Category: Amazon

Analysis the Current Scenario of Amazon Through the Information System

Every enterprise and every business exist to attain its goal, both social and business goals. Information system is crucial for the continued existence of any business. Amazon is one of the major E- commerce worldwide with the large number of its customers. Amazon uses information systems in its business processes to gain more advantage through their customer’s personal information. Therefore, this report is about how organizations like Amazon use information system as a gadget to obtain its ambitions. The role of enterprise resource networks system is extremely critical for these types of businesses to collect data. E-commerce organizations have strong relationships with their customers.

Organization Overview

Amazon has grown itself as a giant of E-commerce in the world. It was founded by Jeff Bezos in Bellevue, Washington in 1994. The company started as the marketplace for online books, but Jeff Bezos believed Amazon is not just an online book seller and expanded overtime selling electronics, video games software, housewares. Simply Amazon now is marketplace for everything from the expensive software to the zip for pants. Amazon managed to grow its revenue from $15.7 million in 1996 to $148 million in 1997, followed by $610 million in 1998 making Jeff Time magazine’s 1999 Person of the year in 1999 (Hall 2017). Since then Amazon has been growing popularity, its services, and profits in a Sky-rocketing way.

Amazon today provides delivery service for its goods in most part of the world. One can compare prices and products easily and get it straight to the door. The plus point of Amazon is one can also sell their stuffs. Amazon Web Services is a largest Web service provider in the world. It also provides the streaming of selected movies and TV programs through Amazon Prime. Amazon have got it is branched all over the globe today marking its success and able to prove itself as the people’s favorite.

Business Model

Business Model is the backbone for any system to keep its existence. It shows business about its revenues over a time. It will help the organization to propose a financing for future. The business model of Amazon was to sell the books at initial stage which later developed to sell everything and over a time it has developed its subbranches and started providing web services and stepped into an entertainment industry too.

Today Business Model of Amazon is not like what it seems to be. The truth is amazon does not make any profit from the goods that they sell from their website actually report have shown that amazon makes a loss by selling the products and delivering them to the people. The true revenue they gain is from its subsidies. Amazon Web Services offers affordable plan for other business to host their website. AWS services though cover all the losses the company has been bearing. In 2017 AWS made $17.5 Billion making profit of $4.3 Billion covering the loss of $200 million of its marketplace.

Amazon also stepped into the entertainment business through Amazon Prime Subscription which provides different plans and schemes generating revenue for the company. Moreover, Amazon also earns companies like IMBD, audible, Zappos.com, twitch and Whole foods which worth a lot in a market.

Website

Amazon Website Content

It is a very vast topic to discuss about the amazon content as it provides the services from agricultural equipment’s to the highly developed technological firms. Before going into detail for the content we will take few major categories and strategies of amazon website content. First, amazon is preferring more to the user experience over the business by following the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) which basis on ecommerce. According to this model, major determinants are the perceived usefulness and the perceived ease of use, which contributes the user behavior experience and proves to be actual system use (Chen & R., 2005).

This is the reason that amazon started all its services in eight languages, more than sixty currencies of different countries and provides the tracking number from the confirmation of the order to the delivery of the product to the customers. In short, amazon gives the values to the customers which is hunger of every human being. This is the only reason that amazon extended its operation and added the kitchen and cooking products for the cooking lovers, games accessories and movies for the enjoyment in leisure time. Home decor and IT gadgets were added for the sake of demand from many communities, even though Amazon started the drop shipping when people got busy and couldn’t find the enough time to buy the value le gifts for the family members and friends. To meet the demands of the customers amazon upgraded its interface and content for the purpose of development but has to tackle with many issues during this process for the time being but it achieved the central position in the skeleton of ecommerce.

Hardware

A big organization as amazon must be smart and careful while building their hardware infrastructure, they must investigate each aspect of it like price and quality. Amazon buy its components from Commodity (cheap manufactures as compare to Branded competitors) and by anyhow they are not able to provide a component which amazon desire, Amazon become ferocious negotiator. Question arise that being a one of the top organizations why amazon does not buy Premium-priced equipment as their components are more durable comparing to Commodity parts. Amazon operates at massive scale, around 500,000 servers are being used in web services it does not matter at that level of usage from where the equipment is emerging. As said by Golden (2013) “at a very large scale, even highly reliable individual components still result in an unreliable overall infrastructure because of the failure of components, as rare as the failure of a specific piece of equipment may be”. Amazon operation also affect some other aspects of its hardware infrastructure, data centers also contain generators and batteries for that specific component amazon uses custom-designed equipment.

Software

Amazon launched with only one instance and operating system Amazon Linux but with the time as it expands now amazon provide more than 30 instance and 10 operating system but Linux remain the core technology. Services provide by amazon are S3 for storage and EC2 for computer service. EC2 been used for everything from media and web hosting to development and test environment. Amazon Linux is its own version of operating system; Amazon have been enhancing Amazon Linux owing to the requirement of customer. Amazon assures that its Linux is the most optimized version of Linux to use within the EC2. Amazon divided team to work on machine learning and the development of Linux Kernel, Xen, and Amazon Linux. Anyhow amazon find a bug within the Linux instantly they send a patch upstream. Its less demanding for amazon to ingest such fixes with the release of other Linux Kernel than having to preserve our claim fix sets with bug fixes.

Security Issues

Security issues have a huge effect on the growth on ecommerce platforms like any website. Many well-known organizations are being trapped by the hackers with different types of attacked. Hackers play different tricks to get the platforms into trap. They mostly use a ransom ware and steal the sensitive data from the organization and misuse it, these data can be names. date of births and credit card details of the customers. Similarly, Amazon.com fell prey to a such cyber-attack in in 2010. In which the hijackers used Cross site scripting (XSS) to gain the credential of amazon. Afterwards they managed to get the access to the backend of amazon and the database management system in of Amazon.com. That was the critical time for Amazon because the hijackers were able to capture the login details fir anybody who was trying to login into any web page on amazon. Those hackers did not merely stop there, they used a trojan horse known as ZEUS to infect the servers and machines of amazon and even computers began reporting to for updates and instruction. After struggling from this time amazon started to increase its security and add the multi factor authentication in their system (Mosca, P. et all).

Payment and Transaction Process

In this technocracy era, technology has been so advanced and developed that instant result may be achieved. Amazon is one of the proverbial online marketplaces and the best example of E-commerce as it provides numerous ways of making payments or processing transactions along with best customer service. There are some of the methods used by the Amazon for making payments such as:

1. Amazon ZIP pay. It is known as ‘pay at you pace with zip’ as user need to make a zip account and link it to Amazon. Basically, in this money is deducted from your zip account and user is liable to pay back to zip account instead of amazon as the terms of their account. Zip pay has two units: Zip Money and Zip Pay. Zip money is just a credit up to $3000 with an interest but free period of six months however, Zip Pay is credit up to $1500 which is always interest free.
2. Amazon gift cards. Amazon gift cards are issued by the Amazon in which the user can redeem that card on any purchase or can save that amount for future use on any other item.
3. Amazon pay or Amazon Pay Code. Amazon Pay is an online way of making transaction with the Amazon and with the other third party or e-commerce sites whereas Amazon Pay Code is a technique of making payment in cash via western union or other agents. It is a convenient way as the customer needs to order first and then make the payment in cash through respective agent. The order will be shipped to the customer within the mentioned time (Billing and payment fundamentals FAQs Payment options.
4. CBA (checkout by Amazon). It a method in which the normal checkout of a consumer is secured by the Amazon’s security servers in which consumers can choose their shipping methods but they need to enter the details of their credit card on the Amazon site.
5. Pay by invoice. It is a suitable way for the business customer to pay for the goods and services which was purchased on credit before.
6. Amazon Prime Store Card. It is a card provided by the Synchrony Bank which is helpful for the users who often shop online. It is an Amazon Prime Store Card i.e. can be used on the Amazon purchases only as this card provide 5% back on all purchases which is significantly advantageous for the customers.
7. Credit cards and debit cards. Credit cards, debit cards and other cards like master card, visa card, American express so on and so forth are accepted by Amazon. Debit card can be used for Amazon Prime as well. All the transactions are monitored and verified under the surveillance of advanced security servers.
8. Linked bank accounts. It is basically a checking account that can be used instead of a credit card but there are some restrictions on purchasing some products or services through checking cards.
9. PayPal. Although PayPal is one of the easiest ways of making transactions, yet Amazon does not accept the direct payments from PayPal i.e. there are some sidestep that allows the user to pay through PayPal on Amazon. Generally, PayPal requires two step authentication which is very time consuming. Moreover, PayPal is basically having a strong connection with eBay and unintentionally PayPal affects the Amazon payment system of Amazon Pay. That is the reason that Amazon does not accept direct payment from PayPal (Bhandary, B. (2019)).

