Introduction
Amazon.com is an international company that deals with e-commerce. Jeffrey P. Bezos founded it in 1994 (Kotler & Keller, 2012, p. 443). Over the years, it has grown to become the largest online retailer. It is, thus, a competitive threat to other e-commerce companies across the globe. It is currently considered as the most successful e-commerce company that has ever existed. This paper analyses the secrets behind the strategies to its success.
Reasons for Amazon’s Success
The reason behind the success of Amazon.com is majorly its marketing strategy. Currently, the company lists a variety of new products online to maximize its profits (Kotler & Keller, 2012, p. 443). It started as a normal bookstore then later advanced to doing the same business online. This expansion helped the company build a strong and reliable worldwide customer base. Its efforts to assist other sellers in marketing their products have also increased its success (Kotler & Keller, 2012, p. 443). The company assists other booksellers to market their books via its online platform. In this manner, it attracts more book suppliers as well as buyers.
In addition to diversifying its marketing strategies, Amazon.com has customized its prices to meet the needs of its customers. Extreme pricing can ruin a company’s competitive advantage (Bharadwaj et al., 2013, p. 472). Most people tend to go for what is affordable and of good quality. Through a pricing strategy that provides customers with the desired value at relatively lower costs, Amazon.com has been able to attract more customers and enhance its performance.
Further, the company is known to make fast deliveries at cheaper costs and free shipping to some destinations (Kotler & Keller, 2012, p. 443). This approach assists it to easily maintain its customers, receive more orders, and keep the satisfaction level of its customers high.
Besides the above-mentioned mechanisms, Amazo.com’s decision to embrace internet technology has been a key driver of its success (Bharadwaj et al., 2013, p. 472). The company keeps itself up to date with the latest Internet technology, which has enabled it to maximize other web services that are available online. This strategy has enabled it to build a strong global customer base. Additionally, it has diversified its products and services courtesy of technology. Currently, its product line includes DVDs, CDs, new computer software, and electronics, among others (Kotler & Keller, 2012, p. 443).
According to Kotler and Keller (2012, p. 443), many organizations strive to achieve their objectives by developing the willingness to take risks with new technologies to enhance their business activities. They normally do so with the hope of creating reliable and quality services, which add value to the organizations and enhance the satisfaction of their customers.
Technology helps companies reduce and simplify paperwork and unnecessary procedures (The Price of the Paperless Revolution, 2010, P. 1). It also helps them develop new product lines when appropriate because they understand that all products and services eventually become obsolete if they are not modified to stay relevant to the ever-changing needs of customers. Therefore, with the help of technology, they keep in touch with their customers’ tastes, preferences, and changing market characteristics. This feat is achievable because technology enables organizations to get regular feedback from current customers to make them generate leads to new product or service ideas.
Will Kindle Revolutionize the Book Industry?
With the advent of new technology, Amazon.com has successfully propagated the idea that a traditional book has lost its value (The Price of the Paperless Revolution, 2010, p. 1). Purportedly, the digital book is easy to handle and can be carried anywhere with no difficulty as it allows one to travel with a whole library at hand. Further, the digital book can be translated into different languages quite easily. In contrast, traditional books, once printed, are confined to one language and can only be read by those who understand that particular language. Therefore, the advent of digital books has made it a lot easier and cheaper to translate, move them around, and use them.
Before the era of electronic books, the business of selling books in traditional bookstores was in its heyday (Anscombe, 2012, p. 69). People could queue in libraries while looking for books to buy. However, the libraries are today full of dust-covered books because people have moved to the electronic era (Kirk, 2013, p. 60). Books are easily accessible through computers and can be transformed into almost any form the reader desires.
Further, the e-book technology has lowered prices as it eliminates the idea of printing fees (The Price of the Paperless Revolution, 2010, p. 2). E-books are often found online and do not require anyone to persuade customers to buy them. As such, some costs related to marketing and advertising are eliminated. The minimal storage space requirement of e-books also benefits their appeal. Unlike traditional books that require plenty of storage space, the e-book store has its location in the computer. A single computer can carry books that would otherwise be held by several libraries if they are represented in the print mode (Anscombe, 2012, p. 69). Most importantly, the digital book is secure and always safe, even in the face of disasters. The online storage of digital books acts as a backup, which cannot be damaged under any circumstances.
