations and only a few are still operating in the country. Barnes and Noble has become the largest bookseller in the book retailers industry. The firm has integrated its business philosophy into web presence though eBook marketplace. This business strategy assisted the firm to be able to reach a large scale customers and remain as a strongest competitor in the book retailing market.

It can be served as a competitive advantage, which attracts more customers shifting from Amazon’s online retailer competitors into buying their products, thus increasing the market share.

Barnes & Noble started their exploration of internet business opportunities in the 1980s after the establishment of Trintex. Before that, the company simply used mail-order catalogues where it located lists of their products. Trintex, on the contrary, was B&N’s first experience in online retailing, which was launched as a joint venture between Sears and IBM. However, the company’s own website was launched only in May 1997. Although Barnes and Noble mainly specializes on the books retailing, its services and developments are not limited by this. For example, the company provides a wide range of audio and mp3 audio books:

Because Amazon is not competing only with online retailers, they are competing with every store in the mall, bookstores etc. so their rivalry is intense between the existing firms.

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.

Therefore we can only assume that amazon are incurring huge costs or is not operating effeciently. Thus let us look at the efficency rations. On looking at Amazons revenue/Employe od 324, 430 per person it is fairly good and near enough to the industry average. The Inventory Turnover is 11.48 which is excellent and nearly double the industry average. However the asset turnover is low and is half that of the industry avergae. Thus Amazon probably are not using their assets fully.

The basic Amazon sales channel is the web store front- end which serves as their core business. Customers go to the Amazon.com website, browse products, and place orders. Amazon is responsible for all front-end customer relationships and back-end logistics in this model. Once an order is placed, Amazon decides which internal distribution center or drop shipper should be responsible for shipping the order to the customers. After that, Amazon will responsible for coordinating the fulfillment of the order. When products are sourced from its internal distribution centers, then Amazon start to picks, packs, and ships the order. When products are sourced from a drop shipper, such like a book distributor, the distributor packages the products by using the Amazon box delivers it to the customer (Maltz et al., 2004). This model requires Amazon to maintain or purchase inventory for immediate selling. In this model, Amazon owns the customer relationship, provides the technology, owns or purchases the inventory, and executes the logistics as well.

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.

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).

Barnes & Noble does business -- big business -- by the book. As the #1 bookseller in the US, it operates about 650 superstores throughout 49 states and the District of Columbia under the banners Barnes & Noble, Bookstop, and Bookstar, as well as about 200 mall stores using the names B. Dalton, Doubleday, and Scribner's. The company's GameStop subsidiary is the #1 US video game retailer with about 1,500 stores under the names Babbage's Etc., GameStop, and FuncoLand. Barnes & Noble owned about 75% of online book seller barnesandnoble.com after purchasing Bertelsmann's interest in 2003; Barnes & Noble then purchased all remaining shares and took the company private in May 2004.

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

Amazon.com, Inc., on May 28, 1996, started offering a range of products and services through on-line webpages. This new company began to offer products including merchandise and content that was purchased for resale from multiple vendors and sellers ranging from lots of third-party ways. The Amazon.com business has three different segments within its operating environment: Amazon Web Services, North America, and International make up the operating areas. The North American area for Amazon has segments that focus on the sales from retailers of consumer items or product from sellers through its website Amazon.com.

Amazon is a relatively small player in the bookstore industry, and its main competitors are Barnes & Noble and Borders. Despite the difference in scale, the company shows great promise, because its business model overcomes many of the competitors’ drawbacks.

Another critical success factor of Amazon.com is the convenience it provides. Leveraging on the power of the internet. An e-tailer like Amazon.com offers customers the convenience of shopping from home. All the customer needs to do is to login into the internet and webpage and then just navigate or browse through the web page until they find something they like or want.