These are the different techniques for making or processing transactions by Amazon which is more secure and confidential as SSL (Security Sockets Layer) technology is used by the Amazon for the authorization of e-transactions to keep it more safe and secure. To secure the transactions on Amazon, the server always asks for a two-step verification of every transaction which is further protected by the topmost secure technology i.e. SSL or TSL (Secure Socket Layer and Transport Security Layer). Nowadays, the Amazon system is so advanced and developed as there is appropriate scrutinizing of confidentiality and authentication of every activities to make that system free from cybercrimes and other fraudulent activities or unauthorized access. Proper encryption, digital signatures, message authentication codes (MAC), SSL and TSL secure servers are the functions and techniques used by the Amazon to maintain the privacy and the trust or satisfaction of the customers.

Recommendations

As per the SWOT analysis and overview of Amazon, we would like to recommend that for more expansion and development of Amazon in the global market, Amazon should try to overcome its weaknesses i.e. limited or insubstantial discernment in today’s global market which ultimately be a great hindrance in economic growth rates of market on the way of its establishment. Although, Amazon is a proverbial e-commerce marketplace, yet its workforce needs to work on its business model or to make some unique changes. In this technosavy and competitive era, it is extremely easy for the other competitive markets to resemble them or to adopt their strategies or business model for their own benefits. Furthermore, pricing sometimes considered as an obstacle in the advancement of the company due to the rivalry or oppositions which significantly lead to pricing battle. In addition, changes should be made on the website too; to make it more alluring and uncomplicated for the users. International delivery of products should be efficient and effective so that it will eventually attract even more consumers which is worthwhile and productive for the company to maintain its prestigious positive in this marketplace.

Conclusion

To conclude, this report evaluates present scenario of Amazon through the information system. It is proved from this report that there is a large scope for Amazon to expand its business through enterprise resource planning. Moreover, Amazon is a free from cybercrimes or fraudulent activities. Its proper privacy, proper payment method and great quality products helps in the satisfaction of the customers and to expand the business. All in all, Amazon is now the worldwide famous and most preferred company by the customers.

Net Neutrality Meaning for Amazon Service

Amazon is a company known for its online services to purchase items and get them delivered to your house, being very convenient and appealing to a wide range of customers. However, they also provide other services, such as cloud computing services, streaming videos, audiobooks, software games, and produce consumer products (such as Alexa), and more (Amazon, 2018). Because of this, they have managed to become the 3rd most valuable brand in the world in 2018 with a worth of $101bn (Monaghan, A. 2018). Since 2018 there is a new possible threat to this company – net neutrality.

Net neutrality is a principle in which all data on the Internet have to be treated equally by Internet service providers. It is not allowed to charge differently depending on user, content, platform, etc. Net neutrality was officially revoked in the US on June 2018 as the FCC wanted to stop the federal government from micromanaging the Internet. Many people were concerned that their access to the Internet would be limited, as they would have to pay additional fees now for online services (O’Sullivan, 2018). For online businesses, this might be an issue as customers would lose interest due to having to pay a fee or having to wait longer for websites to load. Amazon is a well-known online business, therefore, they will also have to deal with net neutrality.

For this investigation, the question “What importance does net neutrality have on the service of Amazon?” will be answered through different supporting about net neutrality laws and Amazon as a business, and analyzed through tools such as the marketing mix, the 4P’s: price, promotion, product and place, and e-commerce. It is relevant as it is important to know Amazon’s online business in order to analyze the possible issue of revoking of net neutrality.

Marketing Mix

As an online company, Amazon is very competitive with its prices. They offer new items as well as used items, showing a wider range of prices that could appeal to more customers. They also offer a premium service that customers can pay for which provides benefits such as faster delivery and more. However, Amazon prioritizes its own products and sells them at a lower price than competitors, which is not actually allowed under net neutrality. They are able to provide such a wide range of products because they can sell directly from their providers, acting as a distributor and a retailer. Amazon gives stage to different retailers to sell products to purchasers. However, net neutrality could be disadvantageous, because producers would not necessarily have to work with Amazon but could just sell their products directly themselves, but they should still do so as Amazon has many customers.

Amazon mainly uses web-based advertising, but also commercials on TV and billboards. They don’t have a lot of physical advertisements, but it is not an issue with net neutrality as their customers will see advertisements on the Internet. However, this could be a disadvantage, because even though their advertisements will be seen by a lot of people, advertisements from other business will also be seen, leading to Amazon having a lot of competitors.

The place of Amazon is the Internet, mainly their own website. The design of their website is very important because they do not have a physical store unlike competitors such as Walmart. Because of net neutrality, Amazon was able to continually grow and succeed using the Internet as a distribution channel, but because they already have a huge brand recognition, they have no need for net neutrality and it’s now working in the favor of their smaller competitors as there is equal access and ability to get your website and content in front of the same audience.

Without net neutrality, the prices of Amazon could increase because they have fewer competitors, as the smaller businesses will struggle in the online market. As they now have fewer competitors, they don’t need to keep their prices as low as possible as they would be one of the leading online companies. It can be an advantage for Amazon because producers would be more likely to cooperate with Amazon as they would not be able to afford a presence in the online market on their own, in comparison to ‘product’ in with net neutrality. This would, in turn, mean that more producers would want to sell their products through Amazon, which would increase the demographic reach.

Without net neutrality, Amazon would be able to pay to be more visible on the Internet, as competitors would not be able to afford to compete promotionally against Amazon. Amazon wouldn’t need to spend as much on promotional material either because they can make themselves into one of the few options for the customers. With no net neutrality, being on the Internet would be an advantage for Amazon in comparison to smaller competitors as they would not be able to afford to pay for equal exposure. As mentioned before, Amazon already has huge brand recognition, so customers would already prefer them over smaller competitors.

To conclude based on the marketing mix, the importance of net neutrality on Amazon depends on the business and their stakeholders. Net neutrality has a bigger advantage for Amazon’s customers, as the prices could be lower due to the lower overhead and availability of competitors. No net neutrality would be an advantage to Amazon because they could pay to gain more exposure than smaller competitors, as they are a big company and can afford to do so, whereas the smaller companies will struggle. No net neutrality would also lead to more demographic reach as producers would more likely want to sell their products through Amazon. However, an interesting idea to consider is that despite already having net neutrality, Amazon still practices strategies that are against net neutrality, such as prioritizing their own products over others. This is contradictory towards the other supporting documents because it depicts Amazon as an exception for businesses affected by net neutrality laws.

E-Commerce

E-commerce is the buying and selling of goods through mainly the Internet, in which Amazon plays a big role as it is an online business. It was predicted that Amazon would have almost 50% of the e-commerce market in the US by the end of 2018. That is a large percentage considering that there are many other businesses that do e-commerce, such as Walmart and Apple. However, the difference in numbers is significant, and therefore through e-commerce, it can be investigated whether net neutrality could really have had an impact on the business’ success in 2018. The US e-commerce companies state that Amazon has 49.1% of the US retail e-commerce sales and is, therefore, the leading e-commerce business by being number 1. On 2nd place, there is eBay with 6,6%. The difference in percentages between the two business is enormous, despite both being well-known. Amazon is mainly known for its business-to-consumer type of e-commerce and is an acknowledged leader of the business-to-consumer market, and as that kind of business is very popular as it’s easily accessible and convenient, it is not a surprise that Amazon is in the lead. As mentioned in the marketing mix, whether net neutrality is there or not mainly has an effect on Amazon depending on the customers and the business’ preferences. It could be said that without net neutrality, Amazon has the big advantage of getting more exposure than smaller, less-known businesses. Amazon as e-commerce is in the lead, therefore net neutrality does not have that much of an importance in comparison to other, smaller e-commerce businesses.

