Amazon BLUE: Important key facts ORANGE: What Bezos himself said Green: Slide important text

1) Initial Idea which lead to the inception of the organisation: Jeff Bezos himself
said “The wake up call was finding this startling statistic that web usage in the spring of 1994
was growing at 2,300 percent a year. You know, things just don’t grow that fast. It’s highly
unusual, and that started me about thinking, “What kind of business plan might make sense in
the context of that growth?” The company was founded as a result of what Jeff Bezos called his
"regret minimization framework", which described his efforts to fend off any regrets for not
participating sooner in the Internet business boom during that time. After reading a report about
the future of the Internet that projected annual web commerce growth at 2,300%, Bezos created
a list of 20 products that could be marketed online. He narrowed the list to what he felt were the
five most promising products, which included: compact discs, computer hardware, computer
software, videos, and books. Bezos finally decided that his new business would sell books
online, because of the large worldwide demand for literature, the low unit price for books, and
the huge number of titles available in print. Amazon was founded in the garage of Bezos' rented
home in Bellevue, Washington

2) About the founders and their vision: About Jeff Bezos: Jeffrey Preston “Jeff”
Bezos” (pronounced BAY-zoes) was born on January 12, 1964, in Albuquerque,
New Mexico. Jeff displayed remarkable mechanical talent from an early age,
which fits well with his varied scientific interests. (AMAZON, BLUE ORIGIN)
Bezos started his first business at school. It was called The Dream Institute, and it
was an educational summer camp for fourth, fifth and sixth graders. he rose to
vice president, and later the investment firm D.E. Shaw. It was at D.E. Shaw where
Jeff Bezos first came across a digit that would change his life and the course of
internet history. While surfing the web in search of new ventures for D.E. Shaw,
Bezos found a statistic that the World Wide Web was growing by 2,300 percent a
month. Bezos immediately understood the potential prospects of selling products
online. Bezos quit D.E. Shaw in 1994 and moved to Seattle to tap into the
potentials of the internet market by opening an online bookstore. He made the
decision by drawing up a list of possible products that he could sell via the
Internet, including CDs, software, and hardware. In the end, books were the
obvious choice because of the wide range of titles in existence. Another
advantage of an internet store was a then-recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that
mail-order catalogs did not have to pay taxes in states where they did not have a
physical presence. In other words – Bezos paid zero tax for the products he sold
 via the internet. Bezos decided that Seattle would be a perfect place for his new
business at the time because of the tremendous pool of hi-tech talent. Bezos
always has his customer in mind, no matter what he is working on. His number
one priority is making it as available and easily accessible as possible.

3) STARTUP LIFE CYCLE Bezos said that online retail – a key function of the internet – was at its
“Kitty Hawk” stage in 1997.

1994 July 5 Amazon is born

1997 May 15 Amazon IPOs at $18.00/share, raising $54 million.
1997 Nov 18 As demand increases, Amazon opens a second distribution
center in New Castle, Delaware, in order to serve customers on
the East Coast
1998 June 11 Amazon expands into music
1999 September 28 Amazon secures "1-Click" patent
1999 September 30 Originally cast as a way for shoppers to find rare and collectible
books and other specialty items, Amazon allows third-party
sellers to hawk used merchandise in what it called zShops (now
known as the Marketplace). That sparks a huge increase in the
volume of transactions on Amazon.com. Over the first four
months, a quarter of a million customers bought something
using the service.
1999 December 10 Amazon takes a hit after dot-com bubble bursts
1999 December 27 Jeff Bezos named Time's Person of the Year "the king of
cybercommerce."
2002 Nov 7 Amazon announces a partnership with several major clothing
companies to offer 400 apparel brands in its online store.
2003 June 10 Amazon launches web hosting business
2004 August 19 Enters China, Amazon pays $75 million to buy Joyo, the
largest online seller of books and electronics in the growing
Chinese market
2005 February 2 Amazon Prime debuts
2007 Nov 19 The Kindle goes on sale
2007 Dec 21 Amazon announces a new headquarters in Seattle
2008 January 31 Amazon acquires audiobooks company Audible
2009 July 22 If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em. Amazon buys online shoe retailer
Zappos in an all-stock deal worth nearly $900 million.
2012 March 19 Amazon acquires robotics company Kiva Systems
2013 August 5 Jeff Bezos announces intention to buy The Washington Post
2013 November 11 Amazon starts delivering packages on Sundays
2014 June 18 Amazon unveils its first (and last) smartphone
2014 August 25 Amazon acquires the social video game streaming site Twitch
2015 November 2 Amazon opens its first physical bookstore
2015 November 10 The Echo becomes widely available
2017 June 16 Amazon acquires Whole Foods
2017 September 7 Amazon announces its search for a second headquarters
2018 September 4 Amazon reaches a $1 trillion market cap
2018 October 2 Raises minimum wage to $15 an hour
2018 November 13 Announces New York and Virginia will be home to HQ2
2019 February 14 Amazon cancels plans for New York headquarters
2019 July 5 Amazon marks 25 years in business. At the quarter-century
mark, Amazon has 647,500 employees, occupies 288.4
million square feet of real estate, and accounts for nearly half
of online retail in the United States. It operates in sectors
ranging from janitorial services to defense contracting. And
with great scale comes intense scrutiny: Amazon has come
under fire from civil rights groups, presidential candidates,
antitrust regulators and its own employees on issues ranging
from facial recognition technology to its light federal income
tax bill. Through it all, the company has maintained its
intense focus on the customer — sometimes, critics charge,
to the detriment of everyone else.