Further, when a customer purchases a digital book, it becomes available to them instantly. The customer just needs to click a computer mouse, and the book becomes theirs. This ease of purchase saves the time and energy that would be expended while traveling to a bookstore. The kindle book can also be easily read at night in the absence of light since the gadgets that carry it normally have their own light (Anscombe, 2012, p. 70). This attribute gives the kindle book an appeal that attracts many users. Page navigation is also easier with the e-book as it is lighter than any other book.
Another revolutionary feature of the digital-book is that a variety of them can be ordered from different locations at the same time and be delivered to the buyer instantly within the comfort of their homes. Going by all the advantages that the kindle book has over the traditional book, it has already revolutionized the book industry.
What is next for Amazon.com? Is Cloud Computing the Right Direction for the Company? Where else can it grow?
Amazon.com is among the leading providers of cloud computing across the world (Kotler & Keller, 2012, p. 443). It has diverse product offerings, such as simple storage service (S3) and elastic compute cloud (EC2), which are web services that are used to control offers from the Internet and allow one to operate within the business environment (Kotler & Keller, 2012, p. 443). It is simple, and it assists to reduce or double computing services within seconds.
Cloud computing also offers simple queue services (SQS). This service works in conjunction with Internet websites to provide a safe environment for computer resources. Many of these cloud-computing services put a range of enterprises from small, medium, and large on the same idea line with specialized products to specific customers (Calloway, 2012, p. 163). Cloud computing also assists in reducing the overall IT costs and provides a highly distributed accessibility of services (Calloway, 2012, p. 164).
It replaces the upfront infrastructure required to establish a business at the least possible costs. It also predicts the needs of customers and prompts companies to adopt new applications that cater for those needs (Calloway, 2012, p. 164). For instance, simple storage service (S3) software offers a secure system for online storage of data.
Additionally, the provision of services has been enhanced by cloud computing. Millions of operations can be done within a very short time. The software also assists in taking applications to a market niche in the globe at a minimal cost and saves time (Kotler & Keller, 2012, p. 443). Devices acquired through the service can help a company to capture a wider market share throughout the universe. Amazon.com can now strive to deliver goods and other services to the customer’s doorstep. It can also venture into other services, like international mobile communication, and consider opening data centers all over the world (Calloway, 2012, p. 167). Thus, cloud computing is a viable direction for Amazon.com’s expansion endeavors.
At the end of it all, those small enterprises that seek to compete with Amazon.com should consider their size, prices, the efficiency of their services, and the satisfaction of their customers (Mudambi & Schuff, 2010, p. 185). Success means regulating everything not only for the sake of the company’s success, but also for the satisfaction of its customers. As the Internet continues to occupy every part of people’s lives, companies should continue to maximize this opportunity in order to enhance and develop their business activities. With new computer related technologies emerging after every few years, the digital revolution is yet to reach its peak.
References
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Bharadwaj, A., El Sawy, O., Pavlou, P., & Venkatraman, N. (2013). Digital business strategy: Toward a next generation of insights. MIS Quarterly, 37(2), 471-482.
Calloway, T. J. (2012). Cloud computing, clickwrap agreements, and limitation on liability clauses: A perfect storm? Duke Law & Technology Review, 11(1), 163-174.
Kirk, S. (2013). The 21st century audio library-Dusty shelves be gone! American Music Teacher, 62(5), 60-63.
Kotler, P., & Keller, K.L. (2012). Marketing Management (14th edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Mudambi, S. M., & Schuff, D. (2010). What makes a helpful online review? A study of customer reviews on Amazon.com. MIS Quarterly, 34(1), 185-200.
The Price of the Paperless Revolution. (2010). Virginia Quarterly Review, 86(4), 1-2.