Conclusion

This investigation answered the research question “What importance does net neutrality have on the service of Amazon?” through the tools and documents used. The marketing mix shows the effect and lack of net neutrality, whereas e-commerce serves as an explanation of why Amazon would be affected. The supporting documents provide information regarding net neutrality itself, its effects and Amazon as a business. Amazon is a successful business, dominating in the e-commerce market so net neutrality does not have much of an impact on Amazon’s service. With net neutrality, Amazon is more attractive to stakeholders like customers because of lower prices, as well as producers as they can sell their products through Amazon. Without, competitors have a lesser chance against Amazon as they are a known brand and can pay their way for exposure in order to stay in the lead. It is to be considered that this investigation is limited, and more information is required to have a solid conclusion. Because Amazon is not very affected by the presence of net neutrality, it does not mean the same for customers. It is important to investigate their satisfaction too.

How to Stop Deforestation? Essay

Did, you know that the biggest and most important rainforest worldwide is being cut down?

The Amazon Rainforest is being cut down and could put the world in jeopardy. We need to stop this problem before it’s too late. As the Amazon is getting cut down more and more, unique plants and animals are becoming endangered. Also, humans depend on the rainforest for ⅓ of the world’s oxygen.

Important unique plants that are only found in the Amazon Rainforest are becoming endangered. According to Sciencing.com, there are over 24,000 endangered plant species which is keen for the survival of the Amazon. This problem is bad because some of these plants are essential to rainforest’s success. For example, Mangrove trees prevent major erosion from happening by slowing down the movement of sediment. However, there are plants that also benefit humans as well. According to rain-tree.com,

some indigenous plants in the rainforest can cure disease. For instance, the Periwinkle plant is one of the world’s most powerful cancer fighter. Important plants, not only in the Amazon, but also the world of medicine, are being destroyed and harmed by clear-cutting. We, as a world community, should help stop this madness and complete end to clear-cutting in the Amazon Rainforest.

Animals that live in the Amazon Rainforest are becoming endangered by habitat loss and poaching. According to aquaexpeditions.com, about 2,600 animals are endangered and that is a bad sight. This is bad because the Amazon Rainforest is losing more and more animals daily. For example, the South American Tapir is endangered due to habitat loss and poaching. Animals are becoming endangered and it is our duty to protect and help these animals who are losing their lives.

The Amazon Rainforest(also known as the lungs of the world) is a major oxygen producer and that is very important. According to rain-tree.com, the rainforest produces more than twenty percent of the world’s oxygen. However, deforestation rates are going up and the Amazon is starting to rapidly decrease in size. Kidsmongabay.com states that every year, about the size of New Jersey(8,720 miles) gets cut down in the Amazon Rainforest. If this keeps going on, we could lose a major source of oxygen. The Amazon Rainforest is a major source of oxygen, and we should protect it so it stays like that for many more years to come.

Every day, the Amazon Rainforest gets cut down and animals and plants lose their lives. Also, us humans lose more and more oxygen in the air. We need to put a stop to deforestation in the Amazon or we just might put an end to ourselves.

Essay on Customer Service: Case Study of Amazon and Tesco

Introduction

In this report, I will be writing a report based on two different large businesses, Amazon, and Tesco. The purpose of this report is to examine the customer service approaches and processes in Amazon and Tesco, who are two contrasting businesses, and show how both of these businesses meet their customer expectation levels. I will also be examining the ways that customer service in both businesses can meet the and satisfaction of customers and adhere to relevant current legislation and regulations.

The report will also contain an analysis of the impact of these laws and regulations on customer service, with examples. Also providing research and analysis of methods that a particular company can use to improve customer service. The report will also contain an assessment of the importance of providing excellent customer service and adhering to relevant current legislation and regulations for both selected businesses. Finally, the report will finish off with a discussion of the advantages of better customer service from the standpoints of the company, the customer, and the employee.

P1: Describe the different approaches to customer service delivery in contrasting businesses. What Is Customer Service?

According to Investopedia.com, the direct one-on-one interaction between a customer making a purchase and a representative of the company selling it is known as customer service. Most retailers consider direct interaction with customers to be an important part of ensuring customer satisfaction and encouraging repeat purchases. Including today, when most customer service is handled by automated self-service systems, most businesses consider having the option to speak with a human being to be essential.

The majority of businesses have people who never meet or greet the customers who buy their products working behind the scenes. Customer service representatives are the ones who interact with customers directly. Buyers’ perceptions of the company and the product are influenced in part by their interactions with that individual. (Grant, 2020)

Internal and External Customers within Amazon and TescoAn internal customer can be anybody who works within a business organisation. An internal customer could be a work colleague, a department, or a distributor who relies on us to provide products or services that are then used to create a deliverable for an external customer. Internal customers, on the whole, do not have a choice. For instance, if the sales department does not like accounting’s credit policies, they cannot fire it and hire someone else.

External customers are those who pay for and use the goods and services that a business provides. These customers are who the business is designing for when brainstorming problems and solutions for their business. An external customer is someone who is not affiliated with a company other than through the purchase of your product or service This customer could be a one-time buyer or someone with whom a business has previously done business with for a long time.

As both businesses are completely different, it also means that both businesses have different types of customers. For Amazon, they use external customers within the business. The reason why they have external customers majority of people who visit the Amazon website are most likely buyers and are looking for something to buy. As mentioned, these customers are who the business is designing for when brainstorming problems and solutions for their business. This ensures that Amazon is doing everything that it can do make sure that their existing customers and potential new customers to stick with its business when they introduce new products. Because of the type of business Amazon is, their customers are people who are not affiliated with a company other than through the purchase of your product or service unless they are paying for a subscription service. However, Amazon’s customers could be a one-time buyer or someone with whom a business has previously done business with for a long time.

Tesco uses both internal and external customers within their business. They use external customers by employing people to work for their business tackling day-to-day tasks and also employed to take care and help external customers with products and services who are shopping with Tesco. As well as employees, Tesco also uses suppliers as external customers. ‘A supplier is a company that provides goods or services to another company. This organization is a part of a company’s supply chain, and it may provide the majority of the value contained in its products. Some suppliers also might engage in free shipping, which involves sending products directly to the buyer’s customers.’ (Bragg, 2018) Tesco suppliers supply them all of their products which then later sold at a different price, usually higher price, to their customers.

Types of Customer Service

TelephoneOne of the most basic and widely used types of customer service provided by businesses today is telephone customer service. The reason for this is that both a customer service representative and a customer can use it because it is simple, efficient, and accessible. Using the phone provides a more personalized experience for both parties and takes less time than typing an email and waiting for a response. Telephone customer service is also more user-friendly for people of different generations and allows for more natural human-to-human interaction.

Face to Face

Face-to-face customer service essentially provides more personalized assistance to customers. Face-to-face customer service, rather than relying on email, the phone, or the internet, necessitates the customer and a trained representative of the company being physically present in the same location. While technology allows for a variety of ways to interact with customers, a face-to-face approach requires a customer visiting a store’s location. It usually allows a business’ representative to make a more personal impression on the customer who is seeking assistance. When it comes to face-to-face customer service, a few key characteristics are required to ensure that customers have a positive experience.

Email

An email response to a customer’s question, feedback, or complaint is known as a customer service email. Customers can reach out to a business via a website contact form, an email address that is listed on a company’s website or social media accounts, or by calling customer service. A company could send out automated customer service emails or write personalized emails to customers. Customer service emails usually address a customer’s problem with a product or service.