4) PATHBREAKING/ DISRUPTING INNOVATION:

Grocery Delivery: Amazon acquiring Whole Foods. The acquisition was a strategic
move on Amazon’s part to better position itself for the logistics and supply chain
challenges that come with online-to-door grocery deliveries

Brick-And-Mortar Retail: Amazon has been expanding its physical bookstore

footprint. It recently announced its entry into the New York City market.

Meal Prep: Amazon is also nosing into the meal prep industry. It filed a trademark
for a service described as: "We do the prep. You be the chef," according to a filing
uncovered by The Sunday Times.

Movie And TV Content: In September 2006 Amazon launched its Amazon Video, an
online movie and TV show streaming service available to Amazon Prime members.
Today, that service has about 80 million subscribers and accounts for $1.9B in
annual revenue.

Social Media: 0Amazon’s mobile app, Amazon Spark, is nothing new, but it
recently added an Instagram and Pinterest-like feature. Now users can scroll
through photos and captions of Amazon products that friends post through
the app, much like the above-mentioned photo-driven social platforms.
Pictures can link to the purchases on Amazon and allow users to purchase
them through the app. Amazon has been testing this feature for the past few
months, and enthusiasts say this is Amazon’s effort to expand the system for
reviewers.

Cloud Computing
Amazon is the dominant player in the cloud computing industry, going
up against forces like Microsoft and Alphabet Inc. (which owns Google).
Amazon Web Services brought in $12.2B in revenue last year from customers
such as Netflix and the CIA. Talk about crazy. Competition among the biggest
players in the industry has heated up to such an extent that last month
Walmart threatened to end relationships with its tech vendors if they do
not get off of Amazon’s cloud.

 5) Current Market Position and Contribution: Amazon revenue for the quarter
ending June 30, 2019 was $63.404B, a 19.89% increase year-over-year.
 Amazon revenue for the twelve months ending June 30, 2019 was $252.063B, a 21.11%
increase year-over-year.
 Amazon annual revenue for 2018 was $232.887B, a 30.93% increase from 2017.

Amazon is the largest e-commerce retailer by online revenue in the world.

5) Marketing Mistakes

Lack of focus on items with high profit /margin in the beginning

Amazon’s policies lacked focus

Less investment in quality photograph and products.

6) Social Impact of the Organisation: Amazon.com (AMZN) is everywhere.
By disrupting the way people shop, Amazon has created economic ripple effects
that go far beyond the customer’s wallet to, directly and indirectly, impact
economic activity, whether that impact is inflation, jobs or investment. Currently,
Amazon is looking to expand its presence by opening a second full-fledged
headquarters in a soon-to-be-announced city.

The Retail Giant

Amazon started with books and then added pretty much everything you can think
of, from engagement rings to coffins, for sale on their site. Add the convenience
of having it delivered promptly to your doorstep and customers have rewarded
Amazon with open wallets. According to a study from One Click Retail, Amazon
accounted for 4% of US retail sales and 44% of US e-commerce sales in
2017. Consumer electronics was the biggest product category in 2017 for
Amazon, bringing in an estimated $8.5 billion in sales.

If you consider a more macro picture, consumers spending more is a good sign
because it contributes to the GDP. Having said that, in no way is consumer
spending on Amazon significant enough yet to tip the GDP scale. But it could be
in the future.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

 Amazon's overhead costs are much lower than other retailers because
there are no storefronts.
 Although company costs are low, Amazon has been accused of not paying
workers a living wage.
 Amazon does pay tax, but not as much as one might think.