Social Media

The act of providing customer service through social media channels is known as social customer service. Many businesses are now using social media as a substitute to their call-based customer service efforts. Addressing complaints, answering questions, providing guidance, and even issuing refunds via social media are all examples of these services.

Because of the nature of social media, social media customer service may be considered as marketing. Alternatively, the function may increasingly become a part of a call center team’s responsibilities. Social customer service is a cost-effective alternative to other forms of customer service for businesses with a large online customer base. The call center staff can easily be trained to assist customers through social media. They have access to specialized workflows, training, and software to quickly resolve customer issues.

Live Chat Support

Live chat software is an online communication tool that allows a company and its website visitors to communicate in real time. Chatting online is a great alternative to calling or sending emails. All that is required of businesses or their visitors is to type their message into the chat box and send it. Live chats can assist multiple customers at once and provide automated responses to the same question being asked by customers. It also has the ability to save web chat conversations for later use by the customer, is customer-friendly, and provides comprehensive customer service.

Benefits and Drawbacks of Customer Service

Benefits

Increased Profits Revenue

Customer service that is of high-quality leads to increased revenue, which leads to more customer sales for both Amazon and Tesco. When customer service meets or exceeds customer expectations, the customer gains confidence in both companies’ abilities and is more willing to spend more money on its products and services. This can have a direct impact on the companies ‘bottom line.’

Increased Customer Satisfaction

Customers are satisfied when their needs are met by a business. Customer service that is of high-quality means that the company is meeting and exceeding the expectations of its customers. Customer satisfaction surveys are one of the most effective ways to learn what customers think about a company. The surveys should include questions about the customer’s most recent interaction with both of the companies, both company’s product and service quality, and what the customer dislikes about both companies. Customers should also be asked what they like about both company’s competitors in the surveys.

Increased Customer Loyalty

Customer loyalty is directly proportional to the quality of service provided. Customers will be hesitant to use the services of a competitor if the organization truly meets and exceeds their expectations. Competitors of Amazon and Tesco frequently enter the market and offer lower-cost services. By providing and maintaining good customer service, the industry leader can avoid a price increase.Customers stay loyal to a company when they have faith in its customer service.

Involved Employees

Employees of Amazon and Tesco who provide excellent customer service spend time sharpening their skills to benefit the company. Rather than repeatedly encountering the same problem, employees not only satisfy the customer but also take steps to prevent the problem from recurring. The employee makes a positive impression on the customer, has a direct impact on the company’s operations, and feels fulfilled. For the customer, the company, and the employer, it is a win-win-win situation.

Drawbacks

Poor customer service can have a negative impact on a business in a variety of ways, not just on current and future sales. This is especially important for people that rely on customer loyalty and positive word-of-mouth marketing to succeed. In relation to the threat of current customers due to poor service, chronically poor service can have a negative impact on the business’s ability to attract new customers.

Loss of Current, Potential and Future Customers

According to LinkedIn.com, even the most forgiving of customers can be lost due to poor customer service. Consumers typically do business with a company because it is convenient, because it is a habit, or because they are looking for a specific product or service that is difficult to find elsewhere. Even the most steadfast customers can be turned off by poor service.

Poor customer service has the potential to cost a company money before they buy anything. When new customers walk into a store and are ignored, talked down to, or subjected to long lines and inexperienced employees, they may reach for the door before even reaching for their wallets Anything that makes doing business with them difficult or unpleasant should be a red flag, indicating that their service levels need to be improved.

Customers who receive poor service often tell their friends and family members about it in order to warn them away from the company. Your company will lose potential customers as a result of this. Before they even walk through your door, people will have formed a negative opinion of your company.

Loss of Profits and Employees

Poor customer service usually means fewer customers, which means lower sales and profits for a company. This can start a vicious cycle in which a company tries to save money on staffing or customer service training, which leads to even lower service levels. When a company cannot keep up with the financial demands of running a business, it faces rising operating debt and, eventually, failure.

Even low-performing employees dislike being yelled at or scorned by angry customers, which can lead to high employee turnover. Constantly advertising for new employees, then screening and training them, is costly and time-consuming. Customers may begin to wonder why their company is unable to retain employees and may begin to question their management practices.

Benefits of Effective TeamworkHaving effective teamwork in a workplace has always been helpful asset for successful businesses. Nowadays, many businesses out there are undergoing a lot of pressure being a part of an economy. This means that it is now important than ever for business’ employees to be working together and effectively between all different functions of the business. At a time when talent retention faces a highly competitive global job market, effective teamwork is also critical for employee engagement and wellbeing.

In terms of benefits of effective teamwork, there are many different types of benefits that come with effective teamwork. A benefit of effective teamwork is that it encourages learning and creativity in a workplace When people work together as a team, creativity flourishes. Working together to brainstorm ideas prevents the stale viewpoints that often result from working alone. More effective selling solutions are created by combining the unique perspectives of each team member. What people have learned from other people’s experiences is completely different from what their co-workers have learned as result, teamwork maximizes shared knowledge in the workplace and assists people in learning new skills that they can use throughout their career. Collaborating on a project fosters a desire to learn that is often lacking in solitary work. Employees are enthralled by the prospect of sharing their discoveries with the rest of their team, which fosters both individual and team knowledge.

Another benefit of effective teamwork is that it helps build trust between employees and the workplace. Relying on others encourages trust, and teamwork promotes strong bonds between co-workers. An effective team enjoys working together and has a strong bond, despite occasional disagreements. When people put their trust in a co-worker, they are laying the groundwork for a long-term relationship that can withstand minor setbacks. Trusting their teammates also creates a sense of safety, which allows for the rise of new of new ideas. It encourages employees to open up and support one another. When working in a group, open communication is essential for producing

Exemplification Essay on Jeff Bezos as a Vivid Example of a Successful Entrepreneur

Jeff Bezos, one of if not the most successful entrepreneurs the world has ever seen, was born in 1964 as Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen to a teenage mother Jacklyn Gise (16 years old at the time), and a teenage father Ted Jorgensen (barely 18 years old), in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Jeff was challenged in his life from a very early age when his parents divorced when he was just 17 months old. That was the last time Jeff ever saw his father, and in 2015, following his biological father’s passing, he revealed he has no memory of him. Jeff was raised by his mother and stepfather Mike Bezos. It is hard to believe that Jeff Bezos is now the richest man in the world with a staggering estimated net worth of 200 billion dollars. In this essay, I will talk about how Jeff achieved this true his traits, attitudes, and behaviors.

Jeff has clearly always been determined and self-driven. He first showed his passion and willpower when, in his final year of university, he turned down some of the most lucrative job offers that could be offered. These included Intel and Bell. Instead, Bezos decided to join a startup known as FITEL, where he learned how to run startups. Soon he became the customer service director of the company. He was also equipped with a degree in computer science and electrical engineering. He then moved on to join Bankers Trust. He worked there for a couple of years before joining D.E. Shaw & Co., where he later became senior vice president. This showed his determination and drive to be the best and get there quickly.

However, it was when he noticed how much Internet usage had risen (2300%), we started to see the innovative side of Bezos. He then studied the most profitable mail businesses and decided to start selling books on the web. It was at D.E. Shaw & Co. he met a woman by the name of Mackenzie Tuttle. She helped Bezos and was instrumental in the formation of the new e-commerce business. Bezos decided to quit his top wall street job and move to Seattle to set up Amazon. This showed Jeff was a risk-taker, but it was well and truly a risk that paid off.

Like many top businesses in the United States and all around the world, Amazon started from a garage. As any parent would be, Bezos’ parents were concerned about him leaving his post at a capital market job to start selling books from his estranged garage. It was then that Bezos made clear to his parents his passionate attitude towards this dangerous adventure and got them on board with him. Amazon experienced unbelievable success from the very beginning. Within 6 months he was selling in all 50 states of America and various locations across the globe. In the year 2001, Amazon made profits of 5 million dollars, and Bezos’ life changed forever.

Personally, I believe that a successful entrepreneur must be a generous individual. Jeff Bezos has always shown his generosity throughout his success. In 2018, Bezos pledged 2 billion dollars to homeless families and to expand the network of preschools in the United States. Jeff is also a keen supporter of same-sex marriage and is known to have made many donations to support this cause.

Every successful entrepreneur must be intelligent and able to identify opportunities. This is vital for profits and long-term success. Bezos has always been a smart investor. In 2013, he purchased the Washington Post Group for a staggering 250 million us dollars. He also showed his knowledge when investing 1 million dollars in Google in 1998, which now equates to 1 billion dollars. Netflix used to distribute its content to millions of American households around the clock when Bezos founded Amazon Web Services. Bezos signed a contract allowing businesses to utilize Amazon servers for this reason. He lowered the fees for businesses that use his servers. When told that he would be losing money over an extended period, he remarked: “More profit means attracting more competition”.

As I touched on earlier, every single entrepreneur must be willing to take risks to gain success. Without risk-taking, entrepreneurs face an uphill battle to pass their rivals. It is often the case that it must be a new idea that grips and attracts potential customers. This is emphasized by Jeff Bezos who has previously stated: “Let me assure you, I can guarantee you that none of these ideas are guaranteed to work. All of them are gigantic investments and they’re all risks… The only way to get above-average returns is to take risks and many won’t pay off. Our whole history as a company is about taking risks; many of which have failed and many of which will fail, but we’ll continue to take big risks”. This shows just how important taking risks is for multimillion-dollar entrepreneurs to be the best.

An entrepreneur who has risen to the top of the business world must also have a ruthless streak and must not take accept any complacency. Jeff Bezos’ tolerance for complacency is again a prime example of this. He simply doesn’t have any. He accepts only the best from his employees, and anything less than the best is sanctioned accordingly. Jeff also is a highly competitive entrepreneur and loves the competition. In fact, his end goal is to eliminate the competition, even if it comes at an initial cost to his company. An example of this is, of course, when Amazon had once targeted a fellow competitor dealing with child products; they dropped their prices dramatically to eradicate the rival from standing in the competition altogether, and eventually, the rival company collapsed. As usual, Jeff came out on top as a winner. Jeff Bezos is a serial winner. This is an essential characteristic and personality to be the best.

I must also state how vital it is for entrepreneurs, especially up-and-coming entrepreneurs, to always put the customers first. Customer satisfaction and brand loyalty are so important for every business. Jeff Bezos has gone to new levels to satisfy his customers. He has even created his own public email so every customer can email their complaint directly to him. He has also previously stated that “the best customer service you can offer is if the customer doesn’t need to call you or talk to you it just works”. This show that Bezos tries to prioritize customer satisfaction so there isn’t any negative backlash on his company.

To conclude, I feel Jeff Bezos is a prime example of what every young and aspiring entrepreneur should aim to become. He has all the right principles, and his principles didn’t change, even though his wealth did. He has all the traits and personalities needed to become a successful entrepreneur.

Amazon’s Using Big Data: Case Study Essay

Amazon is the world’s largest online shopping website that helps people to order things in one click. During the initial stage of its business, Amazon was a bookseller, then gradually they expanded their company by selling a wide variety of consumer goods, electronic devices like mobile phones, e-commerce, and logistics, and Kindle was a huge hit among the people.

Amazon has innovated and executed a model called ‘everything under one roof’ where people can shop for anything on their website with ease. Customers experience a wide variety of options, but they do not have a clear insight into what to buy and which product is the best from the customer’s point of view. To overcome this problem and to help customers decide, Amazon started using big data to gather information from the customers who bought the product or who viewed the product, from which they created the recommendation engine. The more Amazon knows about you, the better it can predict what you want to buy. Once they have a clear picture of what they want to buy, the website comes up with similar recommendations instead of making the customer search through the whole catalog. Amazon gathers data from every single individual who uses its site. It keeps track of what you buy, and most importantly, it can even make a good guess on your monthly income based on your shipping address. This huge amount of data that is gathered from the customer is used to come up with a ‘360-degree view’ of an individual customer. Amazon then finds other people who fit into the same category and makes recommendations based on what those other customers like.

These are the ways Amazon uses big data to stalk customers:

1. Personalized recommendation system. Amazon is one of the leading companies in using a comprehensive collaborative filtering engine (CFE). It keeps track of what you purchased last time when you visited the site, what is in your wish list or cart, and what items you have viewed the most. This information is used to recommend additional products that other customers purchased when buying those same items. For example, if you are looking for a swimming suit to buy, it will come up with similar products that other customers purchased like swimming goggles, shower caps, etc. By using this method, Amazon uses the power of suggestion to recommend you buy those products. This method generates the company’s sales annually by 15%.
2. E-book recommendations from Kindle. When Kindle was launched, it was a huge hit among people in various age groups, which had kids and adults, and there were approximately 25 million users. Kindle had a great feature where the reader can highlight important words and phrases and share them with other readers who are reading the same book. Amazon on a regular basis views what you have read, and it finds out what fascinates you the most based on this they send you recommendations on other e-books.
3. One-click ordering. By the use of big data, Amazon concluded that people order only from websites that are very quick in delivering their products to the customer. So, Amazon came up with an idea called ‘one-click ordering’. When a customer places their first order along with their shipping address and payment details, the company gives you a grace time of thirty minutes in which you can decide whether you want the product or not. After the time limit, the payment will be made from the account, and the product will be delivered to the shipping address mentioned.
4. Anticipatory shipping model. Amazon’s anticipatory shipping model uses big data to predict what products you are likely to buy and which city you are from. Based on this prediction, they send the products to the nearest distribution center, and when you order the product, it is sent to the customer’s place. Thus, Amazon uses predictive analysis from big data to increase the sales of the product while reducing the delivery time, which might attract customers.
5. Supply chain optimization. In order to reduce the shipping time, Amazon connects with the manufacturers, and by the use of big data, it finds out the closest warehouse between the manufacturer and the customer so that they can reduce the shipping cost by 10 to 40%. In addition, they use graph theory to help them to decide which is the best delivery schedule and which is the shortest route, which helps them to reduce the shipping cost.
6. Price optimization. Big data is also used for determining the price of the product, which attracts more customers by giving a lot of offers, which increases the profits rates by 25%. Prices are usually determined based on the requirement of the product among customers, product availability, competitors’ prices, etc. The price of the product changes every ten minutes because the big is updated frequently.

Though there are many ways how big data can help Amazon grow in its business, using big data has one fundamental drawback. I feel that people have no privacy whatsoever about their personal information and everything that customers have access to, from what they view a product to what they buy and where they live, these things are routinely tracked in the name of big data.

Amazon Globalization Strategy Essay

1 Introduction

Amazon is now a Fortune 500 e-commerce company that is headquartered in Seattle. It is one of the first large companies to introduce the idea of selling goods over the Internet. The company was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994. Amazon was initially an online bookstore which later diversified to selling other items such as DVDs, music, video games, electronics, and clothing. The company has been credited as being the reason for popularizing online shopping. Amazon is also considered a customer-centric company or even “customer-obsessed”. This implies that the company truly believes that they needs to listen to their customers or else the company will fail. When compared to Google, Amazon also operates differently from them in the sense that they are very frugal with their resources (Schneider, 2018).

The main purpose of this report is to provide an in-depth business analysis report for Amazon, understanding its institution base view, resource base view, and entry strategy. An internal and external analysis will also be included to determine what factors or resources affect the company and its global operations. A Resource-based view of RBV is a model that uses resources as the key to the superior performance of the firm. This includes the VRIO framework in order to determine the resources that enable the firm to gain and keep its competitive advantage. An institution-based view is when the company considers the formal and information institutional environments (Garrido, et al., 2014). These aspects will be discussed in the next few sections of the report.

2 External Business Environment

2.1 Institution Based View

The concept of an institution-based view can be applied as a perspective in strategic management along with the resource and industry-based views. It is also based on the buyer’s perception that having effective third–party institutional mechanisms would facilitate the company’s transaction success. It is a crucial aspect of online marketplaces such as Amazon to increase trust in institutions.

A study was conducted based on 274 buyers using Amazon’s online auction marketplace as a way to provide support for the proposed structural model. The study concluded that Amazon was perceived as an effective institution with effective mechanisms that have both “weak” market drivers and “strong” legally binding mechanisms. These would therefore create more trust in the sellers as a whole community which makes the entire marketplace more effective and trustworthy (Pavlou & Gefen, 2004).

2.2 Amazon’s Formal Institution Base View

In order to access the institutional base view of Amazon, there are some factors that can be analyzed, including political, legal, and economic factors as described below:

2.2.1 Political Factors

Amazon is an e-commerce business that can also be affected by political stability and government efforts to increase cyber security. The political factors are the external factors such as government activity and how it affects businesses and their macro environments. The three factors in this case are the political stability of developed countries, governmental support for e-commerce companies, and the increase of government efforts on cyber security.

The political stability in any country that Amazon operates in will be an advantage to the company as it allows it to continue to expand and diversify its range and reach. This is also how the company was able to expand its initial online bookstore business to an e-commerce platform where customers can get all kinds of products. Government support is important, especially with the advances in technology and new innovations. e-commerce is widely supported by the government which would make it easier for the company to expand to new areas by receiving such support. However, this could also be an advantage for their competitors who are in the same e-commerce business. One good example is the way Chinese companies are expanding their online presence and trading ability to go across borders and provide services to customers worldwide (Ritala, et al, 2014).

2.2.2 Legal

The legality issues surrounding the buying and selling of goods online are serious for many countries. There are certain regulations that have been set on the practice that need to be adhered to. Some of these factors are the increase in product regulation, a decrease in import and export regulations, and more environmental protection regulations.

The product regulations are a direct result of the way society demands trust from the organizations. The act of purchasing something online can be risky as sometimes there is no guarantee the item will arrive at the correct location. However, this provides the opportunity for Amazon to fortify its brand and reduce the sales on fraudulent sites for online retail. The import and export regulations can be an opportunity for the company to continue to grow and expand its global operations to take advantage of this ease in regulations by increasing its ability to serve its customers from remote locations. Strengthening its brand image is another way that the company can increase trust and differentiate itself from other companies. This can be a good way to remain ahead of the competition as well. Regulatory compliance is also one way the company can remain in business and maintain its success in e-commerce (Molla & Licker, 2001).

2.2.3 Economics

The economic situation is usually a very important factor in the way an institution is being run as it determines the demand and supply of the product. Amazon’s performance is therefore dependent on the situation of the economy in the countries it operates and runs its online business. The trends in the economy have the ability to affect the macro environment of any kind of industry and this is no different. The main factors that would impact the institution are the economic stability of the most developed markets, an increase in disposable income in developing countries, and the threat of a potential economic recession in China home to some of Amazon’s largest competitors.

An e-commerce business is more profitable and viable in developed countries therefore, the economic state in these countries is a factor that will affect the macro environment of Amazon. There need to be fewer risks for the company as it continues to expand its online retailing business into new areas. Another growth opportunity for the company is in developing countries where people have more disposable income to spend on things they can purchase online. This would result in a boost in the company’s performance as it is generally a new market. The final factor regarding the Chinese potential recession would increase the threat that the market poses to Amazon’s operations. The Chinese market is still yet to be captured by Amazon and penetrated especially due to the existence of local e-commerce sites. Though this presents a challenge, it can be a good opportunity for the company to create a better strategy to penetrate that new market (Greenspan, 2017).

2.3 Amazon’s Informal Institution Base View

The aspects of the information institution base view include the sociocultural factors as well as the business ethics and norms that the company adheres to when operating.

2.3.1 Socio-Cultural Factors

The societal behavior and cultural factors of Amazon’s customers will also influence the institution and its growth in the long run. As a company that is focused entirely on their customers and pleasing them, this is very important for their expansion and growth. Some factors such as an increase in the wealth disparity, an increase in consumerism in developing countries, and an increase in online buying habits are what influence the company (Hong & Zhu, 2006).

The increase in wealth disparity refers to the larger gap between the poor and rich communities in many countries. This is a threat to Amazon as the amount of people with disposable income becomes limited to the richer people. More consumerism is a factor that is present in many countries, especially with the increased ability to access online platforms and therefore online retail shops. This would benefit the company’s expansion plans as well.

2.3.2 Ethics

The idea of business ethics in Amazon has been written about countless times with people often asking the questions of how ethical it is for customers to shop using the website. The company has a huge profit margin and is said to be on its way to being the first trillion-dollar company by the end of 2018. There are many studies that show the way other retailers that work for the company are being exploited which reduces the status as rival of Amazon.

According to a study conducted by the Harvard Business School, the new sellers who list new products on Amazon have their transactions monitored by Amazon. Then Amazon began to sell their most popular items as well. These tactics are known as Machiavellian which refers to the extreme lengths that a person or in this case company regardless of ethics in order to remain ahead of their competitors (Benner, 2009). This raises the question of whether it is more important to behave ethically or to earn a good reputation in order to achieve business success (Eluxe Magazine, 2018). Despite their use of such tactics, the company has not received a huge amount of backlash from the market as buyers are often only looking for a bargain and the fastest shipping.

3 Internal Business Environment 1100

3.1 Resources Based View

The resource-based view refers to a model that sees its resources as the way to achieve the best firm performance. This includes reviewing the VRIO framework which is a tool that can be used to analyze how the firm’s resources and capabilities can be used to sustain its competitive advantage over others (Jurevivius, 2013).

3.2 Resources & Capabilities of Amazon

The first step when looking at the kind of resources that a company has is to identify the tangible and intangible resources that have been shown in the table below:

• Tangible Resources
• Intangible Resources
• Physical – Technology, Amazon fulfillment centers
• Human Capital – Culture, training, and talented workforce
• Financial – long-term sustainable growth in the form of free cash flow
• Reputation – brand names, partnerships with other companies like EMI records
• Technological – The Amazon Web services and currency converter
• Innovation and Creativity – The one-click solution when shopping online

All the above can be used together in conjunction with the company’s core competency of continuously working toward innovation. Some of the most important resources and capabilities of Amazon are its brand image and equity, large customer base, global presence, customer loyalty, technological innovation, and huge product range (Pratap, 2018).

1. Brand Image and equity: Amazon has a huge customer focus in its image which is a focus of its competitive advantage for the brand. The company has managed to create a high level of trust which is based on the products it sells and the services it provides.
2. Large customer base: As the leading online seller in the world, it has one of the largest customer bases from every corner of the world. This is a huge advantage for the brand as an e-commerce company.
3. Global Presence: The company has expanded and continues to expand to areas all over the world which has given it is huge network and resources all over the world.
4. Customer loyalty: The company’s focus on their customers has paid off and helped them maintain a high level of customer loyalty in order to retain a very large percentage of their customers for their lifetime.
5. Technological Innovation: Technological innovation is a source of its competitive advantage as well. It enables Amazon to provide a unique and better customer experience through the management of its websites and such. The brand also spends a large amount of money on its research and development.
6. Huge Product Range: The number of products on Amazon is huge closer to hundreds or millions of products from over 2 million merchants worldwide. This also gives the company a competitive advantage over the others.

Other resources that can be accounted for are their acquisition of Whole Foods along with the use of their 2–day free shipping service. The acquisition of Whole Foods cost 13.7 million dollars for the company but it has converted the online giant into a physical entity. The advantage of this is that they do not have to build any more stores as they already exist, instead, it can be an opportunity to introduce their Amazon–Go. Amazon–Go is a service that allows customers to walk into the store, pick up anything, and walk out with no waiting lines to check out or self–checkout systems. The items are automatically charged to the customer’s Amazon account. This new service has the potential to completely restructure the idea of grocery shopping as we know it. This is not very rare as there are many other grocery shops that already exist in the US such as Walmart, Schnuck, Save-A-Lot, and more. This idea is also not very costly to imitate, especially for their competitors who also have existing structures that they can use. Whole Foods is not truly unique, although the introduction of the Amazon–Go feature may make it stand out (Hoban, 2017). The VRIO framework refers to the Value, Rarity, Imitability, and Exploitation that the company undergoes (Jurevivius, 2013).

1. Value: is the resource or capability valuable for the firm and can lead to more opportunities to defend the company against threats?
2. Rare: how rare is the resource, is it readily available or can it be easily acquired by the competitors
3. Imitability: Are there many available substitutes for the resource or capability?
4. Exploitation: is the firm properly using its resources to the maximum ability?

4 Entry Strategy

4.1 Strategies to penetrate the Chinese market

The challenge of opening an online retailer in China is something many foreign e-commerce companies struggle with. The main competitors of Amazon in China are Alibaba and JD. In 2016, Amazon had only 1.3% of the Chinese Market which went down from the 2% it had in 2011. The restrictions set on foreign companies in China have always made it difficult for international companies to expand there.

Amazon’s response has been to purchase a local online bookstore as their starting place to provide an online marketplace for their Amazon Kindles. Kindle is one of the most popular e – e-readers in the West, ranked in the top 5 western brands on Alibaba’s Tmall. After acquiring the local company, it was renamed to Amazon. cn to create its brand presence in China as well. Part of their strategy is also to analyze the data based on the Chinese customers’ purchasing behavior and what needs are still unfulfilled. Amazon then prompted the distribution of its CPG goods through three brands names Mama Bear, Wickedly Prime, and Happy Belly in order to penetrate the market and make its way up to the top of the market. These brands could later on be named Amazon Diapers, and Amazon CPG which brings more attention to the brand name (Marketing China, 2016).

Another strategy Amazon had some success within the Chinese market is through cross-border transactions by leveraging its global logistics platform to maintain some of the market share in China as an importer of foreign products. This strategy involved Amazon encouraging its network of over 2 million merchants to use the company’s international markets rather than only focusing on the US. The launch of Amazon Prime in China also led to an increase in control of China’s cross-border transactions in 2016 by up to 7%.

The company has also taken advantage of the demand for foreign products which are considered more authentic and safer for the rising Chinese middle class. This resulted in an increase in the number of products that were sent to China. Along with this strategy, Amazon also advertised more positions in Chinese digital content production in order to create ads and promotions that are specific to the locals using their local TV and entertainment media (Business Insider Australia, 2017).

Amazon is known for its low prices and loss-leading pricing strategies. They have prices that are the hardest to beat, however, this contributes to its low-profit margin as well. It also uses a dynamic pricing strategy which involves changing its pricing according to the fluctuations in demand based on the web traffic. This strategy is similar to airlines where Amazon will adjust a price if they notice you have visited the product before in order to influence you to make a purchase (Shpanya, 2014).

4.2 Advantages and disadvantages of using this strategy

Advantages

• Increase in the transactions from China across borders due to the increase in demand for foreign products
• Acquiring the local companies will create a customer base before the companies change their names to the Amazon brand to increase their recognition. This will help increase its market base.
• Amazon is popular worldwide and sells more than its next 12 competitors combined.

Disadvantages

• Amazon is up against the competition of Alibaba which has a 50% profit margin compared to Amazon’s 0.54%
• Its largest competitor in China is Alibaba which is growing rapidly and is widely popular in the Chinese market.
• Regulations surrounding foreign company activity in China make it difficult to expand quickly.

4.3 Current Strategies Amazon uses

There are certain strategies that the company currently uses that can dominate any market, these include the following (Emmer, 2018):

1. Amazon Prime: this is perhaps one of its more valuable resources and strategies to date as it has over 100 million subscribers which makes it the most successful loyalty program of all time. Its increased use of Amazon Prime will act as a barrier to entry for external companies trying to enter the market.
2. Fuel for small businesses: Amazon provides a service called Launchpad for start-ups as well as financing to new ventures within the e-commerce services sphere.
3. Home delivery and supply chain logistics: The company has an airborne fulfillment center where products can be delivered by drone from a blimp line contraption. This is one way the company has integrated third-party logistics technology into its products. In order to fulfill their 2-day delivery, the company has huge expectations and pressure on its logistics to build better networks to satisfy the growing demand.
4. Artificial intelligence: The introduction of Alexa – a virtual assistant has changed the market that was dominated by Apple’s Siri. Alexa offers many more services such as zero-click which has the power to revolutionize shopping as it gives the user the ability to restock on needed suppliers through verbal commands.
5. Healthcare: The company is planning on entering the healthcare industry by providing pharmacy services. There is some danger in this if the healthcare inflation remains unchecked, it has a huge potential to explode into a huge new market. the company has also formed a joint venture with Cardinal Health and other distributors in order to increase their reach of medical devices to hospitals and others.
6. Geographic Expansion: As stated in the previous section, Amazon is trying to expand to emerging markets such as Asia and the Middle East as there are a lot of opportunities in these areas for providers.
7. Acquisitions: Amazon has been known to acquire many different companies such as GameSparks and Blink Home Security as it continues to expand its platform. This is part of its strategy to become one of the most valuable companies in the world. This increases their participation in a diverse group of industries.

5 Implementation

Some of the key processes that need to be undertaken to implement the strategies in China for expansion include liaising or creating joint ventures with local companies. This is a good way to build a customer base by using their acquisitions’ existing customer contacts. The timeline for their strategy depends on the degree of expansion that the company wants as well. They have been trying to break into the Chinese market for some time now, and their new strategy of using cross-border transactions can be the key. This can take up to a year. Also, their plan to introduce more ads on local platforms in China that adhere to the regulations and appeal to the masses is another way to implement their marketing strategies and growth as well.

Human resources are something the company is already working on, as they have advertised hundreds of local positions in China for their retailing and technological teams in the country. This will both increase their recognition in the Chinese market and their likelihood for success. The introduction of Amazon Prime in the country and the attractive discount packages for the members could also be a drawing point for the Chinese consumer who wants access to foreign products.

6 Conclusion

This paper has looked at the international external business environment of Amazon on a global scale. Particular attention was paid to the strategies the company is using to enter the Chinese market that is largely populated by the Alibaba group. The analysis methods used are a VRIO framework which looks at the resources and capabilities that the company has and how it can help them achieve their goals. An external analysis was also conducted to determine what external factors can affect the way the company does business worldwide.

7 Bibliography

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Essay on Amazon SWOT Analysis

Elijah Bailey

Professor Humphries

Business Administration

9-15-21

Amazon’s Situation Analysis

Situation analysis or SWOT is the internal strengths, weaknesses, external opportunities, and threats that help a business understand where it may stand in the world. The swot analysis is a type of strategic tool used to help companies plan, as they are constantly evolving internally and externally. It is an often-used strategic tool in firms all around the world, to help businesses strategically plan. For instance, Amazon uses situation analysis to identify its competition and to find ways to keep its competitive advantage against other companies. Amazon began on July 5, 1994, by CEO Jeff Bezos, as an online book shop in his carport, and afterward, he changed it into one of the world’s biggest online retail marketplaces. By identifying the company’s strengths, weaknesses, external opportunities, and threats Amazon had the option to expand its company’s influence and carry out business overseas.

Amazon, being one of the largest companies in the world, has many strengths that help give the giant e-commerce company an upper hand in the market. Amazon has a strong brand name that is recognized around the world in many different countries. Their logo is a smile that has been very beneficial in the company, as it helps Amazon to be successful and reliable as it delivers products and services to its customers every year. The brand name Amazon is worth a total of 415 billion dollars. Their logo is important because it helps Amazon sell hundreds of different varieties of products from A to Z. That alone shows people just how big the market is and how it continues to grow in the future. The company has a very secured market position being the largest in North America it competes with the likes of Walmart and eBay. There is only one main rival in Amazon’s emerging markets, which is Alibaba. Their position comes from their corporate ethos of robustness, which helps keep their prices low and their customer’s and clients’ value maximized. To keep the position of the market leader, it invests in the future by using Amazon Prime to help with service errors. They have used improvement logistics and delivery tactics by managing a multitude of individuals, third-party sellers, and clients by partnering with delivery businesses, and by turning facilities into 247 operations during the holidays. Amazon also has the biggest influence of independent partners, which creates opportunities for individuals and companies across the country to be able to reap all the benefits that Amazon has to offer. Go Global and Act Local procedure is used by Amazon and the best advantages feasible for them have been because of this system. From that point onward the association with neighborhood supply chains and in reverse incorporation helped as well. Also, essential item situation, and understanding neighborhood needs before dispatching administrations by the nation’s way of life have helped as well. Inferable from these, it stays on top even while contending seriously with different opponents. The last strength that Amazon has to offer is that it hires workers at 15$ an hour. It has positions for full-time, part-time, and seasonal times which helps open more job opportunities now and later. These strengths have helped Amazon keep the lead on its competition as it continues to evolve around its competitors as time goes on.

Amazon has a lot of weaknesses that the company needs to improve on. The internal qualities and resources that make it difficult for companies to reach successful outcomes in the company. Often, many companies have weaknesses that are inhibitors of future success. Unfortunately, Amazon’s business model is being copied quite easily. Since there is a pandemic due to Covid 19, the online economy has increased significantly causing local and national players to take up the market. Due to low cost, players continue to persuade customers to operational or core abilities. For instance, grocery divisions are highly competitive to meet consumer requirements to meet the growing demand. The near-zero margin business model is a major weakness that many players operate within, which often affects profitability. Even though the company Amazon has high revenues and volumes at a constant rate, it fails to make profits meaningful for the firm. The company’s “Amazon Indian Festival” was not living up to its name since its high profits the company despite breaking sales records annually for the mega sale. By allowing free shipping under $25 the company can be exposed to a threat even though it constantly has managed to stay afloat. Amazon is constantly hurting the brand’s image by doing fake reviews and ratings for the company. The company engages in inferior quality and often sells products under the brand name Amazon Basics. Which is selling higher-rated products at lower prices. In countries like India, there are no physical inhibitors that will stop them from reaching untapped market potential. Using the swot analysis, Amazon can get a sense of what weaknesses they need to improve as they evolve.

Amazon has many opportunities that need to be analyzed by the swot or situational analysis. In the swot analysis, opportunities are described as external factors that can give the company a competitive advantage over its competitor’s growth through an international e-commerce market. Some of these opportunities are expansion in developing markets, expansion of brick-and-mortar business operations, and new partnerships with other firms, in developing countries. Amazon can break into developing markets. This move should establish the company’s presence before other large e-commerce companies gain a foothold, giving it a stronger competitive advantage. Regarding the weaknesses considered by Amazon.com Inc. in this SWOT analysis, there is an opportunity to develop the company’s physical business. In addition to the existing Amazon Go stores, this external factor is related to the potential increase in sales brought about by building a stronger influence through more physical stores. In addition, the ability to establish new partnerships with other companies is an external strategic factor that companies can use to expand their influence in the global e-commerce industry. In addition, cooperating with companies with good corporate citizenship can increase the impact of Amazon’s corporate social responsibility strategy and stakeholder management. Companies can use these external factors to increase market coverage and revenue. Therefore, this aspect of the SWOT analysis shows that Amazon can continue to grow despite increasing market saturation.

Amazon faces many threats in aspects of the situation analysis. These threats are viewed as external factors of the situation analysis that help identify problems the company may be opposed to that are outside of the organization. There is fierce competition in most of Amazon’s markets. This is why strategic partnerships take place to take on competition. For example, an illustration of this is the association as of late declared among Walmart and Shopify permitting a half-and-half ‘Snap And-Mortar’ insight. Moreover, the consideration of commercial centers via online media stages, combined with the ascent of ‘powerhouse advertising’ is further affecting the fate of Amazon. Majority of consumer claim that social media influences their decision to buy. Amazon is consistently dealing with third-party sellers using their program to sell fake items. With a huge organization of outsider merchants, it is now and again hard for the insightful purchaser to recognize which vendors are selling real things, and which are not. This is built up by Amazon’s concern with counterfeit surveys on its items. Amazon has created items to alleviate the appropriation of phony items, however the issue endures. Governments have designated Amazon as they ponder strategy changes to block its exercises. Amazon’s size has raised banners with government organizations, with charges of extortion, charge aversion, and antitrust issues. As of late, Amazon and Apple experienced harsh criticism when Amazon hit an arrangement with Apple to eliminate outsider vendors of Apple items from its foundation. Amazon has been blamed for monopolistic inclinations over its outsider merchants, constraining 80% into its Buy-Box appropriation organization (CNBC). Amazon catches outsider information on its clients’ customers to construct items under its mark. The reverse mix is a methodology that has been recognized by Amazon to catch more benefits through its retail stages. By fostering its private-name items, Amazon has more authority over its market. As of late, partners have raised worry over the utilization of outsider information to additional improve its private mark items, at the expense of the proprietors of the outsider dealers – the generators of this information. This is viewed as an absence of sincere trust in its tasks. Amazon expects that its private-mark brands should make up 10% of retail deals (Business Insider). Half of Amazon’s item dispersion is dealt with by rethought providers. A critical upper hand of Amazon is its capacity to meet tight conveyance plans, which is incorporated into its offer. Amazon reevaluates half of its item dispersion which opens itself to outside hazards that can affect its activities. Amazon should take a gander at bringing its full strategic and circulation necessities into its area to relieve these dangers. Some of these threats continue to be constantly threatened like cyberattacks. Even though Amazon keeps an immense information base of its customers’ subtleties, security breaks have been restricted. Its network protection group is known to act quickly and successfully in impeding assaults on its frameworks. Albeit these frameworks are viable, pernicious assaults are turning out to be progressively complex. Amazon Web Services (AWS) upset a 2.3 Tbsp. High Volume Ddos assault on its workers – 44% bigger than anything the organization had recently experienced (Online Protection Insiders).

The swot analysis was one of the strategic tools used to gain a competitive advantage over the competition. By analyzing their internal strengths and weaknesses they can get a sense of the things they are strongest in and find ways to overcome them. Using the swot analysis to observe the company’s external opportunities and threats the company can see the possibilities of improving the company, however, they can also see what potential threats are possibly happening. From starting as an online bookstore to becoming one of the world’s retail organizations ever is truly a miracle. In all by strategically planning Amazon can continue to soar higher than its competitors and continue to expand. This tool helps them gain insight into how the company is running internally compared to how it runs outside. Planning using the swot analysis is very strategic and helps the company identify its goals and gain insight into certain objectives that the company may deal with. For instance, the company can develop through ventures into new online business markets, particularly in high development-creating economies. Notwithstanding, the shortcomings and dangers recognized in this SWOT examination expect Amazon to think about updating a portion of its procedures. In any case, the business stays solid and is one of the greatest innovation firms in the worldwide market. The rise of Amazon has thrown its originator and Executive Chairman, Jeff Bezos, to maybe the most luxurious person on earth. With a proactive, creative mentality and ethos, the possible destiny of Amazon is secure as a head overall retail awe-inspiring phenomenon.

Works Cited

1. Gaille, B. (2021, March 24). Amazon SWOT Analysis Matrix: Opportunities and Weaknesses. BrandonGaille.Com. https:brandongaille. com amazon-swot-analysis
2. Vishwal, S. (2021, March 8). SWOT Analysis of Amazon [Detailed]. Super Heuristics. https:www.superheuristics.comswot-analysis-of-amazon
3. Greenspan, R. (2019, June 22). Amazon.com Inc. SWOT Analysis